Hide a safe in your home to protect your valuables and keep them hidden. Here are some creative ways to hide your safe:
- Underfoot: Cut out a small area of hardwood flooring, preserving the cut wood for use as the lid of the box. Build a wooden box to house your safe.
- Stash Cash in the Door: Create a super secret safe that only you know about. For this project, you’ll need one of these extra long, electrical hooks.
- Conceal in Floor or Wall Compartment: One of the best ways to secure a safe is to hide it. Look around your home and assess any obvious places to hide your safe and rule those out.
- Stairs: Modify stairs inside your home to turn one into a hidden drawer or open it. This depends on the type of stairs you have.
- Under Kitchen Cupboards: Most kitchen units are positioned a few inches off the floor, creating a small cavity underneath them. Ideal locations to place your safe in a plain sight include the closet, wall, artwork, under flooring, laundry hamper, sliding door, mattress, and air vent.
To store your smaller safe, hide it in a closet, hide it in your attic, or under your bed. Install a wall hidden safe or cylinder floor safe by bolting it to the floor. Place your safe behind a hidden door, which can replace your standard door to create a completely hidden safe.
For a DIY safe, buy or make a hollow fake rock and place it among real rocks in your garden or at the bottom of a potted plant. By using these secret storage ideas, you can keep your valuables safe and secure.
📹 7 Genius Hiding Places Around Your Home
Discover 7 epic hiding places around your house – hidden safes, book safes and more! From super easy and fast to ultra-secure, …
Where do burglars look first?
Burglars often check the office or study for valuables, including valuables like diamond necklaces. To protect your belongings, think smarter than a burglar and hide them in the most obvious places possible. Avoid leaving your door unlocked for their easy access. Instead, hide your money and jewelry in the most obvious places possible. Common places burglars first check include the entryway and basement, where they can be thorough in their search for valuable goods.
To protect your cash, jewelry, or electronics, read through safety 101 tricks and consider hiding them in the most surprising and not-so-surprising places. By following these safety 101 tricks, you can help protect your belongings and avoid potential burglars.
Where to put a safe at home?
In case of burglary, install a safe in a low-traffic or difficult-to-find area of the house, such as a coat closet or guest bedroom closet. The safe should be out of plain view and built into the house’s structure, covered with a blend-in door or cabinetry.
Fire is the second biggest threat to your home, so the most secure place to install a safe is at the corner where two outside walls meet. Keep the safe on the ground floor in multiple-level houses and within the range of a sprinkler if your home or condo has an emergency system.
In case of flooding, install the safe above ground level and construct a concrete or steel base to support it. Keep the safe at least two feet off the floor and store valuable documents, electronics, or photographs in a waterproof container for extra protection.
How do you build a secret safe room in your house?
To plan a panic room in your home, follow these steps:
- Choose a secure location for the room.
- Determine potential threats.
- Select the appropriate panic room windows and walls.
- Select a secure entry door.
- Install the necessary components.
- Create an emergency plan.
Incorporating a panic room in your existing home doesn’t necessarily mean upgrading your security. Our team can help you build a safe room using various reinforcement materials and expertise.
To build a panic room, choose a room that is easily accessible and secure. Determine potential threats, select secure walls and windows, and secure entry doors. Install the necessary components and create an emergency action plan.
What do burglars not steal?
Household furniture, especially high-quality solid wood and solid wood, is often expensive and difficult to steal. However, most furniture, such as sofas, dining tables, chairs, and bookshelves, is not easily stolen. Burglars are less prepared and prefer to steal small, valuable items like cash, purses, keys, and jewelry. These items should fit inside a bag or coat pocket without drawing attention when leaving, allowing them to steal quickly and undetected.
Is having a smart home safe?
Smart home devices collect and store information on users’ usage, habits, and preferences, making them a potential privacy risk. Each device added to the network adds a new privacy concern. To address these security threats, it is essential to consider the types of devices and their potential impact on privacy. The connected home presents various security threats, including hacking, data theft, and cyber threats.
Where do people put their safes?
Gun safes should be placed on second and third floors, while larger safes should be on the ground floor. Small safes, like Fort Knox Pistol Boxes, can be placed wherever needed. When choosing a location for a gun safe, consider the contents, frequency of access, type of safe, and weight. Convenience is key, so safes and vaults should be placed in areas close to where you’ll be using the items. For example, a safe for jewelry can be placed in a master bedroom, bathroom, or closet. Safes for guns and hobby collections can be placed in the garage, office, spare bedroom, closet, or family room, provided they’re inaccessible to children.
Be aware of the surrounding materials, as fire safes for documents perform best when placed on a cement floor or against cement walls. For important paper items like cash, stock certificates, wills, legal documents, and contracts, the garage or unfinished basement are ideal locations. By considering these factors, you can make informed decisions about where to place your gun safe in your home.
How to create secret hiding places in your home?
To create a small hidden space in a home, create a void between two walls to make the room appear as a common wall with the next door. For example, in a second-floor bathroom, one wall is the back wall and the other is inside a closet in the bedroom. The builder could have created a cutout in the hallway to this space, which can be covered with a large wall hanging or picture. A French cleat is best for holding the artwork against the wall.
Window seats can also be used to conceal long items by creating a false bottom in the seat. By flipping up the hinged window seat, you can see the additional six or eight inches of space under the bottom.
Should a home safe be hidden?
Hidden safes are a crucial tool for protecting valuables from theft and burglary. Burglaries typically occur quickly, lasting 8 to 10 minutes, with some lasting only 90 seconds. To prevent being caught, burglars aim to quickly access and exit the home. When choosing a hiding place for your safe, consider areas that require extensive searching and time. The longer it takes for a burglar to find a safe, the more likely they are to give up.
Additionally, ensure your safe is not in an obvious, difficult-to-access location. By considering these options when selecting the best hiding places for your safe, you can ensure the safety of your valuables and protect your home from potential threats.
Where not to put a safe in your house?
