Do I need a fireproof/waterproof safe?

[Deleted User]

In 2000 our house flooded. As we owned a bungalow we lost more or less everything. We were both coming home from work when we could not get into the village due to flood water. Completely by chance we both ended up at the edge of the flood water within minutes of each other. A neighbour told us our house was under water and so we waded through waste deep, sewage-filled water to save our cats.

When we got into the house the water was still rising. We had time to grab the soggy cats, a change of clothing and a box filled with all our paperwork.

We found temporary accommodation, but needed our paperwork to prove we had enough money in our bank to pay the deposit and rent. They let us move in without paying any money first.

I needed details of the insurance to contact re. payments for items such as clothes, food, cat beds as we lost the lot.

We also needed proof of I.d. too which had it not been in the box we would also have lost.

Just think of the paperwork you need birth certificates, marriage certificates, pension plan details, cat vaccination records etc. It is easy to replace clothes, furniture, guitars, books, carpets etc, but no so easy to replace documents.

parristim

Yes I suppose I wasn't very clear in what I meant: whilst it's easy-ish to protect important stuff from a toddler, the fact that he's up and walking around made me start to think about other worse things that could happen to hard-to-replace items.

I think for the relatively small investment it will be worth having a few important papers kept somewhere a bit more 'resistant' to fire/water. Spider's post being the clincher, I hope everything's ok for you now! Thanks everyone.