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Friday, January 11, 2008

Safes: The Secret To Keeping Your Small Valuables Protected

By Thomas Moody

A home security safe is a good, secure place to store smaller valuables in an easy, inexpensive manner.

Though it's less common to store documents there, now that computers have taken over the job, you may have a hand-signed will or old family photos you want to protect. If you have antique or rare stamps, manuscripts, baseball cards and other collectibles these are other items for which the inside of a safe is the safest place.

Home security safes can be found in a variety of sizes to suit most any need or purpose and for a price that will not destroy your budget.

Small wall safes are a popular choice. They bring to mind movies like The Thomas Crown Affair or other movies about art thieves. These home security safes are easily hidden behind pictures, stairwells or most any place you choose. You can even have them installed in the floor by turning them 90 degrees.

Other options range from small safes that are small enough to fit into a desk drawer, to ones that are large enough to fill a room. The ones that are large enough to fill rooms are not only found in banks, they are also used as panic rooms or safe rooms. Larger safes are great for storing items such as rifles, where the smaller ones are good for items like jewelry, disks and papers.

Safes are made up of a variety of different materials ranging from a hard plastic to titanium alloy. The safes also come with a variety of locks from key entry to a keypad entry or a combination lock. When a safe is manufactured to certain specifications they may even be bullet proof and fire proof. When you are shopping for a safe, make sure to read all the information provided. Don't assume it is fire proof or anything else just by the way it looks.

Several styles depend as much on stealth and disguise as they do on strength. So-called 'can safes' look like ordinary household products, such as deodorant cans or coffee pots. They could be easily broken, but because they look just like household items no one would think to look inside. For those on a tight budget these are often no more than a few dollars. But don't be tempted to brag too widely about your clever 'safe'. Word can get around.

Also available are the electronic or computer-integrated model safes. With these you can program them so that they will only open at certain times, just like a bank does. This is a great feature when you have children that like to poke and prod.

Electronic models have other forms of protection, too. They can be equipped with fingerprint sensors so they can only be opened by authorized persons. That's also handy because it eliminates the need to remember a combination or password.

You may need only a small plastic bin with a simple key lock. Or you may need the full protection of a full-sized, fire-safe floor model. But whatever your security needs, there's a safe that's right for you.

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