When you think of sneaky you usually think of something that is secret or hidden from you. Actually, the most common sneaky-use application is hiding your valuable belongings from others.
- Hollowed-out candle
- Figurine
- Tissue container
- Trash container base
- Video or audio cassette shell
- Pen
- Watch case
- Inner pocket
- Shoestring
- DVD case
- Between magazine pages
- Inside a candy box
- Ironing board padding
- Bag within a bag
Source & Image: From the Book “Sneakier Uses For Everyday Things” by Cy Tymony
I myself would forget about the DVD/CD case idea (as well as VHS and video game cases). If kids are breaking in, they love to scoop those things up to sell for quick cash.
More Ideas For Hiding Things
- Store items in food containers to keep in the fridge, pantry or freezer. This only works well if you regularly have a lot of items and containers for them to go through.
- Cut a hole behind a floor baseboard and stash valuables in there. Make sure that the baseboard is back in place perfectly.
- Pull off the rubber ends on the ironing board leg and voila! a tube for hiding.
- Money envelope hidden behind or tucked up inside wall calendars.
- Feminine Napkin or Tampon Boxes (keep them full of product).
- Inside rolls of toilet paper, the bottom ones kept stacked in packaging.
- A toy box filled with toys.
- Fill a sock and put in the dirty clothes hamper.
- ‘False’ Shampoo or hairspray bottles (just clean and empty a used bottle–not a clear plastic one!)
- Spice & herb bottles: empty out and wash well, paint glue all over the inside then fill the bottle with spices again. Dump whatever the glue didn’t hold. You want the spice bottle to look like it’s full of spice. Fill the bottle with valuables in a plastic bag once the glue and spices are completely dried.
- Used deodorant stick containers and toothpaste tubes (cut the end, clean well, roll up).
- If you’re handy, build a false ceiling, wall or floor in a small room.
- In amongst the Christmas decorations
- Buy two cheap, thin identical floor mats, glue together but leave a pocket edge open to tuck money envelopes in. Seal the pocket with double sided tape.
- If you live in a warm climate where it doesn’t freeze over winter–bury your stash in the backyard
Places That Aren’t Really Safe To Hide Things
- The master bedroom. Everyone stores their valuables in there.
- The medicine cabinet. Thieves typically love prescription pills.
- Inside and under dresser drawers. Too common.
- Underneath mattresses and along bed frames. Again, too common.
- Bedroom closets and clothes pockets–one of the first places to ransack.
- A locked fire safe or locked briefcase–both can be picked up and left with to be broken into somewhere else. If you have a safe, make sure it’s bolted down tight.
A Good Idea
- Have a ‘secret’ jewelry box or box of some kind sitting on the dresser or tucked away in a dresser drawer. Put some cash in there and cheap jewelry, maybe even a small key that doesn’t open anything. This is your decoy and will hopefully let the thief think he found the stash he’s looking for. Have it full of ‘junk’ that looks valuable, the more the better.
Also have a few different hiding spots. That way not everything will be stolen if only one or two spots are found.
Did You Know
- Some thieves break into homes looking for spare keys to the house, garage and car to steal or break into later? Don’t leave spare keys in an obvious place.
Wherever you hide your stash–keep it to yourself & make sure to remember where it is!
Here are a few places I have used in different houses…
1. In the middle of a bag of cotton balls.
2. Between loose recipes in a recipe box.
3. Behind books on a bookshelf.
4. In a printer (usually empty space on right or left of cartridges you can find by lifting up lid to replace them.)
5. In bottom of paper shredder basket (only works if basket is solid color and not c-thru, and if you always have full of shreds)
6. In a empty bottle from multivitamins kept somewhere inconspicuous but not hidden (because you wouldn’t hide vitamins)
7. Water reservoirs of coffee makers.
8. In amongst makeup in makeup case/bag/drawer.
9. In a baggie hidden within coffee in a coffee can.
10. Battery compartments not used in things such as cheap contertop radios (things electronic, but not worth stealing)
11. In a cereal box in a cupboard.
12. In coffee travel mugs with lids attached in a cupboard amongst others.
13. In empty laundry detergent bottle on laundry-room shelf.
14. In empty boxes from dishwasher soap or steel-wool pads.
15. Taped under a bed, table, desk, etc.
Wow! Great list you shared Justin, thanks! 🙂
Another good place is behind a false electrical outlet. Make a hole in a wall like you are in installing an outlet, and buy the face plate, box, etc., and put everything together. You can pull the whole thing out of the wall and hide stuff in there.