The garage is an unsuitable location for safes due to the prevalence of criminal activity, the risk of fire, the potential for flooding, and the extreme temperatures and humidity in Southwest Florida. In the event that a safe is to be situated within the confines of the garage, it is imperative that it be affixed to the ground via bolts, furnished with a dehumidifier, and cloaked in a concealment device. It is of the utmost importance to make an informed decision, taking into account the most significant security concerns and risks.
How to keep valuables safe at home?
To protect your valuables at home, consider hiding them in less-obvious locations such as safes, food containers, false bottom drawers, back of drawers, old paint pots, and plumbing pipes. Safes are designed to be hard to crack and heavy to lift, making them ideal for hiding. Lofts are hard-to-reach places, making them ideal for storing valuable items. To reinforce the safes, use the correct containers to protect against moisture and creepy crawlies. Investing in a home security system can further enhance the security of your valuables. Remember to use safes in areas like the kitchen, bookshelves, and lofts to ensure their safety and security.
Where should safe be kept at home?
Vastu principles suggest placing a safe box above the ground in the southwest corner of the house to prevent negative energy from entering and enhance positive energy flow. Safes can be placed on the west, southwest, or south sides of the home, but should be a few inches away from the wall. Gold and silver objects should be placed on the locker’s western or southern edges. If a southwest corner isn’t possible, a closed cabinet facing north or east can be used. The safe should face north, as it is believed to attract Kubera’s blessings and promote financial growth.
📹 Where to Hide a Safe – Best & Worst Places to Hide a Safe in Your House
Do you have a small home safe? Where is the best place to hide a safe in your home to protect it from being discovered during a …
A friend of mine ‘hid’ some gold chains and bracelets in the lining of his living room curtains. He said the weight of the gold made the curtains ‘hang better’, much like the lead weights or big coins people use to weigh down drapery. Six months later he sold the house, including the curtains and carpets in the sale and totally forgot to retrieve his £3000 worth of hidden gold. He called the buyer of his house months later, explained his predicament and asked if he could get his gold back. The buyers had took all the curtains down and donated them to a charity shop. His living room curtains were really long, old-fashioned floral things which the charity shop said probably wouldn’t sell, but they’d use them as dust sheets in their warehouse. Anyway, my friend, as a last hope, visited the charity shop and his long, ugly curtains were hanging over a rail with the other not-so-ugly curtains. He didn’t have the nerve to go searching for his hidden gold in the linings, so he bought them and took them home. Guess what…the gold chains and bracelets were still in the linings after many months. £3000 worth of! He was delighted, and relieved in equal measure! The curtains were redonated and returned to the charity shop and are to this day probably still there, gathering dust but a few ounces lighter in the metallic content.😅
After my grandpa died, my grandma gave me all his old clothes because I was about his size. I dutifully accepted them, though I had no intention of ever wearing anything. Before I took them all to a resale shop, I went through the pockets and found $300.00 in the pocket of a one-piece, powder blue Leisuresuit from the 70s. Look it up. It was fabulous! P.S. I gave the $300 to my grandma. 🙂
If you want to hide your valuables, just fill your house with mostly junk until there is nothing but junk piles with tunnels like hoarders do. Thieves will have a very challenging time finding anything valuable enough to be worth stealing amongst all the useless junk and just leave disgusted. Works for my dad, lol.
The importance of an actual safe: 1. water protection in case of a flood; 2. fire protection in case of a home fire. 3. large capacity to put in computers, cameras, not just small items. I loved your Do It Yourself wall safe with framed art in front of it! Beautiful job installing this. Again, my only concern, such a safe is not deep so I can’t put in larger items. Thanks so much, very cute ending to article!
These are all great ideas, but you are probably forgetting the most important thing – people (mostly older people) often forget where they hid their valuables. So the second tip is to always email yourself (or a trusted family member) a photo or note that can remind you/them where the valuables are hidden. Maybe set up an email folder for Important House Stuff. You hear too many stories of people accidentally donating or throwing away “useless” stuff not realizing that just gave away the family jewels.
I have two safes in my home. I keep a gun safe and a floor safe. I do live in an apartment but there are almost 2 feet of space between my floor and the ceiling below me. The beautiful aspect of keeping two safes is everybody thinks I keep my valuables in the gun safe and think that is my only safe. I do find these hiding places interesting, but the BEST way to hide something is to use deception and have people looking in spots where there is nothing at all. I will also HIGHLY disagree with that hidden key thing. I have seen people walk and kick rocks looking for them. I don’t recommend ANYBODY keep a hidden key within 50 feet of their doors!
Your hiding place under a kitchen drawer reminded me of my great-grandmother, who married her sweetheart in secret and then went to her family home to wait for a good moment to tell everyone. She thumbtacked the marriage license up inside the cupboard under the kitchen sink, where it was eventually found by a plumber.
Something you could do with the paint cans is add a heavy rock or weight in the bottom of the can and put your valuables or whatever you are hiding; then add foam padding inside to make sure if it’s accidentally moved it will feel and sound like a regular can of paint with no tin sounds from stuff bouncing around inside of it.
Quite a few years ago, we bought a large deceased estate house on a very large lot, sort of on a hill overlooking the city, that had been sitting dormant for many years. There were no traceable relatives, so the government got the proceeds from the auction. We researched the history of the home ourselves and also employed a private investigator. It had been owned by a wealthy family that had all passed away one by one. We thoroughly cleaned the house and the separate garage and began to renovate, starting by removing all the internal doors and taking them into the garage for a total stripping and refurbishing. The taller and larger than normal solid timber doors each had a very well made internal cavity ( at the top ) that contained galvanised boxes, 18” X 1½” X 24” deep, and were a very firm fit, so that if the doors were slammed, there’d be no rattle. The top covers were a tight timber inlay that had one screw at each end, which, when the screws were backed out a little, freed the cover allowing access to remove the boxes, obviously made by a true craftsman, they were barely noticeable – the screw heads were less than a ¼” wide and hidden by a timber plug. There were 15 doors and the boxes were not at all empty, most of the contents were wrapped in material to facilitate a firm fit and to prevent any rattling.
