Ways to Hide Your Valuables - Breathing Space Blog

Advice from Bottom Line/Personal, January 15, 2007, still useful:

Kevin Coffey with Corporate Travel Safety says “Most burglars like to get in and out of homes quickly. They will focus on closets and drawers and under mattresses. Their favorite targets include cash, jewelry, checkbooks, credit cards, handguns, cameras and laptop computers.

The safest place to keep valuables is in a safe-deposit box or a safe built into the wall or the floor of your home. If you decide to use another location, let a trusted relative know about your hiding spot or put a note in your safe-deposit box describing the location. Otherwise, your valuables could be lost if you pass away or forget where they’re hidden.”

DO-IT-YOURSELF “SAFES”

These hiding spots will take a bit more time and effort to construct. They might be worth the trouble if you have basic carpentry skills and you keep a significant amount of valuables in your home. Some are best for small items, such as jewelry. Others can hide larger items, such as a laptop computer.

Posts of a poster bed. The tops of the bedposts usually unscrew. Take the tops off, drill down into the wood posts to create hiding spaces for valuables (be careful not to drill into the grooves where the top screws in).

Fake pipe, vent or electrical outlet. Add an unnecessary pipe or duct among the real pipes and ducts in your attic, basement, laundry room or kitchen, and store valuables inside. This pipe or duct should look as if it is part of the home’s plumbing or heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.

Or use a phony electrical outlet or vent to provide access to valuables hidden in the wall. The fake outlet or vent should match the color and style of the real outlets or vents in your home.

Below a bookcase. The lowest shelf of a wooden bookcase often is a few inches above the floor. Turn the space below into a hiding area large enough for even a laptop computer by cutting a secret door into the wood facing.