A safe can easily be taken if it isn’t imbedded in concrete or similar; that’s what we’ve been told and why relatives have embedded theirs.
Several years ago one of my neighbors asked me to hold on to her late mother’s wedding and engagement rings because they were gong out of town and workmen would need to be in their house. I opened the drawer in my table where we keep neighbor keys and said “OK, here’s where I’m putting them”. Then promptly forgot about it. A few years later they put the house on the market and she came to get her key. I opened the drawer and and said “oh, yes, it’s here in the envelope with your mother’s rings”. Neighbor started sobbing. She had forgotten that I had them and thought she had lost them somehow. Had been feeling bad for years.
So maybe not hide them with your neighbor.
When I (rarely) take off the only jewelry I care about, an engagement ring, I put it in a Belleek creamer that is behind a door in my formal hutch. I store vases and seasonal decorative pieces there – put my Belleek pieces out on the hutch display shelves in March. But that way I always know where it is, can access it at any time, and am unlikely to lose it. Also, I don’t expect a thief would look inside a piece of china. Maybe that’s a stupid place and maybe I am foolish to publicly post it, but so far so good. And again, I do that rarely, only when my finger needs a “rest” or I am doing something that might be a problem when wearing a diamond ring. It is usually on my finger.
And don’t forget insurance. Many homeowners and renters insurance policies require a special rider for jewelry valued above a certain amount. They also,require a recent appraisal.
If you own valuable jewelry, make sure it is insured.
Have known of many diamonds and engagement rings that have been accidentally thrown away in other households, including my folks and other relatives (including a “tennis bracelet”). We sleep well at night knowing that we have a secure place to stick things and don’t worry–home or when traveling. For us, having the supermarket safety deposit box is a no-brainer–easy, convenient, and fairly inexpensive. We’ve never had neighbor’s hold on to our valuables–that would be stressful–for them and us. They have had a key to our front door for decades and help us when we are locked out of our home.
I wish one of our supermarkets had sec boxes! But wouldn’t they be a really big target for thieves, since they are NOT in a bank vault? [or are they?]
They ARE in a vault at the bank in the supermarket. It’s all the benefits of the bank with the convenience of the supermarket! The good thing is that they don’t have that many boxes and they have to choose to add you to their select customers they allow to have a box with them. The price is about the same as the regular bank, but the hours are much better. The bank vault is the regulation thickness and to my knowledge, they’ve never been robbed.
oh!
I want one here!! :((
You have the security of the bank AND the security of the supermarket. There are quite a few markets in our state that have banks AND safety deposit boxes.
that’s it. I’m moving to HW!
H keeps some special things in a shoebox that is stacked with other shoeboxes. When we were moving I had some special things in a toiletry bag, the kind that is part of a luggage set. It stayed there for months!
I once read a tip that you find a place in your kids room (where the kids won’t get into it). The theory is that thieves will see it is a kids room and assume there is nothing valuable in there. They will take apart your bedroom, kitchen etc. though looking for jewels and stashed cash.
Some kids have decent stuff. It seems better to be just to find a better place. The thieves might scatter and sack it all. You get the same FBI protection from any bank SD box, even in market.
I must be the exception - I have a nice jewelry box on my dresser and my jewelry is in there. I have an alarm system; if they’ve gotten in my house, all bets are off, I suppose. But the same would be true for my laptop, iPad, etc and I don’t hide those.
It would be sad to lose jewelry but I remember our homeowner’s insurance has a minimum jewelry coverage that I couldn’t even opt out of. It’s not something to get heroic about if you’re confronted by a thief.
I have 4 or 5 of those inexpensive brightly colored plastic serving bowls. My jewelry is in the bowl at the bottom of the stack in the pantry.
We have two sets of sterling. DH hid them before we went on vacation. We didn’t find them until we moved four years later.
They were in a cardboard box in the back of a deep closet.
I’m glad to hear that other people hide things and then can’t find them later on! MIL has a story that she hid money somewhere in their house and has never found it. Of course, the children once went on a mission to find the stash, but they have not come up with it. I don’t usually keep my good stuff hidden, but when we go on vacation I will shove the trays into the bottom of the laundry basket or into shoe boxes containing shoes. Probably not the “safest” places, but then we live in one of the safest communities in america.
With the resale value of good jewelry, the thieves aren’t going to get all that much.
We’ve always had a good strong safe bolted into the floor or built-in shelf. I grew up with a safe in the house, so I just thought it was normal. My kids know the combination in case both H and I die in a terrible accident. I also know the combination to my mom’s safe. Although once when I was a kid, my grandfather gave my parents a ton of cash (enough for a down payment on a house). Since we were in a rental house at the time, mom rolled up the cash and put it in orange juice cans in the freezer.
The safe also contains valuable papers - will, birth certificates, SS cards, passports, and H’s most valuable baseball cards!