Do you hide money, jewelry, common every day items?
Are you good at finding unusual hiding spots?
Do you sometimes forget where those hiding spots are ?
Should you make a list of those too secret hiding spots just in case?
Of course the question where do you keep the top secret hiding spot list and who gets access to the top secret hiding spot list?
I think I am genetically related to the common squirrel. I hide things and like the squirrels every once in awhile I find those hiding spots.
One I thought it would be a good idea to hide $3.000 in hundred dollar bills . That’s the emergency money stash. I worked 2 back to back double shifts decided to count the money I had been saving for a couple of years. I hmm… where’s a really good hiding spot? Then I remembered I had this unabridged hardback dictionary that had a lot of pages and was real heavy. I’ll randomly put half of the there. Then I’ll hide the other half in random pictures where you pull out the backs and there’s cardboard and paper I’ll stick the other half of the money all over the house in my favorite pictures in $300.00 increments.
Fast forward 4 years later playing a game of scrabble. This is before cellphones. You Know the friend who’s brain analyzes every word before playing to get the highest count word but isn’t a very good speller? So I challenged her word. She says “get the dictionary.”
She gives me the “are serious look?” I said yep. She’s looking up the word, she says “I found a hundred dollars.” She starts looking through the pages and says " there’s hundred dollar bills all through the pages." That’s when I finally remembered where I hid the emergency money! For 2 years I looked for that money. I remembered where the picture money was. I still have it in the pictures.
I also remembered thinking I should get rid of that giant dictionary nobody uses it cause it was to heavy and everyone has cell phones. I still have that dictionary.
Over the years I have creatively stashed money and jewelry. I also know why there a change shortage. I have saved my change, (not the pennies) since I was 25 years old and never spent it. I was going to cash it in but I keep saving it.
The big potted plants, the heavy ones nobody wants to move. They make very good hiding spots. Buy a real big pretty pot and grow tree’s to decorate the patio. I now a shaded tree covered patio.
I probably should make a list and keep it with my will. Do you keep a list of your secret hiding spots or tell someone where the spots are?
I’ve heard that hiding spots tend to be as far from the front door as possible. I don’t know how true that is, however. A guy who did time once told me that hiding things in plain sight was the way to go, but I sure can’t figure out how that works.
Exactly WHO are you hiding it FROM? If you are hiding it from burglars, wouldn’t the bank be a better idea? If you’re hiding it from yourself, to prevent spending it, then I’d suggest actually giving it to a trusted friend or relative, and they’ll watch it for you. That way, you definitely won’t be able to spend it on a whim, and it (probably) won’t get lost either.
The way your dad looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He’d be damned if any slopes gonna put their greasy yellow hands on his boy’s birthright, so he hid it, in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass.
I’ve heard some people say that when taking care of their parent’s estate, they had to leaf through all the books to make sure there wasn’t anything hidden inside. It probably happens a lot that people put stuff in books and forget. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard a story of someone finding money in a Goodwill book as well. Stashing stuff behind framed pictures is also a thing that people forget about. I’ve heard that movers will check the undersides of drawers to see if anyone has taped an envelope of cash there.
I don’t have any money or jewelry stashes. When I have to hide something like Christmas presents, I put them in a random box in the storage room. I figure my heirs will look through all those boxes anyway, so no need to mention that in my will. But it might be a good idea to have something in your will like “look through the pages of the books and in the plants” to make sure that stuff gets found.
Not an intentional hiding spot, but my grandmother would get out a purse or coat that she hadn’t used for a while, and would find money. Usually just a 20 dollar bill, but sometimes it would have friends.
The only reason I have money stashed at home is to make sure that I have some cash for whatever reason. Otherwise, there are banks to hold money.
And this year, because the old Swiss money got phased out, I had to go replace all my stashed money. I hope I got it all, because after October 2021 I can’t even spend it at the train station or the post office. I’ll have to take it back to the Swiss National Bank.
Places I have cash:
Drawer next to the front door. Used for paying customs fees on packages, so there’s a mix of different coins and bills.
Cedar cigar box, which also holds the spare keys for the apartment. Yes, it’s near my jewelry box.
Box on top of husband’s dresser holds the passports and other currencies.
None of them are hidden. But if I wanted to hide something, I wouldn’t use books. I would never remember which book was hiding something.
