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One of the things you want to consider is weight. If a locked safe is light enough and not securely tied down, burglars will often remove it from a home so they can break into it at a location they feel safer in. Then you lose your important papers, even if they have no value to anyone except you. My Dad scrounged an old fire safe from somewhere that has a key lock. After he died, I inherited it, and it was a real job moving it into my basement, as it weighs about 300-400lbs empty. I only keep semi-important papers in it--stuff that might be helpful if the IRS ever audits me. I keep the key attached to the safe and have a card taped to the door telling burglars to use the key to open the safe and see that there is nothing worth taking in there. Luckily, I have never had a burglary or house fire, but hopefully the old safe would work OK for either problem. I rent a bank safe deposit box to store real valuables. And I believe that I have fairly effectively hidden most of the kinds of stuff that a burglar might steal. Other than a .22 rifle, a 12 gauge shotgun and a .38 revolver that I have out and ready to use quickly, I defy anyone to find the rest of my guns. There is very seldom much cash around my house, and the kinds of medications we have are not the kinds that usually get stolen. I also have a couple 4 drawer file cabinets filled with file folders. There are items in there that might be worth taking, but it would take time to go through the large number of files to find them. I would doubt that a burglar would take the time to do this, and they would be pretty heavy to haul away. If I had a burglary, I would expect the burglars to take my new TV and maybe some of the other electronics, and maybe the 3 firearms, if they happened to locate them. But for the most part, I am guessing they would consider my house pretty slim pickings!
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