How to Hide a Safe in a Closet: Securing Your Gun Safe

If you do just a little bit of research on gun safes, you likely have heard that one of the best things you can do after buying a safe is to just not tell anyone you did. However you can even go one step further and hide your safe in a closet!

Now there are a couple great ways you can hide a safe in the closet, and we are going to dig into that in this article.

Upsides of putting your safe in a closet

There are a couple of great reasons for hiding a safe in a closet over some other places.

1. Closets are generally in very accessible areas, meaning you can quickly get to them if you need to.
2. This small area is enclosed on 3 sides, making it difficult to remove a safe or cut into the sides.
3. There are a lot of closets in most homes, meaning each has to be searched to find the safe.
4. Guests don’t tend to go through closets, or at least they shouldn’t anyways!

Downsides to putting your safe in a closet

As for the downsides, there aren’t many, but the few that are will be the following:

1. Difficult to install into the closet
2. Difficult to get out of the closet if you move

How to install a safe in a closet

There are 2 different ways I would install a safe into a closet, the normal way that most people do it, and then the modular safe way.

The normal way

1. Buying the right safe – I can’t express enough that you should make sure to shop for the right sized safe before you install one into your closet. If you buy a safe that is too large, and then decide to put it in the closet (here are some that actually fit), there are some obvious issues. So make sure to measure 2-3 times that doorway of the closet, and make sure the safe is going to fit. Pro Tip: Cut out a piece of cardboard the size of the exterior bottom of the safe (including the handle) and then do a mock move (even upstairs), where you slide the cardboard into the closet without it hitting anything. 
2. Even before you buy the safe, figure out how you are going to move the safe into your home. I would recommend a moving company, as they are license and insured (if you choose the right one) otherwise, spend some time figuring out if you can move it yourself and how.
3. Buy the safe. If you bought it normally and didn’t line up a moving company, it will deliver to your curbside, and you will have to take it from there, this goes back into step 2 above.
4. Once delivered, get the safe into your home and if you did everything right, you should be able to easily slide the safe into the closet and maximize your safe. Sometimes you will be able to slide it straight in, and other times it may have to move in at an angle and then straighten out.
5. Bolt the safe to the floor. While yes, it may be secure on 3 sides of the safe, it still can be removed from the home just like you brought it in. So bolt it to the ground, so that it can’t be moved.

The modular safe way

If I were personally trying to install a gun safe into a closet, I would buy a modular gun safe to make it happen.

These safes can actually be put together in pieces, all within the closet itself.

You start with the base, then attach the walls, ceiling, the door, and then the interior of the safe.

This means you don’t have to drag a safe throughout your house, instead you can take it in pieces to where you want, and install it in pieces.

Here is an article that goes much more in depth with these safes!

Conclusion

Whatever direction you go, installing a safe into a closet can be a great use of space, and also allow for security of that safe.
Make sure you shop for exactly the safe that works for your situation. My recommendation is to read through this article to discover what that is exactly.