Inside your bread maker.
In the bottom of a bag or box of maxi pads under the bathroom sink.
In a baking powder tin.
In a coffee cannister.
Open a can of vegetables on the bottom, empty and wash, stash valuables inside and set it toward the back of your provisions.
Ditto with a cake mix box.
In the toe of shoes or boots.
In a hollowed out hard cover book.
Under a layer of dry clothes in the dryer.
Inside a coffee mug turned upside down in the back of the dish washer.
In a cookbook in the bottom of your drawer.
This is a great list, now the thieves know where to look
Allison this is quite an extensive list for thieves to go through. By the time they get through each item in the freezer (for example), either the alarm company has the police on their way or the thief is in danger of being discovered at any moment since they’ve spent so much time in the house.
Here’s some places that probably no thief looks, and this is after years of being my own MacGyver and reading several books on the topic of hiding crap.
-Non-transparent lightbulb. If you drill a small hole in the bottom of the bulb for air to rush in and replace the vacuum, then (carefully) remove the metallic end-pulg, you can store small things inside the bulb. Simply put back into the box, or even make it look like a dead bulb and screw it into your chandelier or lamp.
Speaker box- And Im talking about the boxes that the actual speakers are housed in. There is a tremendous amount of empty space, since the driver (speaker) itself only takes up a small amount of the actual space. Simply (and carefully) knock off the backing, and then stuff it with your valuables, being careful to allow some space, not touching the back of the speaker.
-Stuffed animals, taxidermy’d animals.
if a theif reads this =will know are secret hiding places bad idea
newsflash for the people who think that these lists are gunna make it easier to steal your sh*t, WRONG in most(80%) situations where a house is getting robbed its an in and out within 10 mintues kind of deal, which means no time to unscrew every outlet or flip ever can, unless you have an alarm then ull most likely be shit outta luck. cuz most reasons for an alarm are expensive valuables, and the only theives that are gunna break into your house are gunna be the ones who know what theyre doin and will disable the alarm(which sorry to say is not hard to do) the smartest move is to get the added feature where if power is cut to the system a battery operated radio signal is sent out alerting the authorities. this feature is not noticable and will protect your stuff. you want a good hiding spot how bout a safety deposit box.
My mom used to hide her money for the month(back in the day, before bank machines/ direct pay) outside, she would put it in a plastic bag, drape it over the clothes line, then put the ugliest rag on top, secure it with clothespins, who would ever think of looking there?
i cut a whole in my matress and stuffed thing in it
How paranoid must one be to stuff their valuables in a toothpaste tube?
once helped clear out the “stuff” of a friend’s aunt, who had died. found 1000’s of dollars, in twenties, hidden in the most bizarre places. bet a lot of it had been thrown away over the years….
it is great to hide a few things… more than that becomes counterproductive!
were did the lady hide her money
just asking out of curiosity??
Be careful about burying something in the yard! If it’s in a container with air, it will work its way up and float away during a rain. I know from experience, found what I buried later in the bushes!
These are all great ideas. But, valuables in these secret hiding places could end up getting thrown out when someone passes away, or prossibly donated if hidden in usable items. Maybe a family member should know about it to avoid this problem since eventually, everyone will pass away. Sad but true.
Just something to consider….
A few years back a fake soup can filled with much real jewelry was donated to local charity either Goodwill or Salvation Army – I can’t remember which. There was a real attempt, even TV news to locate the owner.
Probably someone coming home for a parent’s funeral, cleaning out the house, and flying home, never to know. Your heirs should have a clue about these things, considering how much wealth is carted off the the landfill.
In hiding in foodstuff, I’d be worried that it would be something the thief loved or needed. I’ve seen fake cans of nuts which is a perfect snack for the thief to grab on the way out.
I went to an auction where a buyer got several old flashlights filled with silver dollars. Also in the same junk box was Band Aid containers and Prince Edward tins with old money. The old dirty box was not anything I would have given a second look at.
Then for travel (but equally at home in the bottom of the laundry basket, are the fake “soiled” men’s underwear with storage in the double crotch.
I once mailed something to myself (inside the post office, addressed to my box so it never left the building) for keeping over the weekend. I wanted to just put it in a recently received piece of mail and stick it back in the box but that is probably a federal offense.
