Stash It - 5

The next unit I would make would be a water heater safe. That is correct, I said a water heater. This is about the only other appliance in the home that is insulated. They can be a little hard to work with and a little inconvenient, but they work. Once again, there are a fair amount of homes that have more than one water heater. Get an old water heater, the larger the better, remove the top and take out the water storage tank. You may want to keep this tank to store water for survival situations. You can now set guns around the inside or put just about anything else into the unit. The problem with storing small items in this unit, and that includes ammo, is that it is a long reach to the bottom. If you are going to store these types of items in a water heater, you may want to build a set of round shelves that will just fit into the unit and can be pulled out as one piece. Try to reattach the drain spout to the bottom for a realistic look. Also, set this unit close to your regular water heater and run a couple of dummy plastic pipes up into the plumbing to give it a further look of authenticity. Again, use your imagination for other ways to convert water heaters.

Now it is time to take a good look around the house and see where some good places to hide things might be. I cannot know all of the areas because each house is different. What I will try to do is to give several ideas and hopefully, if none of them will work in your house, they will get the seed of ideas started and you can find and design your own. However, I believe that you will be able to use one or more of my ideas.

I have used many different types of "around the house" storage. This is partly due to the number and various types of dwellings I have lived in. Since getting into the survival movement back in the early seventies, I have lived in three different apartments, six different houses and spent six months living in a pickup camper.Through all of this I have managed to store my firearms and any other valuables safely. The most difficult was while I lived in the pickup camper, followed by a one room efficiency apartment. All of these and one of the houses were rented. This meant t6hat I could not do a lot of cutting or building. However, in one apartment I did put a false ceiling into  closet. Owning your own home make it much easier. You can add and build just about anything you want. I am going to leave it here this week and I will start with closets when I make my next entry. Until then, SURVIVE.

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Stash It - 4

Before leaving the freezer, I should mention that you may need to install a light inside. Freezers usually do not have interior lights. You can use just about any type of fixture that will fit and not be in the way. Just drill a hole in the back of the floor of the unit big enough for the original cord to go through. Run the cord in from the outside rear and connect it to whatever you have installed for a light. Should you decide not to have a light, (you can always use silica granules) run the cord in and install the female end of an extension cord. this will allow you to keep it plugged in without any danger from shocks. This would also allow you to put a small lamp in if necessary.

When using a refrigerator with a top or bottom freezer, you will need to do a little extra work before installing the gun racks. Most of the ones I have seen have a tin or plastic liner held in by a number of screws. Take the screws out and remove this liner. Now you are going to have to cut a slot across the back of the compartment. With the top freezer, the slot will need to be about four to six inches wide. the bottom freezer type will need a width of eight to twelve inches. With the bottom freezer the stock will go through the slot and the guns will rest on the floor of the freezer compartment while with the top freezer, only the barrels will stick up into the freezer compartment. Now if you like, you can slide the liner back in as far as it will go without interfering with the guns. Mark and cut off what is sticking out. Now put it back and screw it in. This will give you extra storage space for ammo or whatever else you may want to use it for. That is about the only difference there is between a single door unit and a two door. The only The only problem you may have with a side by side will be installing the locks. I find the best place to install them is in the top and bottom of the doors.

Using a large chest type freezer presents some minor problems. While they usually have the most insulation and are an excellent choice, they can be a little less convenient. The guns will all be laying down so you will have to build your gun racks accordingly. The unit I saw that I liked the most held ten rifles and a number of handguns. this person had screwed three one by twos to each of the long walls of the freezer and two to each of the end walls. He then screwed sheets of pegboard the exact size of the inside walls to these one by twos. Using padded peg hooks and reversing each rifle, he did not have much trouble getting his guns in. The end pegboards were used for his handguns. His ammo and other accessories were then set on the floor in the center of unit. The inconvenience here is, he needed to remove quite a bit of gear to get to some of his guns, especially those close to the bottom. He installed his light right in the center of the lid. All in all, it was an excellent storage unit.

The only difference you will find when converting a refrigerator or freezer to other storage uses such as tools, silver, gold, jewelry or other valuables is how you want to convert the interior. The rest is pretty much the same, get the freon removed if possible, remove the compressor, leave the outside as normal looking as possible, build the type of shelving needed for what you are storing and install locks.

Before we leave the subject of refrigerators, I am going to make a couple of suggestions that may sound silly on the surface, but may make more sense when you think them through. first, if you have a small safe or fireproof lock box, think about keeping that in a refrigerator. No, it will not help the fireproofing, but I cannot think of too many crooks that would think about looking there. Second, and this one really sound silly on the surface, keep your refrigerator out on the porch in plain sight. Think about it, in most areas you must have the doors of old refrigerators removed or chained and padlocked. Put what ever you are going to store into the unit, move it onto the porch, wrap a heavy chain around the doors, put a good solid, well built padlock on the chain and face the door toward a wall. Who in their right mind is going to steal a junk refrigerator. I suggested this to an apartment dweller who had no room and wanted the refrigerator storage. He had some tools and a few valuables he wanted to store. I have not seen him since, so I do not know for sure if he did it and whether he liked doing it that way.

Until next time SURVIVE!!!

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