So you want to hide some valuable items and make sure that someone other than you will never find them.
When it comes to concealing valuables, it’s extremely important to find an uncommon hiding spot. It’s especially true if you try to hide money or jewelry.
I know from experience that burglars and other unauthorized persons will find what they’re looking for unless you take the appropriate precautions.
The very first and most important step of hiding valuables is to avoid the common and therefore the least secure places.
Those are the ones that most burglars know about: if you choose any of them, in case of a burglary you can probably say goodbye to your precious stuff forever.
And now, without further ado, let’s check out what are the worst places to hide your valuables:
1. Drawers: the Least Secure Places
For some mysterious reason, many people believe that their valuables are safe deep in a drawer. If you’re one of them, you should know that in most cases burglars look for cash and jewels in the drawers first. Keeping important documents and identity papers in an easily accessible drawer is equally a bad idea (think of the increasing number of identity thefts).
So drawers are not a safe choice, to say the least. In fact, they’re the worst places you can use to conceal valuable stuff in your house. You want to avoid all kinds of drawers, including dressers and office drawers (never hide any valuable item among socks or underwear).
What to do instead?
If you want to keep your treasures in a drawer, you don’t have to completely give up on your idea: by creating a false bottom, a drawer can be a pretty good hiding spot. This way you can trick most intruders while keeping your valuables at hand.
Here’s how you can do a false bottom drawer yourself:
2. Closets: One of the Worst Places
A closet is another thing that attracts a burglar’s attention. While it may seem a good idea to hide some jewelry, money, or even your crypto seed phrase among the clothes or in the packet of a pair of trousers, it takes very little time to check and throw all the clothes out of a closet.
Keep in mind that closets and drawers are one of the hiding spots burglars look first.
What is a better solution?
If you still prefer to hide your valuables in your closet, you can conceal them behind a mirror or use hidden locks to reduce the chance of an unauthorized person gaining access to them.
3. Under the Bed
Most burglars start searching in the bedroom. Many people store at least some of their valuables in the bedroom under the bed in the hope that thieves won’t bend down to check if there are some precious items.
The bad news is that the area under the bed is one of the places robbers will take a look at. And yes, they will check the content of all the containers they find there. They do this for a good reason: more often than not the boxes under beds contain jewels, watches, and cash.
Long story short, the area under the bed is definitely a bad hiding spot.
4. Freezer or Fridge
While hiding some cash or other valuables in the freezer (or fridge) may not be the worst idea, it’s a pretty common hiding spot, and most burglars are well aware of this fact.
However, if you have a large refrigerator, you can fool thieves by hiding the valuable item in a food bag or something else that doesn’t stand out from the usual content of a fridge.
What you don’t want is to just throw your precious items into the refrigerator without any packaging that seems legit. This way the burglars just have to open the fridge door to notice that there’s something out of place.
5. Toilet Tank
Decades ago toilet tanks were great hiding places, however, nowadays too many people know about them. The thing is that those who use the toilet tank as a hiding spot, believe that only a few people think of the same thing. Don’t make this mistake.
The reality is that toilet tanks are so popular that thieves rarely fail to check them. Moreover, toilet tanks are usually easily accessible, and removing the tank lid is a matter of seconds.
6. Under the Mattress
Keeping some cash under the mattress is not uncommon in most households. Everybody knows it’s not a safe place, but it’s such a convenient solution that many of us are still hiding something there. Believe me, it’s one of the worst places.
Never keep valuable items or too much cash under the mattress. It’s definitely a bad hiding spot.
How to make it better (instead of worse)?
A more secure alternative could be keeping your treasures inside the mattress, however, that’s not ideal either.
7. Backpack and Suitcase
Most people have at least one backpack (or suitcase) at home. When it’s not in use, it may seem to be a great idea to hide some precious items inside.
The truth is, suitcases and backpacks are one of the hiding places burglars look first.
A safer solution:
If you still want to conceal your valuables in your backpack or suitcase, you should keep them in a secret and hidden place, for instance in the attic. That’s where burglars rarely spend any time.
8. Laundry Basket
Someone might think that burglars won’t rummage through the entire laundry, instead, they head straight up to the common, less “disgusting” and more promising places.
They couldn’t be further from the truth.
Laundry baskets have always been a common target of intruders and valuables hidden in them can be found in no time. Also, there’s a risk that you (or someone else) forget about the concealed stuff and put it in the washing machine along with the laundry.
Therefore, a laundry basket is definitely a place where you don’t want to hide any of your valuables.
9. Vases, Pots, and Bookshelves
Empty vases and pots are among the worst hiding places given the fact that they are simple containers with an open top. Thus they’re pretty convenient for keeping some money and other valuables but not secure at all.
They’re easy to spot and even easier to check what’s inside.
If you have countless vases and store valuable items inside just one of them, some burglars might miss checking the one with the items, but it’s still not a recommended form of concealing any precious stuff.
Hiding smaller items in the soil (of a real or fake plant) could be a safer alternative, however, you must wrap them well and keep in mind that some objects are prone to oxidation in a humid environment.
You also want to avoid bookshelves: they’re way too common hiding places.
10. In a Safe In Plain Sight
In general, keeping money and other valuable items in a safe is considered to be a secure solution. But when done wrong, it may do more harm than good.
A safe always attracts the attention of thieves. It means there’s something valuable inside.
Fixing and location are important. You have to be careful where you keep your safe. If it’s in plain sight and not fixed, the temptation is too great for the burglars to take it with them.
If you use a safe, make sure it’s either immobile or well hidden. If you’re on a budget, you can also use a portable diversion safe. Choose one that blends into the environment in your home.
In case you want to conceal a safe, make sure you also check out the best uncommon secret places here.
11. Cereal Boxes and Cans In the Kitchen and Pantry
Many burglars have realized that more often than not they can find some highly precious items in the kitchens and pantries.
People hide all kinds of stuff in empty cereal boxes and cans thinking that they’re safe and uncommon places.
I’ve got bad news: food containers are awful hiding spots.
It’s especially true if you use just the empty container without any food. If an experienced thief gets into your house, you can almost certainly say goodbye to whatever (watch, jewels, cash, gold coins, electronics, passwords, etc.) you’re hiding there.
+ 1: In the Oven
If you’re wondering if an unused stove would be a good place to hide some stuff, ask yourself the question: how time-consuming and complicated is it to open an oven?
The next question is: do burglars check ovens when they break into a house? The answer is sometimes they do. While this idea might work in certain cases, I wouldn’t consider hiding flammable things in the oven a safe move: chances are good that either you or a family member will end up baking the precious items (or setting fire to the kitchen).
Summary
There are many places in a house (or apartment) where you can safely hide your valuables but you must avoid the common ones that everyone and his brother knows about.
Knowing where not to hide valuable items and avoiding the worst places will make your job so much easier when trying to conceal something important. When you think you’ve found a hiding spot that seems great, just open an incognito tab in your browser and search for it: if there are a ton of results, you are probably better off avoiding that place.
Photos: MTSRider18, BrokenSphere via Wikimedia Commons
