Stash It 3

When making home made storage units some of the best things ar old refrigerators, freezers or even an old water heater. The reason for this is that it is fairly common to see more than one of any of these appliances around the house. The refrigerators and freezers are well insulated and while not fire proof are somewhat fire resistant. Where you do not have room for an extra large appliance, store some of your valuables right in your working refrigerator or freezer. My son who lives in a trailer store all of his important papers and his few valuables right in the freezer along with his frozen food. Not too many thieves would think of looking there unless they were interested in stealing food. When using a non-working freezer or refrigerator for storage, take out the compressor but leave an electric cord on and plug it in. You will probably want about a ten watt bulb inside anyway to keep away moisture and the old refrigerator odor. You could always put in some desicant if you do not want to keep the light burning. An upright freezer with a lock on the door makes a fair gun safe. You can always use a chest type freezer and just add racks along each side, storing ammo in the middle of the freezer. Finding a locked freezer in your spare room, garage, out building or basement will not look suspicious to a thief. Another way to do this if you do not have any other room is to put the old appliance out on your porch in plain sight. As most areas have laws that these have to be chained shut so children cannot get into them, you can wrap a chain around it and put a padlock on it and it will look like a junker that you are waiting to get rid of. For using a water heater, just take out the tank, put your guns or other valuables inside, replace the top and set it next to your working water heater. Now add pipes to make it look like it is connected to your water system and you have fairly safe storage. I have seen more than one home that has two working water heaters. Next entry I will be talking more about food.