If you have lots of rocks, use one of those plant tags that identify your plants and put it next to the hidden bottle with the rock on so you know which one it is. Best place for long term is to pull up a bit of carpet at the corner, cut out a piece of the floorboard between the joists and you can then simply hide your stuff under the floor in a box, container or whatever. even if burglars gutted the place they’re extremely unlikely they’ll ever pull the carpets up. For short term, while you’re away for example, hide stuff in the washing machine with a few clothes over the top. It’s the last place they would look and one of the last things that’s likely to be stolen.
Interesting but: first, putting stuff in “empty” containers. A family member is looking for paint, finds the “empty” container, and helpfully throws it out (happened to us with some valuable stuff). Second, this is why burglars tear a place up; they figure that you have hidden stuff somewhere and just tear the place up. Worth reading: Edgar Alan Poe, “The Purloined Letter” a great short story on hiding (and finding) valuable stuff.
ALWAYS put a stash of valuables in a place commonly used (MASTER BED ROOM CLOSET). SACRIFICE a $1000 in cash, get a large CZ solitaire in a substantial ring box, put a valuable watch inside, String of pearls, sliver spoons, baby shoes, photos, altered birth certificates, make altered copies of bonds, etc. Silver coins. Go to a flea market and purchase coin collection or a stamp album. Family photos (they don’t have to be yours). Put as much in it as you have elsewhere, just faux. The best $1200 you will ever loose. In the case of a home invasion that is the space you reluctantly reveal.
If you live in a location that experiences low outside temperatures, don’t remove the insulation in an outside wall and replace it with an un-insulated wall safe unless you want to open it and find water inside (or even ice) ruining everything inside the safe due to condensation during the cold days/months of the year. It’s better to install the safe in an interior wall. And, unless it is fire resistant/proof, don’t put anything in it that you don’t want destroyed if your house burns down — use a safe-deposit box instead.
#5: When I worked in a charity shop I always checked the back and underside of any drawers even though it was supposed to be done by others. Paid off a few times, the best being over £100 in £20s in a jewellery cabinet. No way of getting back to the donor as it hadn’t been donated under a scheme we have in the UK called Gift Aid.
The hollow metal post of a chain link fence has a cap held on by friction. It can be driven off by blows applied to an upward-angled screwdriver. Then a soft drink can or plastic bottle with its top removed and a metal bail attached can be lowered down. To retrieve, a hook from a modified coat hanger can be used to snag the bail.
I found a perfect hiding place for my valuables… I know because my nephew, who has been in and out of rehab MANY times and has a rap sheet longer than Webster’s dictionary, came to visit. He knew I had some heirloom jewelry and went looking for it while I was out (it was quite obvious that he had looked). He never found it. It was in a baggie taped onto the top of the exposed duct-work in the basement (There were spiders down there!). I’ve moved since then and have it in an even better (IMO) place now.
I worked in an apartment building for many years. When we painted a place, we always removed things instead of taping and painting around them. A great hiding place was behind the stove/oven unit. We had a game going on where I would remove a medicine cabinet from the bathroom wall that fit between the wall studs. Behind it was a cavity where things could be hidden. Remove 4 screws, the mirrored cabinet came out easily. The game was to hide insulting notes, filthy pictures, someone’s car keys, with the date on it and see which one of the helpers would find it first. One time I found what I thought was a rubber glove decayed and stuck together with my name on the note. Nope, it was a several year old pile of condoms. Who the hell removes a medicine cabinet or a stove/oven unit when they rob a home?
Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! Do not put your wall safe in an insulated outside wall unless you don’t mind condensation ruining everything in it. In short, if you have to remove insulation from the wall to install the safe, you should be expecting trouble. The safe will get cold in winter and then warm, moist, indoor air will happily give up it’s moisture to the walls and contents of the safe. Even if it has a door seal; it’ll just take longer. Portable safe in an oxymoron, so don’t be a moron and use one except for fire protection.
If burglary is your main concern, you’re probably better off leaving your valuables out in plain view in the hopes that the thieves will just take them and leave. That’s what insurance is for (be sure to keep proof of what you had just in case they try to get out of paying). While insurance can pay for items stolen or destroyed, it cannot adequately compensate you for things with a more personal value (your grandmother’s antique teapot collection for example), nor will you ever truly recover from the psychological damage suffered as a result of the violation or your personal space. If a thief wants your stuff, they will get it no matter what you do to hide it. To prevent them, you may have to never leave your home, always keep a large caliber hand gun with you, and not be afraid to use it. The family of the deceased felon may want you charged with 2nd-degree murder and the jury may be dumb enough to convict you (while secretly being very happy that their neighborhood is now a safer place because of your actions). I forgot where I was going with this, but if that’s the state of society who wants to go on living anyway. Hell that got dark in a hurry.
If you really want to learn about great hiding places, ask anyone who was a pot-smoking teenager in the ’60s or ’70s. For instance, our mother found my brother’s stash hidden under his mattress. I coached him on being more imaginative, telling him that, when I was a teenager, I unscrewed the built-in intercom from the wall in my room and thumbtacked an envelope full of joints inside the drywall. “Just don’t drop it in there like I once did,” I warned him. My brother went home. The next day I got a call from our mother asking me if I knew why he immediately went to my old room and smashed a big hole in the drywall under the intercom.
Number one priority is don’t let them get into your house. Fit good quality doors and windows with strong hinges and many locking points. They don’t want to hang around to be seen forcing a door. I have no large opening windows downstairs. Fit an infra red motion detector outside with a light or alarm. Fit a burglar alarm indoors. Make things hard for them at the rear of the house by fitting tall gates and fencing. I have a lockable six foot steel vertical bar gate. Grease the top to deter them climbing over.
