Organize your den for a cleaner, safer home
Most homes have a den, home office or designated area where you take care of your important financial tasks, file away important papers, etc. While this area should be well maintained and organized, you would find that these areas often turn out to be a home’s epicenter of clutter and chaos.
Paid and unpaid bills stacked on a desk, important documents strewn about, waiting to be filed properly, and most importantly – many people leave important financial documents out for anyone to see. We may typically consider an unorganized den nothing worse than an eyesore or frustrating when we are trying to find something. However, keeping important documents out of safe places can be more dangerous than you think.
First of all, if you don’t have a designated spot for all your bills and papers, you will never be organized. Secondly, you are sure to lose something at value. Third, and most importantly, an office area that is cluttered and messy says “jackpot” to thieves.
A potential burglar peeking in windows may ignore a clean, organized home as unappealing because it’s likely that important things are locked away or hard to find. A messy office however, screams of likely treasures like blank checks, credit card and banking information.
Also, this kind of disarray may tell a potential thief “if all this is left out, there may be other valuables unsecured.” Now do you really want your home to say that?
The first step to avoid this vulnerable look is to get organized. Make a permanent place for things like paid and unpaid bills, financial information – especially checks and bank account documents. Create a filing system so that everything has a place.
Next you will want to invest in a system to secure your most important items. Wall safes are a great way to discreetly hide away your valuables. You can purchase wall safes that can be hidden behind mirrors, pictures, or nearly invisible panels painted like your wall. They secure your valuables and provide a permanent place for them, which reduces clutter.
Safes come in many sizes, shapes and features. A wall safe is discreet while a large gun safe is intimidating. A media safe can harbor your valuable electronics, media storage and back-up files. Smaller safes can be locked and hidden in a closet or bolted to the floor. There are many options for safes, you should choose one that best suits your needs. First Alert Safes come in compact sizes for storing documents, passports and other important paperwork.
Your goal is that if a potential thief looks in your den, they immediately cannot see anything valuable and see no vulnerabilities. To a thief, this say’s “not worth it.”