Ten Creative Ways to Hide Your Valuables

Safety deposit boxes at banks aren’t the only place you can store your precious items. By keeping your valuables at home, rather than a bank, you have access to them anytime you like. To most people safeguarding their jewelry and other valuables amounts to hiding them at the back of a drawer or under their bed and hoping that nobody finds them. In this article you’ll learn ten ways to safely secure your treasured items against even the most wily thief.

The following ten ideas are divided into two types: the first five are for those who own their own home as there’s a bit of construction needed. The last five can be effectively used by anyone who lives in an apartment or rents.

1: WALLS

– The walls of most homes are hollow which means that you can, essentially, use any wall in any room of your house as a hiding place.

– Ideally you want your hiding space to be behind an item that is fixed in place and solid. Coat racks and the boards running along closet walls would be excellent candidates.

– Once you’ve decided which area of your home is suitable for the task of hiding your valuables you can get started. Simply remove the attachment (closet board, coat rack, etc) and hollow out a compartment.

– Be sure to leave the area looking as it did before you started. If it’s obvious work has been done then your secret stash will no longer be secret.

2. Ceiling and Wall Beams

– In some construction the beams that make up the walls and ceilings are exposed for aesthetic purposes.

– Find one of the beams that is a “false” beam (one that offers little or no actual support and is there instead just to look nice). Loosen the beam, hollow it out if necessary and place your jewelry, money and other valuables inside. Replace the beam and nobody will be the wiser.

3. Baseboards

– Baseboards make excellent hidden compartments because most people don’t pay any attention to them at all, which is just what you want. They’re also easy to access should you need to retrieve what you’ve hidden behind them.

– Find a room in your home that has a baseboard with a short section to it. Pry the baseboard away from the wall carefully. If your baseboard is painted to the wall just run a razor blade along the top edge to cut through the paint before prying the baseboard from the wall.

– Hollow out a small opening behind the baseboard and place your valuable items inside.

– Replace the baseboard. If you have furniture you can place in front of it to help camouflage it even more you can do so for a little more protection.

4. Wall Panels

– This idea is great for storing larger items.

– Paneling on walls usually comes in two types: boards nailed individually to the wall and sheets of wood in 4×8 foot sections nailed or glued to the wall.

– If you have wood paneling made up of individual boards you can pry loose a few boards in an inconspicuous area and hollow out an area behind them.

– Be sure to leave enough wall at the top and bottom to nail the boards back.

5. Full Length Mirror

– If you need a compartment with a little depth but a lot of room to it but you don’t want to use a wall of your house you can, instead, use any hollow doors you may have.

– Cut out a small section of a hollow door. Mount a full length mirror over the hallow using a sliding mount.

– When complete the mirror should look natural on the door and when you need to get to your valuables you simply slide the mirror to the side.

6. Furniture

– Furniture has long been a favorite hiding place and for good reason, it works.

– The easiest way to turn a piece of furniture into a secret compartment is to find a bit of trim or molding on a table or desk and loosen it. Often times such elements are added to furniture to cover natural hollows in the construction of the piece so you’ll have a ready made hiding place. You can also hollow out the area on your own.

– Depending on what you’re hiding you may be able to hollow out a leg of a chair or table and hide things such as coins or documents inside.

7. Bookcases

– Most bookcases do not sit directly on the floor. The lowest shelf normally has a small molding just below it. If you loosen this molding you’ll have the entire length and width of the bookcase to hide things in.

8. Plants

– If what you’re hiding isn’t something you’ll need often but you want to keep close at hand you can conceal it inside the pot of a plant.

– Place your valuables in plastic and then place them in the bottom of a pot. Fill the pot with some dirt and place a plant in it. You now have a decorative plant and your valuables are safe inside the pot with no one the wiser.

9. Light Switches

– There’s generally a small bit of room behind a light switch which can be used to store various valuables.

– Be sure your electricity is shut off before you remove the light switch.

– It’s probably safest to not store anything metallic which could cause a short circuit.

10. Bury It

– The oldest method there is. It’s also one of the most secure. Caches of Roman coins are still found in England where people had buried them almost 2000 years ago.

– When you bury your treasure be sure you create an accurate map so that you can find it again.

– Handheld GPS devices are cheap. Take one with you and write down the GPS coordinates and you want even have to draw a map.