Omgosh…I’m totally addicted to your website. Where have you been my whole life?! ♥️ this vlog. Very clever hacks. I’ve put my spare 🗝️ under a rock, it rusted alm didn’t work and/or shifted and lost over time. But this is such a better hack. Hollowed out section of books, way more disguisable? Great article. Tfs… Blessings, L
Nice vid, but I would advise not to follow advices on how to hide precious stuff. The best way is the unconventional way. Don’t follow patterns, as this is what criminals look for. Create your own places to hide. Find unique places, that are not easy to think as hiding places and that criminals won’t have the time to check. The only good places, shown in the vid, for me were the rock with the key and maybe, just maybe the paint cans. Everything else is basically on the list of places burglars will look at. Obvious places where NOT to hide valuables (as criminals will probably check anyway): – bedrooms and esp. the bedroom’s wardrobe, – cans of food, coffee, etc. – fridge, – plants, – WC / toilet water tank (many drug dealers and addicts use this to hide their drugs), – behind paints and TVs, – book shelves and other shelves, – under beds, – under carpets and front door carpets (don’t put a key there, it’s like a Christmas gift to a criminal), – mailboxes, -etc. You must really think out of the box. Also, if you have a lot of valuables maybe it’s a good idea to use a bank’s treasury and not only to protect you from criminals. Other accidents can also pose a danger to your wealth. What if there is a fire accident and your house burns out completely, destroying your hiding place and any valuables in it? You will end up with no home AND no valuables!
Also leave out decoys, stuff that isn’t valuable but looks valuable. Buy some cheap not working laptops, or some costume jewelry and keep that in a jewelry box on the dresser and hide the good stuff, burglars are usually in a hurry and will take what they find quick. Always leave a $5 bill on the table with a note that says, ‘back in a minute, be sure to feed the dog’.
… or you can do what my first wife did many years ago. When we left the home for a few days to visit her parents, she hid all her expensive jewelry (including 1000’s of dollars of gold chains) in the pocket of crappy old coat that she figured no-one would take a second look at it. Then she forgot she had hidden them there and gave the old coat to a thrift store.
Book: No. Thieves know and they check by dumping books on floor. Plant: Maybe. Drawer: Hard NO. Thieves pull drawers out and dump on floor, checking for envelopes. Paint can: No. Rattling sound is a dead give away to a thief… Rock: Unless you have A LOT of them, no. Thieves look for the “Odd man out”. Key on a nail in deck rails, no. Multi book safe?…. Not gonna dignify. Picture safe… No. Thieves rip all pictures down… None of these would Deter, Deny, Detect a thief; Delay only for a short time…
…and when you suddenly die, most (if not all) of your treasure ends up at a Goodwill donation collection site (or the dump), where the dedicated employees will secretly thank your relatives who all pulled together to clean out your house and garage. The stuff under the floorboards, well, the new homeowner might find some of that when they do the inevitable remodel.
As a geocacher for ten years, I can assure you that gluing a rock to a pill bottle and hiding it in your garden is a terrible idea. There is no such thing as a waterproof pill bottle. They all leak and eventually whatever you put in it will be a mess. I have found thousands of pill bottle geocaches that were left outside, and they are fine for a while, but they do not last. Water seeps in, critters chew on them. Eventually they all get gross; they get wet, and ants get into them. If you really want to be sure you don’t lose your key, don’t use key locks. For thirty-five years we have used pushbutton locks and they work very well. We would never go back to key locks.
appreciate the article.. That said.. you have to distinguish between the quick and quiet burglar and the burglar that tosses your place. Many of the things mentioned here are probably fine if you are expecting a “cat burglar” that sneaks in with a flashlight and looks through your home… In reality most burglars wait until you are just leaving your house (ensuring them some time) and they literally toss your house. They pull out and flip every drawer, pull down any books on bookshelves and knock pictures off of the wall. All of that can be done in about 5 minutes in a normal sized house. And that for the most part would negate all of the hiding places except the rock outside. So I’d kind of stay away from hollowed out books, things taped to drawer backs and safes behind paintings. The rock one was very good though and I did like the paint can idea.. I’d probably put some bubble wrap or foam in it so that it doesn’t rattle.
OR … just buy an empty, already clean, paint can, swap labels with a used one you’re about to throw away, put your stuff in it, dribble some paint on the edges so it’ll look like it’s been used (make sure it’s the same color as on the label), and you’re good to go … also, buy a cheap “sacrificial” safe from Harbor Freight, put a few bricks in it, and place it out in the open where it’s easy for a burglar to steal. Then put your valuable stuff in the wall “hide a safe”.
Books, salt-/sugar-/paint cans, safe behind pictures and so on, these all are shown in movies. A rented tresor/safe in a bank is for me the best solution. If the bank really gets robbed and your safe violently opened (takes quite a time to open every safe) insurence will pay something of the value…
Thank you for taking care of your ears & wearing hearing protection while using tools! People are loosing their hearing at much younger ages these days due to not protecting their hearing when using tools, mowers, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, guns, loud motors, motorcycles, etc. Ear buds are the greatest culprit especially among young people & especially among people who listen to loud music while mowing. Protect your hearing people! Hearing aids are very expensive & not covered by insurance!!
I guess it depends on who you are trying to hide things from, if it’s a time rushed burglar many of these are going to work well. If it’s law enforcement your going to lose, with probably the exception of the pill pot and rock. If someone had been trained to search correctly and they have sufficient time all the others will be found.
Any type of “dry” product container which is usually stored in the fridge (ex. cylinder shaped panko or corn meal container) works well to conceal valuables too. Just be sure what you place inside is not affected by cold or moisture. Even if the perp goes to the fridge to grab a bite or drink, they ain’t going for the corn meal. ; )
They seriously liked the hiding things in books as they went with multiple descriptions into it. Given this new age you better be old cause most kids these days go with e-books. Heck, even I go with them cause they take ZERO space to store and I live in an efficiency. My fav hiding spot is a hug can of baked beans that had the lid taken off with one of those can openers that break the seal and just slide it in the back in front of the three real cans of baked beans. In essence ANY spot can become a hiding spot. Most crooks are not gonna ransack your pantry and if they do… I’m guessing they are seriously hurting on that note.
Top tip: Switch off the power at the mains, then unscrew a light switch or power socket on a partition wall. Attach an extra length of earth wire to the earth terminal and loop the other end. attach what you want to hide on the loop and feed it down into the wall cavity. You can safely retrieve your items any time by switching off the power, unscrewing it again and pulling the wire back up. Unless the person looking is an electrician, they are unlikely to go messing with the wiring.
