15 Things You Should Keep in a Fireproof Safe
Buying a fireproof safe should be on everyone’s to do list today. I really mean today. When life happens, it happens. It won’t wait for you to be ready.
I still remember my neighbour’s house on fire and completely destroyed by a dryer left unattended. They lost almost everything and they couldn’t even get their home insurance to help as leaving appliances running when no one is home is not covered. It was devastating.
Anyhow, the good news? They had a fireproof safe containing their important documents. I hope we can all learn from this and make sure to keep these 15 items in a fireproof safe:
Medical information and Prescription medications
Receipts for all major purchases
Social security cards
Birth certificates
Marriage License
Home inventory list with pictures
Bank Account information
All your insurance policies
Diplomas, degrees, certifications, etc.
A copy of your will and other legal documents.
Copies of your credit cards, debit cards and driver’s license
Important documents like tax returns, investments, and loans.
Digital or physical family photos
Spare keys of your vehicles
Backups of important computer files on external hard drives or CDs.
Basically, you should include in your fireproof safe anything that are hard-to-replace documents like birth certificates, passports, and tax records. It is definitely worth buying a fireproof safe that will give you 24/7 access to important documents while being protected against fire and water.
I personally own a Sentrysafe from Master Lock and I love it! It is fire and water resistant- it is UL Classified to survive in a fire for 1 hour in up to 1700°F and is ETL verified water resistant in up to 8 in of water for up to 24 hrs. The main features are the Dual key lock, the Combination lock, the Pry-resistant hinge bar, the 4 live-locking bolts, the bolt down hardware, and the Multi-position tray. It is made of steel and is also impact resistant so make sure not to drop it on your foot. Ouch.
Do you have a safe at home?
nice post, to replace some of this stuff would cost a lot of money (ie diplomas etc). But the family pics are impossible to replace. Thanks for the heads up!
I really should put my stuff in a safe too, just to be on the safe side!! first I need to find everything I suck at putting stuff away!!
I used to have a safe but no longer have one since we moved here. I must look into buying one again. 🙂
This is a great list. I often wonder what would happen if we experienced a fire. Important papers and id are hard to replace
that is a great list..
This type of thing wouldn’t have occurred to me, but hubby went out and bought one many years ago just for our important documents.
This is a great list! You always think there will be tomorrow to do this, but you never really know!! The Fort Henry fires taugh us this!!
This is an excellent post!! OMG I never would have thought of half of that actually. Spare keys to vehicles is a smart idea. We have two fireproof safes. We bought them when we adopted our girls. I put the important documents relating to their adoptions in there because I never wanted them lost and I put the savings bonds in there etc. All of their things are in there that I would not wish to be destroyed.
We do not have a safe. I love this post because it has really caused me to think. Those 15 items are perfect reccomendations.
That’s a really great list. We do have a safe and most of these things are in there. I like the idea of putting digital family photos in there.