Puzzles That Can Be Used to Store and Keep Items Safe

It is very important to state that the correct and best advice on this matter is to consult an expert who would know best how to keep the item you want secure safe and using a puzzle to keep an item safe would be doing so of your own risk (see disclaimer).

Everybody has precious, important or sentimental items that could be irreplaceable and you will naturally want to keep these items safe and secure but a puzzle as a security measure is more meant as a fun challenge and in a lot of cases wouldn't be appropriate for these kinds of items. There are various types of puzzles that can be used or are specifically designed to store particular items and keep them safe or hidden such as a moneybox, lock and key, a rope, a safe and finally a chest with secret compartments that all have their own advantages and levels of fun. The more important the item is the more difficult the level of challenge you will want the puzzle to be and the puzzle will have to be able to withstand somebody potentially trying to break into it as well. These are just ways in which you can incorporate puzzles into your life but if an item is precious or important to you or even if it isn't it is always better in all circumstances to go with the standard ways and practices of protecting that particular item and consult an expert. A money box is obviously used for storing and keeping money safe especially coins although some of them can keep notes as well and there are certain moneyboxes that incorporate puzzles as a way of gaining access into the moneybox. They vary in size but are commonly quite small and thus only have a certain amount of space inside them so you will only be able to put a certain amount of money into them. It is sensible to always keep that money box out of sight as an extra precaution as the money box itself could be taken away as they are usually easy to carry and small enough to conceal and then possibly broken open somewhere else or the puzzle solved to gain access. The money might be safe in a moneybox in terms of it being strong and robust enough to not be broken open but that is unlikely as they are usually made from pot or plastic and are not meant as a serious security measure like a safe for example that could also be used to keep money protected. A moneybox can incorporate a puzzle such as a maze that a person would have to complete in order to unlock it with these types of moneyboxes coming in various degrees of difficulty in which they can have more possible routes, more dead ends to go down and lots of paths in a condensed area. Moneyboxes can have hidden compartments that you have to find which would be the challenge of the puzzle or the money box is disguised as something else like a book but the challenge is always to gain access to the money with a way to do this usually not being immediately obvious with the hope that the person trying to gain access to it, who you don't want to, will be stumped and give up. So this security measure would be suitable for storing money that would be of a low value in which if you lost the money it wouldn't be that big a deal and would be really used as a way of getting rid of or storing unwanted coins. A lock and key is a commonly used security measure that can be also used in combination with a chain that locks more than one object together with one of these objects usually immovable or difficult to move and in a fixed position. It can be an ideal security measure as the right key is needed to unlock it and they are usually made from metal which will not easily be damaged or broken and would take time and some serious tools to do so. The disadvantage with this type of security measure is some items are very challenging to chain up or padlock and can be time-consuming to do so and if the key is lost then it could be very difficult to replace if it can beat all. A lock and key puzzle specifically is really a fun challenge rather than a security measure although some could work as such if it requires a key to unlock the padlock and is made from a suitably strong material, however, some of them would be totally unsuitable for a security measure as that is not what they have been intended for at all. A lock and key puzzle will not just be a standard lock and key in design or the way it operates and it will set a challenge that should not be at all obvious to the user how it is solved and should take a clever manoeuvre or a series of them to unlock it. Lock and puzzle challenges can vary in difficulty with the difficulty determined by such attributes as how hidden is the keyhole, the number of moves required, the number of different manoeuvres, the complexity of the moves and the number of parts as there may be more than one key. So a lock and key puzzle can make a great challenge but not always a good security measure and it would be best to, therefore, treat it as just a puzzle unless you can afford to lose whatever it is protecting. A rope puzzle is meant as a fun brain teaser challenge but it might be a decent way to keep certain items reasonably safe as it would work just like a normal rope would but in order to untie it some sort of puzzle would need to be solved. When using a rope as a security measure the item being protected is tied to a fixed object or the rope is used to tie a case and lid together so it can't be opened. A rope puzzle challenge can involve untangling a knot or feeding the rope and the pieces attached to it through the other attached pieces to untangle it. The hope is if it is going to take a lot of time to solve or looks too complicated then maybe the person trying to steal or take away the item the rope puzzle is protecting will likely give up or not bother even trying as it is too much hassle. An advantage of this type of puzzle in terms of security is that by trying to solve it the puzzle can become even more entangled and therefore more difficult to solve. It is important that the rope is thick enough so it will not snap or be easily cut but a rope is always going to be vulnerable to certain tools like a saw or scissors. Rope puzzles are also more vulnerable to wear and tear that comes from frequent or plenty of use and it is likely at some point the rope will need replacing or it will simply break apart and rope would be vulnerable outdoors as this can also damage and weaken the rope by being exposed to the elements. So a rope puzzle just like a