Many valuable items kept in your home are small enough to conveniently place in a safe.

Though it’s less common to store documents there, now that computers have taken over the job, you may have a hand-signed will or old family photos you want to protect.

If you have antique or rare stamps, manuscripts, baseball cards and other collectibles these are other items for which the inside of a safe is the safest place.

Safes come in a range of sizes to suit any need and just about any budget.

Small wall safes not only look cool, since they evoke caper movies, but they provide an extra level of security. They can be masked behind paintings, tucked in a stairwell or hidden in other unlikely but easily accessible locations. Some are designed to be installed in the floor rather than the wall, simply by flipping the safe 90 degrees.

Other models range from a size suitable for a desk drawer all the way up to room-sized. The latter aren’t only for bank vaults, either. In one form they are called panic rooms. Smaller ones can easily store jewelry or laptops, while larger ones can be useful for rifles and shotguns.

The range of materials is equally impressive. Some are just hard plastic with a simple combination dial or key lock. Others are made from inch-thick walls of titanium alloy. The latter provide not only increased intrusion prevention, but may offer fire protection. Remember, though, it isn’t enough simply to have thick walls. If they heat up readily, the interior can get hot enough to melt jewelry or plastic, or combust paper.

Several styles depend as much on stealth and disguise as they do on strength. So-called ‘can safes’ look like ordinary household products, such as deodorant cans or coffee pots. They could be easily broken, but because they look just like household items no one would think to look inside.

For those on a tight budget these are often no more than a few dollars. But don’t be tempted to brag too widely about your clever ’safe’. Word can get around.

Electronic or computer-integrated models are all the rage now, since they can be programmed. Just as banks do, you can program them to only allow access at certain times of the day. That’s handy if you have curious kids who might easily discover the combination.

Electronic models have other forms of protection, too. They can be equipped with fingerprint sensors so they can only be opened by authorized persons. That’s also handy because it eliminates the need to remember a combination or password.

You may need only a small plastic bin with a simple key lock. Or you may need the full protection of a full-sized, fire-safe floor model. But whatever your security needs, there’s a safe that’s right for you.

Tags: antique, baseball cards, behind paintings, coffee pots, collectibles, combination password, deodorant cans, fingerprint sensors, inch-thick walls of titanium alloy, jewelry, laptops, manuscripts, rare stamps, valuable items, wall safes