Considering how many DVDs and CDs we have, I could use one of them. Anybody want to watch “Money Pit” or listen to “Money for Nothing”?
I had drinks years ago with a convicted burglar who had many interesting things to tell me. The ones that stuck with me:
If the front of your home looks well secured, unless you have been specifically targeted, he will ignore your place and pick an easier target.
Never be the only house on the street with the bin out during the day.
Nearly everyone hides their valuables in the bedroom or the kitchen.
It drives him crazy when he sees movies where people rifle the drawers from the top down. You always start at the bottom so that you don’t have to waste time closing one drawer to look in the next. You are in a hurry. And people love to hide things in the bottom drawers.
One of my husband’s uncles used to stash money in coffee cans and bury them in various places on his farm. My MIL (the uncle’s sister) is pretty sure his kids dug up and stole the money when he was dying. Yeah, real nice the way they treat their widowed mother… I honestly don’t understand this mindset.
We don’t have hiding places because we hardly have any cash on hand. I suppose we’ll be in trouble if suddenly our plastic doesn’t work. And we don’t have any valuables to speak of. My meager jewelry collection is mostly costume-grade - not a diamond to be found. Never really a need for a secret stash.
When my son was a teenager, he hid paraphernalia in the air vent in the ceiling of his room. After he had moved out, I was taking the cover off that vent to clean it and the stuff fell out on my head. My husband was in the next room, so I just kicked it under the bed to avoid an unpleasant conversation.
I haven’t had reason to hide things for years (no cash or valuables in this house), but as a teenager I had a pretty clever place to hide my diary, maybe one of you can reuse the idea. You need a set of modular furniture where you build a bookcase or cupboards by stacking cubes on top of each other. From the front it looks like one big wall of furniture, but if you reach from the back, there may be a gap between the modules large enough to place a notebook. Or a wad of cash.
An idea I read in a book, but never had reason to use, is installing a decoy pipe in your kitchen or bathroom. It should look like it emerges from a wall and disappears into the other wall/floor/ceiling. It helps if you have other exposed pipes nearby. It will never occur to anyone to dismantle your plumbing and the valuables will be safe in pretty much plain sight.
I agree; what’s the point of hiding money if you forget where it is? I keep a thousand or so in a fireproof safe, mostly in case I’m not able to get to an ATM or there’s an emergency. It used to be in hundred-dollar bills but I thought about it and converted it to twenty-dollar bills since they’re more widely accepted.
Back in college in the 70s, a friend of mine used to hide his dope in a slot he had routed out of the top of a wooden door. The space was about 1"x4"x18" and it held baggies very nicely.
A current friend of mine keeps a couple handguns in the pockets of jackets in his coat closet. I was surprised at how you really needed to take the jacket off of the hanger to be able to tell there was anything at all in the pocket.
Another friend keeps a cash stash in one of those fake receptacles you can cut into the wall. The challenge for him was to find a location that didn’t look odd, since most receptacles are pretty evenly spaced around a room. He put it in a room where a piece of furniture blocked the real outlet. He even added one of those plug-in air fresheners to it, though it obviously doesn’t warm up like it would in a real receptacle.
Only things I really need to hide are Christmas presents every year. My dresser and closet are too obvious so I try to find places out in the open. Our kitchen cabinets are pretty tall so I usually get a step stool when no ones home and hide them behind stuff on the top shelf.
One time I read an article in a gun/survivalist magazine about the best ways to bury weapons on your property to prevent Demoncrat agents from showing up to confiscate them.
Some ideas were ingenious although of doubtful utility. There was at least one instance of a weapon being hidden so well that the owner couldn’t find it again.*
So where do Dopers hide their emergency house key outdoors in case of being locked out? I promise not to tell anyone (mine is not under the doormat).
*I have hopes of finding such buried treasure when digging up garden beds at the new place, but so far all I’ve unearthed are huge 100-year-old bricks from house construction.
hmm… where’s a really good hiding spot? Then I remembered I had this unabridged hardback dictionary that had a lot of pages and was real heavy. I’ll randomly put half of the there. Then I’ll hide the other half in random pictures where you pull out the backs and there’s cardboard and paper I’ll stick the other half of the money all over the house in my favorite pictures in $300.00 increments.