normal rope could be used to keep some objects safe but due to its vulnerabilities and the fact they are often not meant as security measures it would be best to use them as they are intended a fun activity. A safe can be a great way to keep precious items such as jewellery protected as a safe can be made of a material that will make it very difficult to break into even with the use of tools as they are supposed to look and be extremely tough to break. A safe can come in many sizes depending on what it is meant to be protecting although a puzzle version would typically be small in size so therefore would only be able to hold a few small items maximum. A safe is often quite heavy depending on the material used so when this is the case it will not be easy to carry if someone tried to take it away and the safe may even be fixed to something else and can't be moved at all. A safe can be hidden from view sometimes in walls and behind paintings or just put in a wardrobe as they are not the most inconspicuous of security measures and having a safe on view would show where there is potentially something of real value. A safe puzzle will require a person to solve a puzzle instead of entering and guessing a pin number or dial combination like you would on a regular safe therefore if the safe puzzle challenge is very solvable then what is inside it is not particularly secure. Safe puzzles do vary greatly in difficulty and complexity but the challenge will still be solvable and therefore whatever is inside the safe will always be at risk. A safe puzzle can also be made of materials that are easily breakable like wood and is, therefore, not very secure if at all. So a safe puzzle is firstly a puzzle then secondly a security measure although some are just meant as a puzzle while a regular safe is primarily a security measure and more appropriate for keeping things safe you don't want or can't afford to lose. A puzzle chest could be used as a security measure to hide and store items and keep them out of sight and there is a wide variety of them offering many different puzzle challenges. They can also be a good place to hide items as they can come in a variety of different sizes so some can store quite large objects if required but most puzzle chests tend to be quite small. The big advantage of some puzzle chests but not all is that they can look like a normal container from their external appearance and not a puzzle chest so can be inconspicuous even in plain sight. There are some even when opened up look like a normal container that a person would put normal items in but then will have hidden compartments for important or precious items. The purpose being from disguising a puzzle chest like a normal container is that nobody would even know there is anything special about the chest or anything hidden in it which gives it a clear advantage over other forms of puzzles you could store your precious items in like a money box in which it is immediately obvious what it is and has in as it has a coin slot. A puzzle chest will always set the challenge of trying to gain access to a part of the chest and it may be how the challenge works is obvious or there may be no obvious clues as to how the challenge operates. The material the puzzle chest is made from can vary quite a bit being either metal, wood or plastic and therefore some will be a lot easier to break into than others. The disadvantage to this security measure is you may actually forget about your hidden items if you have left them there for a long time so it may be best to use it for something you use regularly in order not to forget. Another disadvantage could be somebody by accident finds the hidden compartment if it has one so the gateway/lid/drawer to the hidden compartment will have to be secure and not come open easily. Some puzzle chests are small and fit in your hands so could easily be stolen in terms of carrying them away and concealing them. So a puzzle chest can be a good way to hide items as it can have secret compartments or present a really difficult challenge to gain access to it but they are still solvable and therefore whatever is inside would always be at some risk. What needs protection is not always a physical object such as information that could be in the form of a message or files on a computer device and these would require a completely different form of security than what has previously been mentioned in this article. What is employed to protect and gain access to information on computers and electronic devices is passwords and security questions that shouldn't be guessable. Information is protected in a combination of different ways in addition to passwords and security questions such as the use of firewalls and using the device the information is on appropriately and safely for example not leaving an account logged on when finished with if the device is used by more than one person. Puzzles would not be an appropriate security measure for important data or information as puzzles can be solved no matter their complexity and difficulty and are, therefore always risky. Having a security question as a puzzle, for example, in the form of a brain teaser or riddle would mean it could be solved and the answer obtained and whatever was being protected obtainable and vulnerable to a malicious act which would not be recommendable. With all these puzzles it's very important to keep them as secretive as possible if using them to protect an item by either not telling anybody what it is and has in it or by putting them out of sight if possible or even putting the puzzle inside another security measure such as a safe or locked cabinet. Taking these steps can be time-consuming and annoying but if the item needs protecting and has value then a person should be willing to put in that extra effort as they could be very glad they did if it prevents something important to them from being stolen. It is also important to match the right security measure or puzzle with the object that needs protecting as some are better matches than others but all can have their vulnerabilities and weak points too. In conclusion, there are a wide variety of puzzles that could be used to help keep different items safe but really they are meant as fun challenges rather than security measures and therefore should be used as such as there will always be a risk in using them to protect something and whatever is being protected will never be 100% safe.