My family’s legal documents are being kept somewhere at home, and its kinda weird to think about, like zero security, I doubt its even fireproof, definitely not waterproof, some flood is gonna destroy it.
Important documents and hard drives with photos are in a fire- and water-proof safe. It’s also just easier to find them since we never move it anywhere so passports and certs are all in there.
I don’t use either, I have a small plastic folder for kinda important documents but tbh I can’t really think of any documents I would actually need that are not fairly easy to get replaced.
I know my parents used to have a filing cabinet for all our important documents and such when I was growing up, but now we don’t have much of anything keeping them safe. I wouldn’t mind having something like a lockable filing cabinet, but I don’t have enough important stuff to put in it, nor enough space in my room.
I have all my important documents in a fire rated safe mostly because whenever I need to get one of them I remember “oh yeah I put that in my safe”. I don’t own anything valuable that could fit in the safe. As someone who works on safes though I would recommend anyone who wants one for burglary protection to bolt it down if possible and don’t show anyone you have it. I’ve seen the aftermath people’s 200+ pound safes dragged through the house and out the door. Also if you own guns and have kids I would absolutely recommend a safe to put them in. Check your local laws as well because here in California starting in 2026 gun owners can be charged if they don’t have their guns locked securely and someone in their household who should not have access to guns gets access to their guns.
For guns, I picked up a decent one from a government surplus auction. The keypad had a couple numbers that didn’t work and someone cut out the battery holder. But 10 bucks fixed both of those. So I got a $500 safe for about $45.
Less about burglars or fires and more about curious young hands.
I’m not a very legal person, but I can’t think of any documents that I can’t just request a copy.
If my apartment were to burn down I would have bigger problems to worry about, like homelessness and losing all my tech that took me years to aquire.
Sure. But it might be easier if you had a birth certificate or your insurance documents at the bank. It’s just one less hassle to prove who you are to have someone make you a new copy.
Arguably this is less of an issue with digital documents.
I actually asked because I was more of thinking about storing journals, but didn’t feel like elaborating in the post because nobody ever reads the body of a post anyways lol
My mom bought me a fireproof safe because she was giving me some jewelry to hold for my kids, and she also had some documents for me to keep.
It sat on the floor under a bed for years. Then I decided to get appraisals of the jewelry to add it to my homeowners insurance.
When I opened the safe, everything in it was moist and moldy.
Nothing important was lost or damaged, but it was nasty as hell.
At least it was safe
My important documents are all in a folder inside my closet. Somewhere.
Other than that, the only stuff of value that I have are electronics, like my laptop, tv, phones.
This is not a thing one should anser in a public forum.
My safe code is 1234. What are you using?
Shhhh 🤫 you’re ruining my burglary plans
Well, I do I have tucked into a random bookshelf one of those “World Atlas” book safes that everyone already knows is a storage box and not a book, because they’ve been sold virtually unchanged as far as I can tell since at least the early 1990s. As a little treat to anyone observant who notices this and thinks they’re so damn clever, inside I have nothing but a scaled down 3D printed replica of a cinder block.
It is astoundingly unlikely anyone will find where my valuables are actually hidden in my house, nor am I going to admit it on the internet.
It is astoundingly unlikely anyone will find where my valuables are actually hidden in my house, nor am I going to admit it on the internet.
In the mattress, huh?
Inside the cinder block of course
I always wanted a hollowed out book as a child. So I took a steak knife and a random book I figured was big enough, and started painstakingly carving out the center. I still have it somewhere, it’s kinda cool, but now I really would rather have a bookshelf hidden door, or maybe behind a painting, hiding a secret lair.
I’m picturing you having a huge wall of books. One of the books has money in it, but you’re forced to search each one everytime you want the money because you keep forgetting which book it is
Gun safe. Water proof, fire proof and locked. 200 lbs won’t be walking out so easily.
200 lbs won’t be walking out so easily
Unless it’s bolted to something solid a 90kg safe could be walked out pretty easily by two people or one person with a trolley.
I have a home safe that doesn’t lock properly. To replace it would cost me everything that I’d put in a home safe.
Nice try, Danny Ocean.
The home safe is more about fire survival.
Most of my legal documents can be reproduced easily or they are in a folder I can take with me. Apart from that I don’t own anything of value.
