It wouldn't be a secret if I told. :)

Aside from hiding the electronics, the hidden bookcase and the hide-a-key, these all seem like a lot of trouble to go through (and, in the case of behind-the-picture ones, a little cliched) to hide something. I would imagine most burglars want to be in and out as quick as possible. Just throwing a box behind a bunch of junk in the back of a closet probably does just as good a job.

Of course, when you sell your place and the next buyers check the top of the closet door for some reason, they'll have a nice surprise you forgot about :)

99 dollars for the lettuce! Buy another lock for your door. I'm sure AT is required reading for burglars.

Anything that I want to hide in my house, goes into empty tampon boxes under my bathroom sink. Well, you asked.

@kaz - my good friend was recently robbed and they took HOURS going through everything. The police suspect he (she?) was there for the entire time my friend was at work. Besides the small appliances and electronics, pharmaceuticals, and clothing they also got away with all banking documents, spare house and car keys, spare garage remote, simply EVERYTHING.

They probably took the lettuce too.

I'm now thinking that banking documents and spare keys should have a really good hiding place.

Love it, Borealis. LOVE it (tampon box idea).

HOW is the couch a DIY?

Having had two of my houses broken into, I can attest that burglars can take their time to go through your belongings. In both cases, there was simply no spot in the house, hidden or not, that had not been checked for valuables. Every shelf, every drawer, every stack of clothes and linens (side note - try not to think about a stranger having touched every single item you own), every cabinet, every box. They can do it very fast and if they are professionals and not just your friendly neighborhood crackhead, they are familiar with hiding spots.

I have a trustworthy alarm system with a security guard service. Should anyone break in, they wouldn't have too much time to go through the house and worry about missing the secret spots.

I have a great place to hide stuff but I am not telling. =p

I made a hollowed out book for a friend's pre-teen. It's funny how delighted kids are with secrets. http://www.smallvictory.us/everything/2011/12/30/the-clue-of-the-dancing-puppet.html

I also use the empty tampon box in my bathroom closet. My boyfriend wont go near it so I figure neither will thieves

now I'm no burglar, but your super random FRAMED photo of Beck would make me go, wth is this? and I would probably find your secret hiding spot. Your love for Beck, however, now that's no secret...

toe kick of kitchen cabinets can be removed, re-fasten velcro or magnets are good for removeability. extra plumbing lines in a plumbing chase are good, accessible inside the panels of your jacuzzi tub, or the access panel to interior plumbing cavities. if you have kids, put old paperwork in boxes in the attic labeled with kids name Art age x-y with a few pieces on top. if you have central heat, fake air duct is also a good stash spot. dont try with a real air duct, it will impede flow and lesse life of machinery. fake outlets in the walls are also good.

FYI, lots of burglars use metal detectors to find stashes of gold jewelry. I was shocked to find this out recently. The detectors are small and can distinguish between metals. I also learned that burglars who are in more of a hurry stick to the living room and master bedroom, but don't tend to go into kids' rooms because they are such a mess. When we go out, we put our laptop in our kid's room (which IS a mess). I also have heard that they will overturn bookshelves, figuring any stash will fall out, and that they do the same in kitchens.

A word of caution: Be very careful that anything used to hide valuables in won't be given away or thrown away by others. Just last week I bought a lovely vintage purse at a garage sale. When cleaning the lining I found a valuable ring tucked in there, no doubt for safe keeping. The family was delighted when I returned with the ring (karma, man), and it really made me think about where I put what.

Our alarm system (even in our low-crime area) gives me peace of mind.

I've hidden things and totally forgot where I hid them. Now I write my hiding places down in a notebook. Where would be a good place to hide the notebook?

,I wonder where burglars hide their valuables when they're at work?

Ha, my mother has this issue. Once she nicely ironed a bunch of tablecloths and carefully hung them up in her own closet. A few months later she tore the linen closet apart looking for them and was convinced someone broke in and stole them. They were eventually located after a fair amount of eye-rolling from my dad over tablecloth burglars.

I was home sick. I left for doctor at noon and police think burglar entered then. Made so much noise smashing a window that everyone who heard it assumed it was construction. At 4:30 my husband arrived home to find burglar who had emptied pretty well everything in house (yes fridge, flour, medicines, everything). My husband chased him (bad idea, but it was adrenalin) After several blocks burglar freaked and threw his backpack with all the stuff at my husband. Unfortunately for him it also had his own wallet. He never found our hiding place which was a piece of molding only attached by magnets. However, our house was a complete disaster (imagine flour and cough syrup on antique table) and I never felt safe there again.
PS I love the tablecloth story!!

