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 know my parents used to have a filing cabinet for all our important stuff 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 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 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.
Keep in mind that many “fireproof” safes misrepresent their capabilities and the fireproofing itself can severely damage or destroy safe contents in a fire.
Tl;dr: the contents slow cook and soak in a mixture of water and whatever else was present for hours to days. Depending on the severity and duration of the fire, plastics will melt, metals will tarnish, and unprotected paper, wood, and similar contents will be destroyed.
Most more affordable safes are fireproofed via a layer of drywall material. Drywall is composed of gypsum, otherwise known as calcium sulfate dihydrate: CaSO4·2H2O .
The fireproofing doesn’t come from any direct insulating properties but the hydration of the gypsum. When exposed to enough heat, the water bound to calcium sulfate begins to unbind and boil out. The interior of the safe will remain at 100°C or less as the external heat energy from the fire is absorbed by this dehydration/phase change process, releasing water as steam.
This turns your safe into a big steamer/(low) pressure cooker. The safe boils during the fire, then sits and “cooks” for hours afterwards as the area cools down. The safe keypad will be inoperative, so you’ll be reliant on the backup key working. If that mechanism is damaged, the manufacturer or a locksmith will need to open it. No matter what, the contents will remain in a hot, damp environment for hours to days.
I put everything in our fire safe in silicone bags so I hope that does the trick.
That’s exactly what I’d recommend! The contents will crisp long before a quality silicone bag will.
Yeah, though our hard drive backup will fairly quickly become trash, I think.
What if you were to put a bunch of silica packets or beads in the safe? Or put an air tight container inside the safe
You’d need a ton of silica gel, pounds of it, to capture steam as fast as it is generated. Your best bet would be a water tight, temperature resistant container like silicone bags for documents. I’d recommend a properly fireproof safe (read: $$$) or planning for potential losses for anything larger.
Store your valuables in a waterproof bag hidden in your toilet tank. Can’t get destroyed to fire or flood.
Zip Lock bag + Silica Packets --> Inside a Fire-resistant document bag --> Inside a Fire-resistant safe?
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.
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
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
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.
The home safe is more about fire survival.
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.
