This article has been generously contributed for your reading pleasure by Bill Rounds of HowToVanish.com .
We all have important documents that we need to keep track of. Lots of us have some things that are very expensive or even priceless that we never want to lose. You need to hide valuables somewhere. Storing these items can be tricky if we want to make sure that they aren’t lost, stolen, or confiscated. If you hire someone else to hold on to them for you, you add an extra layer of risk that they won’t keep their promise. A family Bible and old family photos are almost value-less in a damage calculation in a lawsuit. Here are some of the 3 best ways to discreetly hide your valuables at your own house.
Safe deposit boxes are a horrible place to keep your valuables. They have been known to be raided, and the contents sold due to nothing more than clerical errors, without informing the owners.
Keeping valuables under your mattress or in some other easy hiding place in your house is not a good idea either. Visitors might stumble upon your stash, burglars can find it pretty easily, even a search warrant could easily expose your hiding place.
Some private vaults have a better reputation than most banks when it comes to anonymously and securely storing valuables. There are even some offshore options if you want better asset protection. You still have to trust a third party to honor the agreement and protect your stuff. Most vaulting companies will limit their liability in their storage agreement to hide valuables.
There are some at home options to hide valuables that involve third parties that still might be worth exploring. You could have a safe installed in your home. If you hire a contractor, you are taking the risk of sharing the existence and location of the safe with a third party, even if it is a hidden safe. If you go the cheap route and install a regular safe yourself, a burglar might find it, un-install it, and crack it later at their secret lair.
Here are some alternatives that you can use to protect your stuff yourself and hide valuables at home.
1. Book Safe
Hiding in plain sight is a great way to throw off anyone who might be looking for your valuable documents or items. One of the most popular ways to hide valuables is using a book safe. They are easy and fun to make.
If you have gone paperless and don’t have many physical books anymore, you can use any object that you can mix in with others to hide your stuff. Hollowing out a Kindle seems a bit expensive, but maybe you can convert a box of Corn Flakes into a safe and stick it in your pantry, make a few hollow Christmas decorations and stuff them full of your precious coins and a copy of your will and stick them in the huge box with all of the other Christmas decorations. You can really use your imagination on this one.
2. Hidden Wall Compartment
Most homes are built with wood framing and drywall. This leaves a space about 15′ wide and 4′ deep and a few feet high between between wall studs and drywall. Poke a hole in the wall big enough to put your fire proof and water proof container with your priceless artwork and gold nuggets in between the walls. Most people have the skills to follow a simple do-it-yourself book on how to fix the hole in the drywall. A patch kit, some plaster and paint will cost you very little. Just remember that you can’t take these things in and out of the wall without breaking a new hole.
If you doubt your wall patching ability, you might choose a spot where the hole will be covered by a large appliance, or in some other spot where people won’t easily find it. The more creative the spot to hide valuables, the less likely it will be for someone else to find it, if they even know it exists.
If you are really handy, you might be able to build out a new wall to create more space or even a small room. Be careful whenever you are poking holes in the wall because there might be wires, pipes, and other surprises waiting.
3. Buried Treasure
If you are still not comfortable poking holes in your walls, you can pick up a shovel and play pirate with buried treasure. Use a solid, waterproof container to hold your valuables and bury them in the yard somewhere. To make it easier to locate later, put a clear landmark on top of it like a large rock or plant a bush. You can easily integrate that into your regular landscaping plans.
Be careful before you dig to check with the local authorities for any buried electrical, sewer, gas or water lines. Hitting one of those with a shovel is not as much fun as finding buried treasure.
Protecting your stuff on your own property can be practical, but it has the added benefit of letting you use your creativity. The more creative you get to hide valuables, the better it will probably be hidden. The only bad thing is you can’t show off your creativity to the neighbors.
This article has been generously contributed for your reading pleasure by Bill Rounds of HowToVanish.com .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Bill Rounds, J.D. is a California attorney. He holds a degree in Accounting from the University of Utah and a law degree from California Western School of Law. He practices civil litigation, domestic and foreign business entity formation and transactions, criminal defense and privacy law. He is a strong advocate of personal and financial freedom and civil liberties. This is merely one article of 80 by Bill Rounds J.D..
Sourced via: Lew Rockwell , The Daily Crux
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Old paint cans in garage
freezer…..in frozen spinach bag
inside hollow-core door
sewn inside sofa or pillows or mattress
under cat litter in box!! In cat litter bag (who would look there?)
