Everyday items people forget to store in a safe

If you have invested in a safe for your home it is likely that you have assessed the risks of your property and deemed it necessary to have a safe installed. This could be due to the location of your property and it being vulnerable to security risks, or it could be due to the nature of the items you wish to protect. Some people have a good eye for what is valuable and what could be at risk, while other people focus simply on a financial value, and what is attractive to an opportunist criminal.

In this guide we will look at the different interpretations of value and why each type of item requires protecting, and we will also consider the typical items that are sometimes overlooked when assessing what needs to go into a home safe.

What are considered to be valuable items to keep in a home safe?

Many people considering a safe to protect their personal possessions will simply think about high value items, and will overlook other items that have similar importance and which might be irreplaceable for different reasons. So items that are considered ‘valuable’ can be broken down in different ways:

Financial value – Obviously this will include amounts of cash, but will also include other items that will appeal to an opportunist thief and which they will be able to extract value from. This could include jewellery, but also items of technology or collectible items that are rare, such as pieces of artwork, records or stamps.
Security value – Items which help to protect the home and the family.
Sentimental value – These are items that have no financial value to a thief, and hence you are not protecting them because they appeal to a thief, instead you are protecting them because they are unique, hold strong memories and can’t be replaced. So these could be old photographs of family members, keepsakes from a relative who has passed, or mementos from your own childhood.
Legal value – Again, these are items that have no financial value but are important for official or legal reasons and while they might not be irreplaceable, you might need them at short notice, they could be costly or difficult to replace or they are important documents you need to keep and possibly refer to. So this could include passports, birth certificates or property deeds.
Commercial value – While a business owner would normally keep business documents in a safe stored at their workplace, it is not unusual for these to be stored at home because it is a less vulnerable location. Items with commercial value are those which could put a market competitor at an advantage over your business, and could also have legal value in some cases. So this could include business contracts, trademark, patents and IP information, GDPR data and documentation and product specifications or information relating to the USP of a business.

Common items forgotten when thinking about home safe storage

Here we have compiled a list of everyday items that are commonly forgotten about when storing valuable items in a safe, but which all have a value of some sort. In this list, most items will fall into one of the above categories:

Personal documents – This could include passports, a driving licence, birth certificates, marriage certificates, property deeds, insurance policies, V5 forms for vehicle ownership, wills, trusts and power of attorney documentation, physical photographs and historical keepsakes.
Electronic data and storage – In this day and age a lot of important information is digital and hence needs to be stored to keep it safe or as a back-up. This could be any kind of documentation relating to property or insurance but could also be digital photos stored on an external hard drive or a USB stick. A self-employed person working from home may also store accounts or tax documentation and all their work information on a USD drive at home.
Technology – Small and portable electronic devices are very valuable to a thief as they are easy to steal and can be sold quickly. They are also valuable because they can hold a lot of personal data. This can include laptops, smartphones and tablets and while they are not as popular as they used to be, there is still high value in some digital cameras, camcorders and MP3 players.
Keys – It is not advisable to store the only copy of a key in a safe, in case you somehow can’t access the safe, but it is good practice to store a spare key in the safe for things like the front or back door, a car or a storage unit etc.
Jewellery – You might think this is an obvious thing to keep in a safe, and with high value jewellery it is, but there are other items of jewellery we might wear more often, which we sometimes store on a bedside table or in an unlocked jewellery box. This might not have high value to a thief, more sentimental value to you, but a thief will take it anyway and worry about the value later. Either way, you have lost it.
Cash – The same applies here. We can sometimes get blasé about small amounts of cash or bank cards and leave them on a table or tucked in a sock drawer or similar. Ideally these should be stored in an accessible safe.
Display collectibles – These are on display because we like to show them off, but they could be valuable to a thief with knowledge and therefore leave your home vulnerable. Anything with considerable value should be stored in a safe. It doesn’t prevent you getting it out to show people when they call round.

There are many different types of safe available from MB Direct, and they are all able to protect your everyday items, so check out our range at MB Direct and invest today.