Whether you have a cabin somewhere, a trusty garage, or a good friend who’s living room is your home away from home, there are good reasons to store your guns outside your house.

BROKEN FRIDGE

Every garage deserves two refrigerators—one sturdy powerhouse for beer and bulk foods and another old, broken down hunk full of storage cubbies. The old broken down fridge can be more useful to you than a safe. After all, people will steal a safe to open later but they won’t haul a big, awkward, busted fridge off in the hopes there are treasures inside.

Just like with the under–sink “repairs,” duct tape is your friend. Remove the drawers, carefully bust a hole in the bottom, and suddenly you have a secure, hidden drawer in a place no one will ever think to look. You can hide guns, ammunition, money, or other valuables there. Cover the hole with duct tape, slide the old drawer back in place, and no one is the wiser. If your entire fridge looks like it’s made of duct tape, people might get suspicious, but you can use the same tactic to slide things into the side walls or the back of the fridge. If anyone asks, you just haven’t gotten around to getting rid of it.

BURIED COFFEE CAN

These days, there are a ton of inexpensive garden objects you can use to mark the location of a buried coffee can. Put your guns, ammunition, perhaps some cash or valuables, and a desiccant into the can. Desiccant just means “water absorbing.” It keeps things from getting moldy. You’ll find a tiny packet of desiccant at the bottom of every pair of shoes you buy, buried in new purses, and tucked away in nearly anything that might spend time in a hot, humid warehouse before being shipped to a store. You don’t want your gun getting damp while it’s in storage.

Bury your gun can in relatively shallow ground. The best idea is to put it a foot underground and top it with an easily identifiable statue that just happens to be holding something you can use as a trowel to dig it up. You’ll look at your neighbors a different way the next time you see a thigh–high statue in their yard of an angel holding a spear.