If you are going to use the medicine bottle like that you have to find a way to counteract the buoyancy of the air in the bottle. One good rain and the bottle pops right out of the ground and sits on the surface. In my opinion, this is about the only viable ‘hide ‘you’ve shown as someone would have to dig up the whole yard to find it!
the first one……….. YOU DID IT WRONG you didn’t leave enough pages before you started cutting and thus, if someone picks up the book they’ll feel an indent and notice it Leave say ..50 to 100 pages before starting to cut and then leave 50 to 100 from the back that way you have an actual hiding spot IN SAYING THAT it’s a pretty weak spot, considering i knew this in 3rd grade LOL
Regarding spare keys, what’s wrong with giving a copy to the neighbours? We have always done that. In London our next door neighbour (working from home ) had our keys for 20 years. Then we moved and were planning to go away with the camper van. So we met our lovely retired new neighbours and once again they got our keys! We just moved house again last September and we had some drinks with our new neighbours. Also retired ex military. We promptly gifted them copies of our keys just in case. We have been away and they kindly keep an eye in the house. Never had any problems.
The average burgular is probably smarter in locating loot than the average person is in hiding it. That is why I store valuables in a bank safe box, except emergency cash which I keep in a second bank account known only to my daughter and me and identified in my will kept by my attorney. If you want to keep “cash” in your bank safe box, buy from a reputable dealer some gold coins that are graded and have about half their cost in gold metal and the other half as collectibility premium. Every one should have a bank safe box for important documents. Usually, there is surplus space for a few collictible coins.
My husband is a genius for coming up with this one. We have table lamps in the living room, family room and all of the bedrooms. He tilted a lamp, peeled back the cardboard/felt bottom and hid money in the base of the lamp. The sticky on the cardboard/felt kept the money secure and not likely to fall out if the lamp is ever knocked over.
I like to use the paint can idea, but I pour out the paint first. I then get a quality sealed container, a small thermos works well. I then use a quality epoxy or whatever you think works best to secure that container to the bottom of the paint can or even use a 5gal paint bucket for larger stashes. Pour paint back in leaving a significant amount so no one throws it away with it written on the container do not throw out, matching paint for whatever,ivong room or kitchen, ect. Another one for a roll of bills is to get a tube of caulking and remove the bottom of it and don’t cut the tip so it looks new. Scoop out a good amount or even better remove bottom and buy silicone ornlatex caulk and let it harden up exposed to the air. Once hardened, pull out the harden caulking and save it. Then put whatever valuables into the tube cut a few inches of the hardened caulking to reinstall in the bottom of tube and then put bottom s Al back on. Make the bottom of your bathroom vanity removable with hidden screws or magnets, also works good for kitchen cabinets. Inside shower curtain rods work well. I’ve also removed a piece of trim around a door or window and made a hidden compartment inside. This works excellent for hiding say a rifle. Pulling a tread up off a set of stairs also works very well. Buying a cheap type ceiling light is a good place as there’s usia few inches of space between it and ceiling, they are also fairly easy to access and I can’t imagine anyone taking down ceiling lights lol.
The best hiding spots are: a safe deposit box down at the bank; a large, heavy safe bolted into a floor or wall; hidden paneling or flooring in the house – Make sure a trusted family member knows about this so the house is not sold along with those items; an outdoor safe – these are nice as you can access them even if the house is sold.
I got my cash in a few ziplocks taped under my toilet back lid. That way if fire happens it’ll be OK. Before that I had it in between my towels on my towel rack cuz I was just worried about bored teenagers around here in my apartment complex,,but while at work a unit across the parking lot had a little fire so it scared me to do the toilet thang. 🙂
My dad was hiding tons of cash in old vitamin bottles and he kept them on the bottom of his nightstand. Didn’t tell my stepmother it was there, but she was told not to touch his stuff (specifically the stuff on his nightstand.) She decided to clean up his stuff…and threw out the vitamin bottles. Thousands…gone. He was so p***ed. LOL.
Hide cash under carpets and tablecloths. Even cash under your floor matts in your car. Safe way to secure cash when traveling. Also put cash in between pages in a book. Most criminals dont waste alot of time searching. Its probably a good idea to setup decoy things. Like fake gold, diamond jewelry, coins. Even a small security safe filled with junk. Small enough for them to carry off.
Money, inside ziplock bag, inside another ziplock bag, inside glass mason jar, with plastic lid that’s been painted or polyurethaned, then glued, then buried in a hole dug with a post hole digger. In case something happens to me, there is a book of riddles that only certain people know how to figure out. Anybody else will have to dig up 40 acres.
I was almost locked out of my house a few weeks ago. I had been taken by ambulance to the hospital. The person who called the ambulance locked up when they left. And while I had my pocketbook with me, I had no keys. Never even thought about it until someone gave me a ride home a few days later. I live in a quiet area and on occasion have forgotten to lock my back door. It was unlocked. If it hadn’t been, I don’t know how long I would have had to wait to get in the house. Had a spare key made, and it’s in my pocket book.
Hiding a key that will open the front door is only for the homeowner as a convenience when you lock yourself out. It is pointless to think it prevents a thief from getting in. Real thieves don’t worry about finding a hidden front door key. Instead, they would use a lock pick. It is as fast as a key is and to an observer, it happens so quickly that the observer would think the thief has a right to be there (depending on their appearance). What thieves cannot deal with is a blaring alarm and its burglar alarm control box. The first attempt is to smash them. That works in many cases, so hide what you can, such as the control panel. If you have multiple alarms, each producing a load sound, hide them but don’t block their sound. Some can be knocked off and they will quit, but some have a battery and the entire alarm can handle the shock of being knocked off. Put them out of reach as much as possible, and make sure you have some outside. Once a burglar is inside, they do not want to go back outside to try to stop an alarm. If it is mounted high enough, they will probably leave rather than take any more risks. If you live in a two-floor home, you might find that straight up from the lowest step is a great place to mount a battery-powered alarm. It would not be accessible without a ladder. When thieves cannot stop an alarm, they are not going to stick around. In a short time, the thieves will leave in a hurry, especially if they suspect police will be arriving soon. If you have hidden security cameras that load the article to the web, destroying the camera once they find it, will not remove the articles from the web, so now, there is something to show the police.
