Any number of items will be mentioned if you go to a site that talks about necessary items to be included when you are considering home repair or remodeling. Certainly safety is at the forefront on the lists, items such as smoke and gas detectors, adequate lighting over stairways, updated gas and electricity delivery systems in older homes, etc.. What I'm recommending is an item that is not so frequently mentioned but that should be: a home safe.
Squirreled away in hidey-holes all over our houses are any number of items having importance to us but that need to be kept safely put away when not in use. Good jewelry comes to mind, as does "emergency" cash. So do passports and birth certificates and copies of wills. So do lists of passwords and pin numbers and ID numbers for any number and type of account we might have, online as well as in the physical world. I'm sure you can fill in with other items you view in this way. The longer you live, the more of these hidey-holes that may be present.
Instead of those hidey-holes I'm recommending the purchase of a home safe--not a free-standing one, but one that is securely fastened into a wall or floor. Obviously, the safe should be someplace that is not openly visible but that is accessible to those who are supposed to know where it is. Let's face it--we are all of us collectors, although what we collect and need to keep safe may differ. Between the mattresses just doesn't cut it any longer--it's the first place someone breaking into your home would look. I'm sure you can think of all the other places people use to stash things--and so can thieves.
The cost of these safes is not prohibitive and will allow you to truly be safe, not just feel unjustifiably safe, such as when you use those hidey-holes. If you are considering a home purchase now, make it one that will pay for itself in real peace of mind--better safe than sorry.
3 comments:
i never understood why ordinary people need a home safe (other than to store firearms securely). if it's that valuable, it doesn't belong in a home safe. put it in the bank.
(and while i hate to see this post degenerate into another tuition discussion, people who have "good" jewelry . . .)
Abba,
Yes, bank safety deposit boxes are secure storage for items that need that storage, but they are also very inconvenient because most bank safety deposit box vaults are not open on Sundays, only Saturdays, when they do a frum Jew no good. If you have to access something over a weekend you are going to have problems, both retrieving that item and putting it back. For example, a trip to Israel, leaving on a Sunday, means you have to have your passport taken out of the bank already on Friday--a home safe gives you somewhere to keep that passport securely until flight time.
Re the good jewelry, you're right, let's not mention tuition at the same time. Jewelry can be obtained in many ways, including inheriting that jewelry from a grandparent or parent or other family member. It may be jewelry that a wife brings with her into a marriage. And yes, most frum girls are gifted with an engagement ring, a gold wedding ring and some other type of jewelry, all of which need to be kept secure when not in use. And please let us not forget that some people pay full tuition and may also purchase jewelry.
why do passports need to be stored in a safe? sure they're a pain to replace, and not cheap either, but there not worth anything near the silver on public display in the dining room.
btw, if someone wants your safe, bolting it in won't help (they cut it out). lugging that type of weight out of a house is the real obstacle
my grandfather used to hide valuables in the basement drop ceiling. probably not the best idea in general, and then one summer they came home and he forgot where he hid everything and he had to take down half the basement ceiling until he found it.
one other important thing to remember (learned it the hard way) is that if there is an electric keypad entry, don't loose the backup key, because the batteries will die (unless there is an AC power supply)
i don't understand why jewelry is sancrosanct (regardless of the source). it's an asset like any other.
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