!: Fire Proof Home Safe Tips Liver: December 2011

!: The Best Places to Hide a Safe

So you've got yourself a good security chest that's also fireproof. While the security feature certainly won't make it easy to be broken into, does that mean you can just install it anywhere?

Despite its wide array of security features, security safes are not guaranteed to keep burglars from carrying your chest off to pry open later. If your safe is so tight they can't pry it off in a few minutes, a determined thief might just unhinge the safe and carry it off with them. That might sound a little far-fetched but it's certainly not impossible. It makes securing and even hiding a safe a necessity. This extra caution could well pay off in the long run.

To hide a safe means to make it look inconspicuous so that only select members of your family know where it is. Where valuables and safes are concerned, the fewer who know their whereabouts, the better it is for everyone. With that, here are some suggestions for the best places to hide a safe:

Walls. Yes, you can hide a safe in walls. Often, you can conceal the hiding place with art pieces or any decorative object that would make the entire ensemble look seamless so that no one would suspect there's anything behind that painting or photo frame. If you can do that, you can even use walls in obvious places - dining rooms, living rooms, drawing rooms or foyers. Studies, dens, libraries, and home offices will be the first places burglars will look in for safes.

The master bath. Of course, burglars would go looking through the master's bedroom if they were looking for valuables. But they'd rarely turn your adjoining bathroom upside down. They'd expect a safe hidden at the bottom of a walk-in closet but not behind a medicine cabinet.

Furniture. Do you have large or heavy furniture in one of your rooms? These are excellent hiding places for safes. Building a secret compartment in a sofa or bed is a great idea. You must make sure however, that the compartment is not too obvious.

Behind your bookshelf. Whether this is your private office, your library, or your bedroom, make sure you've got enough thick and tall volumes to conceal the safe from view. Also, you have to make sure your books line up perfectly so that no one would suspect there's anything hidden behind a certain stack. If you have an entire wall lined up with books, even a burglar with the keenest senses won't have the time to meticulously inspect each line.

Keeping Your Hiding Place

Depending on the breadth and expanse of your home, there are plenty of good hiding places for safes. The key is to stash your goods in places where people looking for them would least expect it. Put your safe in the most unlikely of places and make sure they blend with their hiding places seamlessly. The rule of thumb is to keep them inconspicuous. For your own peace of mind, keep your hiding place a secret, but remember all the time that it has to be accessible on occasion.