You need to setup a decoy. They sell “prop money” that looks real enough unless you look hard. Costume jewelry, gold plated coins put in collectable sleeves. Make it look like exactly what these people might be looking for. This will make them think they found what they are looking for. Even use a cheap lockbox that they can just open, see that it’s what they want, close the box, take the whole thing, and be gone.
It is never good to use ready made commercial products for hiding (books, fake plants), as they are mass produced and easily recognisable. It’s always best to use the existing objects in the environment. One of the most important caveats for hiding places which are revisited often is to be aware you leave the marks of it: multiple fingerprints, (if recent) heat signature, dust being disturbed … Hiding under the drawer is usually better that at its end. Consumer electronics and appliances usually have quite a lot of good hiding place inside.
In apartments the best place to hide anything is at the threshold of the apartment’s’ entrance. Under the floor boards, just inside the doorway, dig out into the concrete in the hallway, so that a space is made in the hallway floor but under the floor boards of the hallway. This places the items to be hidden, to be outside the apartment and cannot be legally considered to be inside the apartment, if found by the authorities. Also dig into the wall corner that is on the wall adjoining hallway and the next apartment. This also places the hidden items between apartments and in the hallway. The walls between apartments are usually cinder or cement blocks. That takes a lot of slow digging, preferably not power tools since those make a lot of noise. Or dig with power tools when someone is setting of fireworks close to the wall outside of both apartments. Also do not use hammers but instead scrape out the space slowly using elbow grease over a long time, to make a space that is just large enough to hold the items and no larger. Most cement blocks have a middle space used to place extra cement that holds the block cemented to the block below and above it. That is the place to be aimed for when digging.
I was robbed a few years ago and they smashed every single piece of pottery, threw books off the shelf and took pictures off the wall and dumped ice cube trays. Fortunately I had nothing hidden there but the damage was extensive. This was a smash and grab according to the police as I was gone less than 20 minutes!
When burglars hit a house, they will usually toss all the books (people often hide money and important papers in the pages), flip the mattresses, and put out every drawer and dump them. It is fast, easy, and often pays off. Plus they aren’t worried about a mess. Edges of carpet work for hiding small amounts of money and some papers, but you have to be sure you don’t have dampness there. A lamp stand over it hides that you can lift that. Had a thief (brother’s girlfriend) go through our parents’ house once. You could see she moved every book in the bookshelves. A couple of drawers weren’t fully closed, so she had pulled them out and checked, clearly. She hadn’t wanted to get caught, so she took more time, but she had it as she was perusal my sister’s kids there for a couple of hours. While they watched TV, she went through the house. Yes, she got caught, trying to cash in antique coins for face value at a bank.
I always check Bibles left on the free table at the town dump. Found money a couple of times. Made a mistake and told another dump shopper what I was doing and he picked up a $100 a week later. Always shake empty jewelry boxes, I have found a few pieces hidden in them. Only worth a couple of hundred dollars altogether, but that is free money that would have gone down the shute at the end of the day.
The only problem with any of these is that if a burglar, or even a kid, ran into a safe while ransacking or just randomly poking around (as kids often do), the safe would be a dead giveaway that there was something worth stealing inside, just the way a locked car glovebox is unlikely to stay in one piece if your car happens to get stolen. I’d be inclined to skip the safe and put a wood box in the wall, near the ceiling level, then cover it with thin cardboard and mud&tape the edges as if it were just another piece of drywall. Of course, that would only work if you don’t need to access the space very often.
My home was burglarized twice by the same lowlife. He pulled out all of the dresser drawers to check for items taped to the undersides. Remember that most thieves are dumb, but will look in the places mentioned online and articles like these. An important thing to keep in mind is that thieves have a certain amount of time, so if finding something takes too long, they will move on to other opportunities.
I once hid four $100 bills in the paper tube of a roll of paper towels. It was a perfecting hiding spot! And then when I finished that roll of paper towels, I dutifully tossed the empty cardboard roll into the recycle bin, where it went out on recycle day. Yep. I recycled my paper, cardboard boxes, and $400 cash. True story. I learned my $400 lesson on hiding things from myself.
long ago, when it was legal to buy krugerands….i think they were about £100 each….and i bought many, many…….so, in case I got raided by the tax man, and I, being a bit of a handyman….got on my step ladder…and drilled and chisselled out …deep ‘trenches ‘…into the tops of my house room doors……after that…never missed a night,s sleep…. appreciate any fun answers….cheers
Years ago, when I was in university, I worked for a furniture moving company. Occasionally, we would be hired to pack up an entire house for an elderly person. My co-workers told me a few times that they came across caches of cash (see what I did there?), probably squirreled away by someone who had gone through the great depression and who didn’t completely trust banks. They said that they would turn what they found over to the home owner… usually…most of it…😁
As someone who loves ideas like these, I was hurting when I saw the destruction of all those books. (Masters degree in Library Science.) But, I totally get why the books had to be cut, because those were some pretty good hiding places. Hopefully, not too many criminals are perusal these articles, though. They’ll start hitting the bookshelves as soon as they break in, if that’s the case. LOL
I would tend to think that most criminals who rob houses for a living know all the “clever” hiding places that have been posted for years. Granted, some of what you show are creative but you need hide things in locations that are inconvenient for a burglar to access. Time is their enemy and unless they have the luxury to spend hours in hour house searching for stashed valuables they will probably hastily pull all the books off shelves, pull out drawers, check behind pictures, etc. they hit the road. If you’re going to bury a spare key, don’t place it near the front door. Place it far away in an area that’s overgrown with brush. You have to be more clever than the scumbags who rob houses because, sadly, they are clever too.
