Do You Know Where to Hide Your Valuables?
Most people want to keep their valuables close at hand and easily accessible. If you are using a safety deposit box, you’ll only be able to retrieve your valuables during their hours. What you need is a great place to hide them that others do not know or would not think about.
In this article, I’ll layout five different methods of hiding your valuables, if you own your own home. In addition, I will give you five more that can be used by both homeowners and people that are renting or in an apartment.
The first thing you may think of is a wall safe, as these are great, but do costs a considerable amount of money to install. You will need to hire a contractor to build and design your site. There is an alternative to having a wall safe that is to use the hollow space in the walls themselves. This can be done by any home improvement enthusiast. All most all the walls in your house are hollow but some of them may have installation or wiring or other pipes in them. Be sure to pick the best location that has both ease-of-use, and is unlikely to be found.
I would not just put a hole in the wall and then hang a picture over it. Look for furniture or other items that generally have a fixed position in your home like coat rack, chest of drawers, bed, etc. A lot of closets have organizing shelves that can be removed easily and create a hollow space behind them. In fact, you can even add some shelves or compartments to be used as camouflage for your new hiding place.
A lot of homes have beautiful beam work on the walls and ceilings. Most of them are for cosmetics and not functionality. These beams can be another great place to create a hiding place for your valuables. Make sure before you try this that the beams are not for support and are cosmetic only. You may need to get a contractor to verify that these beams are indeed for cosmetic purposes and not support of your home. If you plan on using a beam in the ceiling make user that you use the proper method of accessing it, as in a ladder and not a bucket or chair
When hiding your valuables you want to find and use places that are so common that a thief would not think of to look behind. Along each wall, in most homes are baseboards. These baseboards could make an ideal place to hide your valuables. To do this, you’ll want to pick a very small section of baseboard that can be easily pride away from the wall. When doing this makes sure that you do not leave any marks on the wall to show that this has been removed. You may need to use a utility knife to cut paint or cock that has been used to seal the baseboard. All allow the space and replace the baseboard, and there you go.
A lot of times, if you have panelling you can remove a section easily and be replaced without it being obvious that it has been removed. When doing this, you want to look for them, a small section and not a 4 x 8 piece of panelling. Look in the corners and other places, like un-regular shapes, where a smaller piece may have been used. Once you remove the panelling, if there is no sheet rock. You can actually make small shelves to hold their valuables. Remember when replacing the panelling that it lines up as it originally had.
How would you like to be able to look at your valuables without seeing them? Behind a mirror can be another great place to create a hollow place for your valuables. Most interior door of our homes are hollow. A full length mirror could be used as camouflage to hide a hole in the door that could be used to place our valuables. Although mirrors in the bathroom are larger and heavier, these can also make a great place for hiding stuff. You can even remove the built-in medicine cabinet to create yet another hiding place.
If you plan on using a contractor, be sure to check his references as he will know of your new hiding place. You could also have the contractor make multiple hiding places, so as he would not to know the true place of your valuables.
Now let’s talk about other places that renters or apartment users can use. I’m not saying that people that own their home cannot use these methods as well. The methods above all require modification of a home, and some apartments or renters would not appreciate their property being modified.
For years people have been using their furniture to hide their valuables. This can easily be accomplished by removing a piece of trim or other parts of the furniture. In fact, you could remove a drawer and tape an envelope or your valuables under the drawer or in the hole that the drawer came out of. Another great place is to turn your couch over and you could hide a box or other compartment with your valuables. Money or other documents could also be hidden in a picture frame with other pictures. Be sure to remove your valuables from your furniture before you give it away.
To give you an idea of what could be hidden in a picture frame. There is a story about a man who bought a picture at a garage sale to only learn that there was a very valuable document behind the picture. Sometime after the purchase of this picture, his daughter knocked it off the wall and the glass broke. In removing the picture from the frame, he discovered an original copy of Declaration of Independence.
We have all seen books that had been hollowed out to be used as hiding places. But a basic overlooked space is the base of the bookshelf itself. The lower shelf is generally covered with some base-molding. You can turn the shelf around and use this space to hide your valuables.
Another great place that is overlooked is a light switch or plug in your home. There are cautious that you need to take when using these places to hide valuables. Number one; make sure the power is turned off before removing the cover. Second, make sure that your valuables will not conduct electricity or short out the electrical system in your home. In fact, you can buy a dummy or fake electrical outlet to use as a hiding place.
Obviously, there are lots of places that can be used to hide your valuables. The best hiding places are the ones that someone would pass and not pay attention to or considered that valuables will be kept there. Would you think of a potted plant? Yet, a potted plant could be one of the easiest to use as a hiding place. Live or fake plants could be used. You can use a two pot method, where one pots sits on top of the other and leaves a space between the two pots that could be used. Plastic inserts can also be used to hold the actual plant that you will use and can be pulled out easily. Spacers or the valuables themselves could be placed in the bottom of the pot and let the plant rest on top.
One of the oldest, but still a great place to hide your valuables is to bury them. Make sure that you make a map where you have hidden your treasures. Make sure that a dog or kid would not try to dig there. A stepping stone could be a good spot for hiding your underground burial. Other good places might be under the doghouse or other large items in your yard, which do not get moved very often.
Remember that more people that know about your secret hiding place; the more likely it is that someone will find out. When accessing your secret hiding place, make sure that others are not around. Your home can be a great place to hide your valuables; the decision is totally up to you.