Some homemade letters from the unemployment office or debt collectors in stacks on the kitchen counter might discourage them. Might also be a good place to store a little money.
I worry about the poster who made a hole in the mattress, I hope you match the seams up perfectly and don’t have to open it up too often.
I’d put a little strong box well secured to the floor, maybe with the corner of paper money sticking out – that would give them something to work on and waste their time on a box containing a few dollars. The idea of costume jewelry as a decoy was good. Kind of like wearing a money belt and carrying a decoy purse when vacationing in places where street crime is common.
I worked in a bank for 10 years and all my valuables are legal so the bank box makes sense for me.
I just keep my apt. so messy, no one can find anything except me. I keep some cash in a box that used to have replacement bank checks, and it’s in a drawer in a plastic cabinet of several drawers which is in my closet along with three other units of various sizes to organize papers, first aid stuff, bus schedules, etc. It’s even hard for me to find sometimes, I need to turn on the light first to see anything in there and then pick out the right drawer. Recently it seems someone did get into my apt, but they just got some tools, and I don’t think they even got as far as the closet because it was too crowded for them.
Keep all your valuable in a safe, lock it and keep the key inside an ink bottle.
Sew your money (bills only) in the hem of your curtains. I found this to be the best place for me.
A few of the ones your listed worried me. The watch case, I would think thieves would look into jewelry type places, therefore this would be someplace they would look.
The DVD case. Electronics are easy for people to sell after stolen, so DVD’s, CDs etc., are something that thieves may take if they have time or don’t find anything else.
Between magazine pages. Please be very careful with this, as many people declutter their homes and throw magazines out frequently.
Any ideas of where I can hide my keys? Both the ones inside the house and the one outside incase I get locked out.
hide the key at a neighbor you trust and they can do same–anyone finds the key will find out it does not unlock the doors and they are not going to go door to doorto try and find the door it fits..I did this for years. I do not keep much cash at home but behind a photo in a frame works esp if you have lots of them. I only keep emergency cash rest stays in the bank
get an aspirine bottle or similar. glue a small rock to the screwtop. bury the bottle in the soil with the rock just above ground. works fine for me and much better than those plastic-rock boxes that convince no one.
a good place to hide your spare keys are to take an old medicine bottle and glue a rock onto the top. hide your keys inside and bury the bottle with only the rock showing.
A good place might be inside of an old computer (the big thing that usually sits on the floor, not the moniter). Anyway, open it up and (tada!) you have a big space for…whatever you want. Be careful hiding things in a computer that people use regularly, as your things may get burned/melted and that will probably mess up your computer. Good luck everyone. This is a good list. And to all the people who are saying things like “Now when thieves read this they’ll know where to look,” well, you’re wrong. Thieves usually break into a house, look around for stuff to steal, and get out a.s.a.p. They don’t usually have time to go searching every soup can or dig up the yard.
Several years ago someone broke into my house. Unfortunately, I did not have my gun safe locked that day, and the rifle and shotgun my son inherited from his grandfathers were both lost. Every cabinet door in my house was opened along with the battery back-up compartments to my radio alarm clocks. The lock box in my closet with my marriage license, family birth certificates, etc was carried away as mentioned in an earlier post. The gun safe stayed because it was too heavy to lift. These people were not necessarily in my home for a long time. They were just very practiced and organized. They took all of my dvd’s. The investigating officers said they can easily get $5 each for them. What ticked me off the most, is that they used my own laundry baskets & totes to carry things out! Kind of like salt on an open wound. So now, I just have memories of the engagement & wedding rings from my late husband. I also have combination locks on all my doors so I can’t forget to lock them or lock myself out.
The molding around doors hides a neat space in the wall.
We buried a milk carton under a particular spot on our property with copies of essential documents and a few hundred dollars. In case our home is destroyed by a hurricane or fire. As long as it doesn’t have anything metal, it is impossible to find unless you know where to look.
A fake sewage pipe in the basement with a cleanout. Make sure it looks real by placing it where it makes logical sense. The cleanout is how you access your hidden stuff. Our fake sewage pipe is T’d off a real sewage pipe and looks like it runs to the laundry room.
some more “hidden” places, would be
1.a fake smoke detector
2.a hole in the top of the door
3.in drywall not the easiest to get to but hard to guess were to look
4.a fake bird house
5.in the bottom of a plant pot
6.a pez dispenser in a junk drawer
7.a lipstick stick.
the lipstick, drywall, and fake smoke detector are a little more advanced.