Combination Safe Tips

Choosing a Location in Your Home

• To find a place for the combination safe, look for an area in your home not heavily traveled and not too difficult to find (in case of your sudden illness or death). A good example would be a spare bedroom closet floor. If you have mobility issues, make sure you can reach the safe without assistance. Even if you do not have any mobility issues, if you will be removing documents often, make it easy to access, such as sitting on a shelf at chest level.

Choosing a Safe

• A 1-hour fireproof home safe will protect your documents for 1 hour in a fire. Anti-burglary safes that are also fireproof are available, as well as specialized safes for data, guns and jewelry storage. Prices for various sizes of 1-hour fireproof home safes range from $170 to $450. Pick a safe that will hold your documents, plus a little extra room in case more documents than you currently have need to be stored in the future.

Take Good Care of Your Safe and its Combination

• According to American Lock and Safe, you should do the following to get the best use out of your safe: memorize your combination, do not use something obvious like parts of your Social Security number, do not lubricate the safe (call for service instead), do not get it wet (if you do, dry it carefully with fans with the doors open) and check for obstructions if the door will not close (call for service and do not force it closed if this does not work). For electronic lock combination safes, change the batteries when they start to get low. For mechanical lock combination safes, dial slowly and carefully and follow the manufacturer's guidelines on how to dial the combination and how many turns are required.