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The Best Places to Keep a Home Safe or Vault

If you’re looking to purchase a safe or vault, you may be wondering which space it should occupy in your home in order to best protect valuable items and precious metals. The short answer is this: Keep your safe or vault in a location that makes for convenient usage. There are other things to keep in mind, however—namely what you are using your safe for, which type of safe you have, and which places you should avoid—so read on for some important tips on choosing the best location for your home safe or vault.

A Location that Makes for Easy Access

In general, you should be keeping your safe in a location near where you will be using it. Keeping cash or financial documents safe? You’ll want to keep the safe in a closet or home office. Protecting valuable jewelry, or guns for home protection? Your bedroom is probably your best bet.

A More Obscure Location

There are reasons to keep your safe in a more obscure location. If the purpose of your safe is to keep firearms or other dangerous items away from children, for example, you’ll want to keep your safe in perhaps a hidden corner in the basement or in a storage closet. If your safe will only see occasional usage, a more obscure location is fine as well.

Heavier or Fire-Proof Safes

It should be noted that heavier safes, or fire-proof safes meant for protecting important documents, do best on a home’s foundation rather than on the second floor of a home. Fire-proof safes in particular should be kept on solid foundation of hard, concrete flooring against concrete walls, such as in a garage.

Where Not to Keep Your Safe

There are definitely places that you should avoid when selecting locations for a safe. As was already mentioned, heavier safes, such as those that are over 1,000 pounds, are best not on the second floor of a home because of their weight. Locations that are out in the open are not advisable either, as it is still possible for theives to lift safes from homes when they are easy to access. This is why bedroom closets are a particularly good location for protecting valuable items that will need to be accessed frequently—they offer a secluded location that is easily accessible to those living in the home.