I don't have any valuables to hide, and my paperwork is so disorganized inside five different boxes, it would be amazing if a burglar found anything worth taking. :/

@VancGard - "...and I never felt safe there again."

That is one of the hardest things to replace unfortunately.

Well, these posts have me feeling old. Coming up from the phone shoe generation, it's refreshing to see AT step away from the predictability of chevrons and "my-century" copies for a nanosecond. Of course these projects won't fool most pros, but is that the whole point? Burglars aside, I hope there's a kid out there whose just found a project to hide a diary or a mushy note from a first girlfriend (well, perhaps printed from an email or text before deleting...?)

Were Max and 99 around today, they'd call this stuff FUN. Kudos to AT for showcasing a little creativity and nostalgic humor!

I'm excited about some fun projects with the kid - thanks for the post. I learned a lot from the comments too thank you for sharing.

my thoughts exactly!

I love the book idea for the young ones or even teens. I might do this as Christmas gifts next year as we are obligated to home-made gifts so this is a great idea!

I had forgotten that the toe kicks in my kitchen were removable... so thanks for that reminder, fixitchick!

I've read that Southern Bells hid their jewelry in the holes of the posts of their 4 post beds during the civil war. I don't have a four poster but it does make me rethink my furniture and areas that might be available for hiding things. I don't have much to hide but it might work for spare keys or Grandma rings....as long as I dont forget it myself.

And as always, a shredder goes a long way.

I really like the old medicine cabinet covered by a pic idea.

The water heater in your apartment is a sneaky place to hide emergency spare cash. Wrap fresh bills (easier to hide) inside foil. Then place it underneath the insulated foam tubing which you can buy at any hardware store. Wrap the tubing back around the hot and cold pipe lines.

Viola, you have a stash of cold & hot cash for emergencies.

I had a relative systematically steal from me for the better part of a year. They were very careful at first about taking small things that could have easily been misplaced...but it escalated to the point that things were obviously taken. They had broken out a panel to a locked storage room in the house and we only realized when they forgot to replace the panel.

Long story short, if you have something a thief wants bad enough...they will find a way to get it.

I like pic 1 and 4,I used to hide my cash inside a wool ball :) it worked

Jphg,

Viola could also mean the music instrument. That obviously not being what they mean, they could still start a new trend.
Le fait que le verbe violer au passé simple vous vienne à l'ésprit comme ça me dit que vous êtes fracophone. Ça m'a fait marrer. Bonne journée à vous.

Like many have posted, a determined professional thief will likely find anything of value. That said, many break-ins are thefts of opportunity, and the perpetrator does want to get in and get out as quick as possible. Good use of misdirection can make a huge difference in what they find and what they don't.

I run StashVault.com, one of the sites linked to in this article. I profile a lot of different ways to conceal and secure valuables. It's true, many products like hollow books and stash cans, are used mainly for novelty. However, I do know people that use them for legit reasons. I know surfers that keep valuables in a crappy hollow book in the car while they're out at the beach, for example. Vehicles have been broken into, and they didn't find/take the boring book with wallet and phone inside. When looking for small diversion safe solutions, my favorite is the electrical outlet wall safe. They are cheap, easy to install, and when placed in an inconspicuous spot, they would be a very unlikely spot for any thief to inspect.

When considering any method of deception, it's important to think about the environment where it will be placed. A Campbell's soup can in the bedroom will draw attention. On the other hand, a hide-a-key rock or a planter with a secret compartment can likely go unnoticed in the right flower bed or rock garden. For hiding valuables in the house, remember misdirection can be used in other ways. Placing a "ringer" stash can take pressure of your main safe and valuables. I've seen cheap wall safes installed and filled with old passports and paperwork, maybe a worthless/broken gun, a couple hundred in cash, some old keys, and an envelope with a list of things that "are in a bank safe deposit box", to make the thief think he hit the main stash in the house, and deter further inspection.

Be smart about storing your goods. If you can acquire a substantial safe for your valuables, do it. Bank safe deposit boxes also work well for a lot of purposes. Alarm systems are huge deterrents for thieves. Spend some time looking at your home, and you're likely to find unique spaces where you can safely hide jewelry and paperwork. You just may have to get creative.

okay maybe I'm the only one who checked out the iceberg lettuce safe...but they mention using it when you travel? really?

i read in the papers about an elderly japanese woman who hid her life savings inside her old mattress. Her daughter threw the old mattress away one day while cleaning the house, not knowing there were money inside.

whereever you hide things, make sure no family member will think its rubbish and throw it while you are on holiday or something.

My hideaway is under my sofa - I stashed a dishwasher! no one knows there is a working appliance under their tush.....http://www.320squarefoothome.com/2012/08/sometimes-good-things-happen-to-bad.html#comment-form