Why not take the product manuals and put them where you might need them? For a long time I kept manuals to kitchen appliances and stereo equipment stuffed in my file cabinet with everything else. The problem was that whenever I neede them, they were in the other room. So, I took a 3-ring binder with some pockets and sleeves and put the manuals in there. The kitchen appliance manuals go with the cook books; stereo stuff with the stereo; and power tool manuals with the tools.

Usually I never need these manuals but I still have trouble getting rid of them. The kitchen ones I use because they have recipes in them. The stereo manuals I used once when I first got the thing. The manuals for power tools only come in handy if I need to look up what kind of saw blade (or whatever) I need to buy.

I try to download electronic versions of manuals whenever I can because I tend to lose the original anyway (spilled syrup on the ice cream maker manual) and this way I have a backup. Try to look for the manual when the item is new otherwise you're likely to only find the manual for the functionally equivalent model B while your model A has a completely different user interface.

As far as safety deposit boxes go, I keep birth certificates, social security cards, car titles and other documents which are normally not needed in there. Passports are always kept at home in a fireproof box. I also keep a print out summarizing account numbers, balances and other informationthat I update once a year. Copies of insurance documents are kept in there as well. Don't keep a will in a safe deposit box because no one can easily get to it after your gone. I try to update the information in the box once a year.

One thing that I've started to also do is scan all of my important documents and burn a CD that I give to my parents to keep (they live far away). I did this because in a large scale disaster I might not even have access to the safe deposit box but I'd need something to get started again. This is a once a year update project as well.