Inside stuffed animals in kids’ room (criminals are less likely to search children’s rooms)
Inside the hollow posts for chain link fences…
I’m on a roll…
Hiding valuables at home: Â Â just make sure that it’s fire proof small safe.
Exceptions are outside buried in pvc.  A small  safe must be hidden, maybe  in a kids toy basket covered with toys , or behind plumbing under a hot tub, behind stacks of canned food, etc.  Any more ideas on small safe hiding places?
Greetings All –
The British government recently closed and then searched the safe deposit boxes in five large PRIVATE safe deposit box institutions. These were not banks chartered by the government. The holders of these boxes had to prove that the contents of their boxes belonged to them and that the funds used to purchase the jewlery, coins, etc. inside the boxes were not the profits of a criminal activity. How do you prove that grandpa honestly earned and paid the taxes on the money that he used to buy grandma’s necklace that you inherited from your parents? Can’t do it? You loose it and the government gets it!!!
DON’T EVER PUT ANYTHING INTO A SAFE DEPOSIT BOX THAT YOU EVER REALLY EXPECT TO SEE AGAIN OR MIGHT POSSIBLY NEEDÂ TO GET YOUR HANDS ONÂ IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT OR ON THE WEEKEND!
I would like to recomend a book to all who post on this site. It’s called Secret Rooms Secret Compartments by Jerry Dzindzeleta. Google it; it’s still available and in print, available for < $20 US. It shows you how to think ‘outside-the-box’ and create your own ‘hidey-hole’ based on your own situation.
If they can’t find it ……. then they can’t steal it or confiscate it.
God Bless & good luck to all.
I’m new. I just give it up to my man because I want laid often & well. I let him handle everything. Guys know the answer to this best. Notice there aren’t any other guys on this post yet.
Comments….. What MadMarkie said. There’s plenty of places to hide stuff around your house, just stop and think about it. The freezer is the first place burglars look for money. Burglars go for the easiest places–like a nightstand in the master bedroom to look for guns. When they broke into my mothers house, they didn’t find her money – she had too much stuff for them to take time to look. LOL!Â
Comments….. I prefer a good 5 gallon bucket buried on the property. With the good sealing , 0-ring type lids, these buckets are water proof , and inexpensive. Just make sure someone trusted knows the location in case of death.
   Also, a good grade of gun safe works pretty good. One of these behemouths, bolted to a cement floor is a pretty good deterent to theft. The average burgular can’t get into it, and can’t haul it off without a lot of trouble. The only downside, is that they might come back and make you open it at gunpoint.
   Just get creative, and do some research. good luck.
Crawl spaces and attics. Sealed in plastic at the bottom of the compost bin. Under the dog house.
I discovered a cool spot… in one bedroom there is a metal access panel to the drainpans of both a shower and a bathtub (those two bathrooms are plumbed next to each other. When I want to stash something, I use a philips head screwdriver and hide my booty within, wrapped in plastic.
I also like deep recesses of attic insulation near metal pipes.
How about the bottom of a junk pile in the garage?
The LAST place you hide anything is your bedroom.
One fake heat radiator, or within the outdoor unit of an airconditioning system. (both should not work).
Inside a piece of gorgonzola cheese, which smells like 10 dead cats.
Manos
False walls and concrete vaults
Comments…..The whole safe thing has always been a thought of mine. However, as previously stated I feel it may be inviting for a crook to attemt a gun point approach. They would catch hell for most households but I have read horror stories of this. Think outside the box and I’m sure you’ll come up with great ideas.
Get one of those small, wimpy lock boxes and put a few silver coins and some expired or worthless, but official looking, documents in there. Put it under or in your night stand or under your bed. If you do get robbed the robbers will think they hit the jackpot and stop searching further. Bury your real valuables on your property.
I used to use this all the time for my ‘stash’ when I lived with my parents: Stereo speakers! Just remove the woofer, usually 4 screws, lots of room, easy to get at too. Not sure if a thief would bother with big old speakers. (Do not put video/audio tapes or floppy discs because of the magnet on the driver)
Isn’t anyone afraid of fire and potential loss of ALL valuables?
