Clever Ways to Hide Personal Things

Hiding Spots

• Some of the safest places to hide your things are structural areas of your home. Photos, documents and thin items can be stored behind base moldings. You can build a safe into your floor or one of your walls and then paint, patch or wallpaper over it. If this is too much work to do then you can get crafty by hiding things in hallowed out furniture such as bed posts and chair legs. Additional simple hiding places include vents, couch cushions, electrical outlets, dry goods jars and in a bag of frozen vegetables.

Considerations

• Try to spread your personal items throughout your house so your entire stash will not be found all at once. Hide items in rooms and areas that have less foot traffic. Chances are that no one will be rummaging through the Christmas decorations box in the garage other than in December. You may also forget where you stored your belongings over time, so consider writing down where you put everything and give it to a trustworthy relative for safe keeping. Alternatively, you can email yourself the list or store it in a safe.

Bad Hiding Spots

• If you don’t want to have your personal items found then don’t hide them in obvious locations. Most burglars will try to get in and out of your home as quick as they can. They will look for easy to grab items like electronics, piggy banks and jewelry boxes. They will also throw all of your books off of your bookshelves, kick over your laundry basket and look under your mattress because these are common hiding places. They want to get in and out and will probably not waste time trying to find holes in your walls.

Warning

• Personal items hidden in your home are subject to possible fires and other natural disasters. The best place to hide any valuable personal belongings is in a safe-deposit box at your bank. This is the most secure option, but you will have to pay a rental fee and the cost will vary depending on the size of the box. The contents of your safe deposit box might not be insured either.