At age 74 it’s a bad idea to hide things. Hell, I can’t even find things that are in plain sight.
Last time we hid something, it was the key to the fire safe when we went on a month’s RV trip to the American Southwest. When we next had occasion to access the safe, we had no idea what we had done with the key. We searched “everywhere” and then had to call a locksmith to open it up. Many moons later we were looking for an appropriate greeting card for someone and found the key in a box of Georgia O’Keeffe cards. See, it made sense at the time, as the Georgia O’Keeffe museum is in Santa Fe and we planned to visit it.
My ex had a relative that squirreled money all over the house like that. I never met her, so I have no idea if she remembered where it all was, but my ex’s aunt and grandmother would talk about it from time to time. Clearing out her house and having to leaf through every single book, every magazine, unfold every blanket and towel. They even found a big china set with each piece of silverware individually wrapped, many with money in them. I don’t remember how much money they found, but it must have been significant enough to warrant all the time they spent on it.
When I was a teenager, I had a dresser in my room that instead of a flat bottom or being on 4 legs, it had a 3 sided facade about two inches high. I could reach behind it and keep stuff there. I put my weed in there.
I also taped a fork, tines out, behind my headboard. I had a pencil case with a string attached to it that I hang over the fork…I put my weed in there too.
One of my favorite spots that worked absolutely perfectly (hard to find, easy to access) was above the door frame/trim on the inside of a closet.
I also had a big radio/tape deck/CD player/ record player in my room. I took the screws out of the top that held the turntable/tonearm mechanism out. It still worked just fine, but I could lift the whole top off and had access to a pretty large hiding spot.
But, getting back to the OP. Yeah, a safe or a the bank, depending on who you’re trying to protect the money from. A small drop safe with the key in an inconvenient spot might work well.
This thread got me thinking of places I could hide stuff, were I so inclined. I think one of the easiest would be in the bottom of the bucket where we keep the dog food. It’s a 5-gallon bucket with a lid - I could put a plastic container with cash (or whatever) in the bottom, then dump the bag of dog food on top. Can’t imagine someone would go beyond opening the lid and seeing kibbles. We’ve got a covered cat box - I suppose I could attach something inside the lid out of sight. Or there’s my pottery studio in the basement - lots of hidey-spots there.
We’ve also got 3 outbuildings - a garden shed, my husband’s workshop, and another shed for storage and the compressors. Way too many places for a quick search.
Heck, as infrequently as I iron, I could slip an envelope full of cash under the ironing board cover. Or in one of the pockets in one of the suitcases in the closet in the basement.
We knew my grandfather, who lived through the Depression, hid money. Unfortunately, he could not tell us where. After he died, it was a big game of hide and seek. Some gold coins were found in a velvet bag tucked into the coils behind the fridge, an envelope of cash was taped high above in the laundry chute, and in the garage he would roll paper cash / stack coins in the middle of his jars of screws / nuts / bolts so from the outside nothing looked off. I’m sure we missed stuff.
I used to have a Dressy Bessy doll. Actually, I think it’s still around here, somewhere. In high school it was the best place to stash stuff. My mom would comment how weird it was that I still had that “damn doll” on my bookshelf. If she ever decided to have a look, I’d have been grounded for life.
When my daughter was young, I hid XMas presents in the old school covered wicker laundry hampers. The one intended for her to use. She never knew.
I use an empty frozen vegetable box, in the freezer. Never much in there, but some jewelry and some cash in zip lock bags, then into an empty broccoli or frozen peas box.
When my mother died many years ago, my brother and I went to make sense of what was in her house. Stuff…lots and lots of stuff. Not hoarder like, but just a LOT. We found many softball sized balls of aluminum foil and just tossed them into the trash. We were taking a break and eating pizza and my brother picked up one ball that missed the trash bag and unraveled it. Yep, money…He then ran outside and brought all the trash bags back. Each ball had some money…some just a couple of 20s but others had a few hundred dollars. I really don’t remember the total, but we felt it was our pay for the mess we had to go through.