My friend wanted to hide $150,000 worth of 1 ounce Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coins while he was away on a temporary 6 week assignment. He doesn’t trust bank safety deposit boxes. I suggested that we vacuum seal them in pouches and remove the upstairs toilet and place them outboard of the wax seal ring. We think his daughter’s loser ex boyfriend broke in and overturned everything in the house. But the tub caulking I put on the toilet to floor tiles remained undisturbed. The gold stayed there for another few years until he sold the house. This was not a guy to call a plumber or appliance repairman when I do it for free for him. It’s weird but it worked.
A few years before her passing, Mom asked if I wanted to go through her safe deposit box in a bank in a neighboring town. I knew nothing about this box. Inside was my childhood coin and stamp collections…which I had pretty much abandoned when I got a driver’s license. I had no idea they were still around. There was nothing of value there. Even the US Mint proof sets I thought would be a great investment 50 years ago are barely worth the $5 I paid for them. She had paid $25 annual rental for over 40 years. 😑
You’ll be glad to know that Whitney Houston is in heaven. The night before she died she sang her salvation and God said, “We’ve got her!” In the club that night the crowd begged her to sing a song. She wasn’t doing very well at the time, but said, “Ok!” She sang, Jesus Loves Me This I know. ZAP BAM. Lucifer’s plans were shattered. So be it.
The best places to hide a safe is in plain sight and NOT behind pictures. Especially a safe that can be broken with a screwdriver. The safe in my home I told someone the room it was in but they gave up looking for it. In my previous home I had a brilliant location that I could point to and one person could not identify or access it. The police tell me don’t hide a safe in the master bedroom, that’s the first place they look and walk-in robes, that’s the second. Why? Because that’s where everyone puts them and the thieves know that. BTW, most safes under $600 can be broken into in 90 secs with just a screwdriver. Even $1,000 safes only take a battery grinder and two or three minutes. The only secure safes are floor safes with concrete on 5 sides and an expensive safe door. That safe takes a locksmith with a magnetic drill and lots of new sharp drill bits. I’m not sure how they open them through the hole.
Mine is bolted to the floor in the garage, right by the door. Would be the easiest thing in the world to reach if they knew it was there. But it is hidden by lawn bags, yard tools, a mower, etc. Best part about it, the fire-rated safe would be easy to access if the house was damaged in a fire or destroyed in a tornado. I keep all of my precious valuables in there: Pokémon cards, discount coupons to Chuck-E-Cheese, everything.
After being the victim of multiple burglaries Rodney Dangerfield left a note on his door that read ” Dear burglar, I am home.” When Dangerfield returned home he saw that he had been burglarized again. Inside, Dangerfield found a note from the burglar which said, “Where the hell were you? I looked all over your house!”
Another practical idea is to just leave 60 bucks out on the bedstand or the kitchen table, to give the thief a reason to be satisfied enough to leave. having multiple safes is also a good idea, but dont put rocks or dumb stuff in it, or the thief might come back to find the real stuff, or just do some damage as payback. don’t make yourself memorable to a thief, you have way more to lose than them.
I like the idea of leaving a safe in a common place to be rousted, but to fill it with lead, and heat it enough to get it to become one solid block that the thief cannot open even with a prybar. They can either abandon it, or take the pain and effort of carting it while dreaming it’s full of gold. I also like the concept of having a gps transmitter attached to it, and set off by a wire that breaks when the safe is moved. That way the thieves might even get caught with the stolen paperweight.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s, I had a truck driving job in Brisbane, Queensland, delivering groceries to small, owner-operated supermarkets. Burglar alarms weren’t all that common back then, so grocery stores were often broken into and the most popular item stolen wasn’t money, but cigarettes. One store owner I knew told me how he tried everything to secure his stocks of tobacco and cigarettes, but all to no avail. He tried hiding them in behind stacks of unopened stock and in a lock-up cage, but they always found a way to steal them. Finally, he appealed to the stupidity of the average bone head burglar and hid the smokes in plain sight. Every night at closing time, he gathered all of the packets of cigarettes and put them in an empty Kellog’s Corn Flakes carton. Then he would put that carton in a corner of his store room where he used to throw all of his empty cartons and cover it with said empty cartons. For a while, he was still broken into, but for the most part, very little was stolen. After a while, the super-stupid crims gave up and left him alone! It’s not as good as a safe, but if it works, who cares?
Slightly off topic, the ROTC at a school I used to go to had a house on Fraternity Row. The social frats didn’t like them being there and harassed them. About the only thing of value they had was a stereo. The speakers were bolted down, so the recievers kept disappearing. One of them got the bright idea to cut a hole in the table and stick a flash-bang under there. It destroyed the table and the cheap reciever, put a dent in the ceiling and broke the windows in the front room. There was a litteral trail of fecal matter leading out the door. Nobody messed with them again.
The 3 most ingeniously hidden safes this old Plumber has seen- Basement wall safe with a sheet of plywood leaned in front of it. A false panel in a closet, that shortened the entire end wall of the closet- held in place by magnets, it used a small finger hole to pop it open to expose the safe. A 30 gallon galvanized trashcan, complete with a trash bag hanging out from under the lid- The can had a floor safe in it, and was poured full of concrete.
Been in intelligence, cybersecurity and real physical security for much of my career. Not much to do with residential, really, but one technique I’ve always looked at as legitimate is “security through obscurity.” Security should be built up in layers, but this can be one of them. The three legs of a security breach are “means, motive and opportunity.” For a residential burglary, the means and motive are moot points – the bad guy is already in the house, bent on evil deeds. The opportunity is the safe, if it can be located. Given enough time, even Ft. Knox could be breached. So it would seem that two viable options, given the time constraint as the article describes, are to either make the safe impenetrable for that long, or make it hard to find. Hard to find is cheaper and probably just as effective – hence the “security through obscurity” buzzwords. Hide it where they won’t look for it, or where, if they do see it, they won’t recognize it for what it is. One other thought – a poorly designed safe and or location for it can be worse than no safe at all. If things were spread out around your house, the thief might find some of them, but probably not all. The safe, on the other hand, provides a nice little central location and a single place for the thief to find all your valuables – all that is required is to compromise a single point of failure…
I had a house that was built by a huge builder. At that time, they built them in a month. The only way for them to do this quickly was to cut corners especially in finish work. One day I was standing on a tall step ladder trying to condense stuff in the kitchen cabinets. The orientation of the cabinets on the 2 walls, was that they joined on the corner leaving one cabinet with space that was difficult to reach on the one side. As I was stuffing plastic cups into the difficult space I noticed that they did not bother to seal the one side that joined the other cabinet. At first I was pissed how cheap the builder was, but then…my brain started to look at the area completely hidden as a hiding place for a pretty good amount of stuff. Not only would someone not see it unless they were on a ladder but it was open to drop down things about 12 inches.
