Where do you store documents like car insurance, bank statements and assorted bits of paper crap that come into your house? And do you have a Disaster Recover plan?

[WideWebWitch]

We have a blue metal box with sections for car/insurance/credit card bills/bank statements/driving licences etc and when they come in they're filed there. Upstairs we have a box with birth certificates and passports etc in it. It's occurred to me that were we to be burgled and they took the blue box they'd have every detail of our lives, enough to steal our identies and/or make life very difficult indeed.

So, with that in mind I'm trying to get to a position where if it happened I could walk in and think 'no big deal, everything's insured' (which it is) and it doesn't matter because they didn't get our vital identity stuff. So we're about to archive/shred most of the old documents into the loft and start a new file. I am going to try to go to paperless billing on all utilities/cards where I can to get rid of the paper mountain and we are going to hide our birth/marriage/passports/driving licences in a roof space that is separate to the main loft.

What do all of you do? If you were burgled would they get all your stuff? Any bright ideas? Or am I being too careful and it doesn't matter because they'd take the telly and be in and out with not a thought for a boring old file of bits of paper.

sorry, crap jumbled post as was being distracted but it's 2 questions really:

1. Where do you file this stuff?
2. What would happen if you were burgled wrt identification paper etc
3. Am I being too careful?

Sorry, 3 questions.

We have 2 drawer filing cabinet - with everything in. It does lock but I have no idea where the keys are.

My instinct says your average burglar would not be interested in ransacking my filing cabinet - not when there are the easy pickings of the TV, DVD recorder, cameras, PCs, laptop etc lying around.

My Dad (super cautious) has a fireproof, combination lock safe with birth certificates, passports, their wills etc. in. It's not set in the wall behind a picture, lol, but it's out of sight and too heavy to carry.

His safe wasn't ridiculously expenive, iirc - I have it in my head that it came from somewhere like Wickes (though I may be making that up). I think I glazed over at some point during the lecture about the temperatures it would withstand being far above that of the average house fire...and that we really should get one too.

Yes, I can see they might leave the boring file Moo! OTOH, our house is quite secluded, isn't overlooked, has a drive, is behind some trees, doesn't have an alarm. I reckon someone could back a van up, really take their time and go for it here.

Mmm, I can see your point - we're in a terrace on a busy main road so I think we are more likely candidates for smash and grab/opportunistic burglars. In that case, yes - I would err on the side of caution and... get a safe like my Dad's Or at least keep the really vital stuff well hidden in your roof space.

I would agree and say loft perhaps. On the other hand do you have any cool hidey holes? For example, my ds's cabin bed has spaces on the back of it where the shelves/drawers would be if it faced the other way (does that make sense?) I've taken to hiding stuff in there!