This sort of thing is why I think it’s a bad idea to hide money around the house. Your survivors are already going to be busy clearing your house; why add to the burden? Or if they don’t find the money, it ends up going to a stranger, or is lost forever. Just keep most of your money in a bank.
Figurines make good hiding spots. You can easily stash a few bills underneath it.
Something like this on a window sill. It wouldn’t be unusual to find two twenties, a ten and five under it. Money for pizza delivery or paying the yard guy.
I need cash, I can’t always be running to the bank; there is often a 20 minute wait in the drive thru line before the weekend. I need cash ($10’s and $20’s) to pay the lawn guy, the pizza delivery, to give to someone to run out and get me food, some grocery item, to gas up my car. The money is in a decorative box on a shelf with other inexpensive knick-knacks, in plain sight in the living room, not very clever, I know, but few people visit and no one knows…I have a front door key in a fake lawn sprinkler container I ordered online, hidden in the grass behind a tree. I check on it every so often, it is not at all obvious.
This might not be such a good idea. There are a number of online articles indicating that burglars are well aware of freezer hiding places. I suppose if you stuffed jewelry deep into a large bag of frozen peas it would be harder to find.
A friend lives in a town with many Chinese and Indian families, who are known for keeping jewelry and cash at home. So some of these homes have been broken into and from what I was told, the burglars know some of the tricks, like hiding the jewelry in the rice canister on the counter, so they’ll bring a metal detector, or they’ll just dump out the canisters. In short, you may not be as clever as you think.
Thanks, that is a great idea. The jewelry has more sentimental value than monetary value. The cash is just small bills in case of a blackout or some reason that I need some cash that I can’t get easily.
If I recall correctly, Tony Soprano hid guns and cash in the duck feed bin.
For protection against casual burglars, what do people think about the hollowed-out books? I use one and worry the concept may be a little obvious, but I have a LOT of books.
Also, this may be insane but I keep a few hundred right out in the open. My hope is that a burglar might think “YAY PROBLEM SOLVED NOW I CAN BUY METH” and just split after taking that.
I have a can of Barbasol shaving cream that’s actually a hiding place. You unscrew the bottom of the can and put your secret stuff in there. It’s like what Newman used in Jurassic Park.
On second thought, it isn’t quite like that. Newman’s Barbasol can actually squirted shaving cream; mine doesn’t. This is possibly a design flaw. Why would anyone have an empty shaving cream can sitting around? Probably something fishy going on there!
When my dad died we found out he had been squirrling $100 bills all around the house. I guess he was doing it to take care of my mom after he died. Would have been nice if he’d metioned it before.
A number of books have been written on the subject of caching. Most experts on the subject recommend storing guns, survival gear, etc. in large PVC pipes (e.g. 5 ft length and 10 inches in diameter). Put the items in the pipe along with some desiccant, then cement endcaps onto each end.
If you bury them horizontally then you don’t have to dig a deep hole. However, it also means it will be easier for the “authorities” to find it using metal detectors. So the best method is to bury it vertically. Of course, it’s still possible for the authorities to find it using metal detectors, so it’s also recommended you “poison” the area with metal junk (car parts, etc.). That way they’ll think it’s an old junk pile and will move on.
When I was 10, my mother inherited an home from an elderly man up the street that she cared for. He was quite clearly mentally unstable and had been a hoarder for decades. We rented several dumpsters to clean out the mess. In the midst of it, for no other reason than I was 10, I started hitting the drop ceiling tiles with a broom. When I hit one, something started rolling around in the ceiling. It was a jar with 37 $100 bills inside. At 10, $3,700 was more money than had ever existed. In all likelihood we missed a lot more and the new owners of the home got some nice surprises. So, from a positive side, its unlikely a robber would have ever found it. On the negative, its equally likely that anyone that was intended to find it would have.