Good article…I want to add that burglars will TOSS an ENTIRE apartment or house..it will look like a tornado hit, looking for everything. They will find the safe even in the box marked misc…make the safe hard for them to take it and with an alarm system notifying you (I have a ring alarm motion detector in mine, it will notify my phone immediately upon someone moving or entering it, my small safe is also bolted down so it should give me enough time to get home or in time for the police to respond) This advice coming from an Officer.
Since I take an average of three burglary reports every day, I just shook my head through the whole article…until you got to the pantry. THAT was a good idea. Because they’ll take food out of your fridge, but they won’t steal your rice and cereal. Also, bolt those safes down, because they will just walk off with them and worry about opening them later. The most important tip, though, is DO NOT TELL ANYONE where your safe is. NO ONE, because you don’t know anyone as well as you think you do.
I hide my small safes inside of trash cans. They are covered with a bag filled with non-perishable stuff like papers and empty food packaging to make them look like trash cans in use in case someone looks inside. Each of them are bolted to the floor for good measure. You could do something similar with your pantry spot. Hide the small safe inside of a disguise box, such as the Classic Mix chip box in your pantry. You could take it to a higher level of disguise with a bit of crafting and box selection.
As a security risk consultant most residential needs start with a wall safe about 3″ deep for light cash, back up supply of medicines, checkbook and day to day jewelry. I prefer a touch tone keypad type with a mechanical key override in the event of electronics failure. This is important especially if you have contractors in the house, maids, etc. It should be at a very convenient chest height and ease of walk up and use, not buried as people won’t use it if it’s not convenient. If there is a walk in closet, that may be best. Behind the in-swinging door to the master bedroom is another. I won’t put any electronic safe in bath rooms where the steam from a shower can corrode the mechanism. The second safe like a large cube for valuable contents is wise but it must be hard anchored. A safe that can be picked up or pried up is a fools joke for security. Keep in mind people don’t want to crawl on their hands and knees, so it must be for infrequent needs. Wealth clients who want a rated cube safe should elevate the unit to chest height access and I always recommend a lit area and a shelf next to the safe for ease of use. In some cases a true floor safe is hidden in the basement for metals and cash (not something that will deteriorate as there can be higher humidity). All contents of a floor safe should be in heavy zip,lock bags. There are ways to absorb moisture with moisture bags. For nonnegotiable papers non valuables, a fire rated file cabinet is preferred to preserve longevity. Peoples needs vary and wealthy individuals and those known to be crypto trading are targets and should consult with reliable security professionals.
In my last house, I personally built a closet into a secret wall . When my house was burgularized, they never found it . I also always put a large lock, with tape wrapped around the shakle, thru the ejection port of my pump shotgun, when I leave the house . That way, its unlikely that I ll get shot with my own gun if I walk in on a robbery . That was the only valuable that the thief actually stole . They found the shotgun, still locked, in an abandoned house about a year later .
I don’t own a safe but keep my valuables in concealment furniture… not anything a thief would recognize unless they are know a thing or two about antiques. As a DIYer, I can see myself crafting a secret spot in a well thought-out cat tree. If I were able to do a floor safe, I’d probably put it under a litter box or the dog crate. I like the box of junk idea.
Instead of a heavy safe, why not cut a heating floor vent into any room on the second floor, and install a fake heating register. In a carpeted room, cut the narrow carpet out, then cut the narrow hole into the plywood floor. Shove your valuables into that fake vent hole, then conceal it with a fake heating register (type with louvers where heat would otherwise come through. I never did this, but I might someday.
Some very good tips here. I really like the empty box over the safe trick. Hiding a safe under a sink is clever and I agree that most criminals won’t look there. My only concern is leaking gray water or broken pipes. Clean up would be impossible and water damage to safe contents is a real possibility.
We never had a safe when I was a child (I don’t have one now either) but when I was a child the attic was converted into an extra bedroom. A carpenter built floor to ceiling shelves at one end to fit the sloping sides and at the top at either end he fitted a secret compartment. You wouldn’t realise unless you knew how to open them. There weren’t ever any valuables in it, it was just something fun we could hide small toys in.
I think under a sink would be a decent place to hide a safe from a burglar, but I’ve had enough plumbing issues with homes I’ve lived in that I don’t think I’d want to deal with the potential moisture issues and having plumbers coming into my home and seeing where I’ve hid my safe. Makes sense to keep things out of the master bedroom and bath though.
I mean, the first place I thought of was a laundry room base cabinet, so I suspect a clever enough thief might toss a laundry room or a pantry. But now we’re just banking on whether a thief is smart, and if he thinks he’s going to find money in MY possession he’s probably not playing with a well-used deck.
I keep some cash and costume jewelry in plain site on my dresser so they don’t have to work too hard and self defense items are well hidden around the house but easily accessible to me if I need one. Course my shepherds are more than happy to greet them first. Don’t know why but shepherds, which are the sweetest dogs in the world, really scare people.
Fill the entire house with safes. They can’t take all of them, and they won’t know which one is the real one. – plus fill the fake ones with spiders. Or, you could put all your valuables inside an ET doll, and then put that in the closet surrounded by other dolls. No-one ever sees ET hiding among the stuffed animals. Just don’t put it in the master closet, unless it’s inside a safe.
I was a silver stacker for some time. One of the best ideas I ever heard of was you take your bullion and put it in sealed sleeves (they have that) and drop them in old half used paint cans in the garage. NOBODY is going to grab old paint cans in the garage – no need for a safe at all and IMO actually more foolproof to thieves.