The first time I was robbed, unfortunately it was too many at my old address, they opened all the kitchen cabinets looking for valuables. So I wouldn’t advise storing valuables there. And write down the serial numbers on all your electronics when your first buy them, as well as keep the receipt so that you can show the insurance company proof of purchase.
use a 12 x 16 louvered heater vent in the wall. Â Cut out the sheet rock the size of the heater vent. Â Insert your valuables. Â Screw heater vent back on wall.
first you need to know why a crook would taget your home in the first place? is it remote, easy access, nice cars?
then look at enterance points…windows, doors, ect.
crooks will not break into a home unless they think:
A) no one will see them
B) there is something valuable there
c) the valuble can be taken in short time and sold for money.
as to “raids” by law. No raid can be carried out without a search warrent of which the items they are looking for must be listed on the warrent. And why would they be raiding you? for canned food. Doubtful even a full blown meltdown.
the persons to steal from your will be:
A) people you know who have access to your home and know what you have.
B) stranger breaking a window of a car if they see a purse or valable at easy access.
c) stranger breaking into home if they deem it worthy of thier time and effort.
Out of the possiblities 90% of the time things are stolen by friends or family memebers who are visiting you. Usually what is tolen would be:
electronics, like cameras or MP players
tools – major biggie is tools
petty cash
DVD’s, CD’s, ect.
Hiding things in concealment safes are okay. but if someone knows you have something they will look for it.
the best defense is to look like your have nothing to hide to begin with.
A lot of awesome idea here folks.
excellent comments..
last night i watched on history channel tv the house search of the  home kenny christiansen (a “d. b. cooper” suspect). they used an infra-red scanner and found an empty box in the attic asbestos insulation while standing in the room below.
this scanning device, with the additional potential use of metal detectors creates (in my opinion) a whole new dimension to hiding metallic items.
in other words if you’re going to securely hide coins they must be within a metallic container that appears to be a natural part of the environment
Buy a small lockbox and take the back off your washer and dryer. Screw the box into the washer and/or frame where it won’t interfere with the inner workings. Put your papers and stuff in the box(es) and then put the covers back on and push them back into place. Do this when no one is around especially your children.
I leave a couple of bucks sitting on the cabinet just inside the front door right in plain sight. It’s the first thing I see when I walk in and if they are gone I’m outa there. Another idea I haven’t tried but if you are really worried put a couple of buck in plain sight and have a clip on the end of them perhaps covered by something. Connect an alarm circuit to the two sides of the clip so that when the bills are pulled out the clip goes together making contact and setting off the alarm. Obviously the alarm should be set up so that once it is set off you cannot shut it off by simply sticking something between the clip. Â
With the portable back-scatter X-ray technology now available, (and will become more prevailent as this government goes ape shit) the only secure location for valuables and essentials is under ground. For once old Mushroom has his shit straight.
how about a nice dog staring them down…AKITA
Melt all your gold coins and ingots, etc. down into one massive, square block that NOBODY will be able to lift – much less carry off! Use it as the base of a coffee table. When the need arises, just cut a chip off the gold block! 🙂 Even when Uncle Sam confiscates gold (again), he won’t be able to remove it. Just to be doubly sure, paint it walnut brown before he arrives and he’ll never know. 😮
PS The good thing about this method is that you’ll be getting some practical use out of your gold (while waiting for TSTHTF) – and you’ll be able to see it and enjoy it every day. 🙂
PPS If you’re short gold, make a hollow, leaden block – put your valuables inside and put a lid on it! Works just as well and is A LOT cheaper. 😉
Well… How about spreading things around just a bit. The patriot act, executive orders, prisons freeing occupants is not what one wants for securing wealth. Who will get your stuff? The good guys or the bad guys? These are very good incentives to locate valuables some where in secure locations other than where you live. Keeping in mind what Ole Ben Franklin said “Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead” Not saying that death is a requirement but I think you get the point here. Houses and properties are not the safe havens that most think they are. Comprehensive planning will work for those willing to take the effort. Best wishes……
I forgot to mention it, but if you live in a tent city, the woods or under a highway overpass, the “gold block” solution is probably not for you! In fact, I doubt if you’re reading this. There’s a hidden blessing in having “nothing left to lose” – relatively speaking. Of course, those people who have already dropped out of the “rat race” (and into a rat hole), have to worry about where to hide their next meal! Is anybody keeping track of the homeless? 😮
Why don’t we put those homeless people into some of those (millions) empty homes? After all, the banks who “own” most of them have been bailed out with the people’s money, right!? Who’s running this place (into the ground) -Â anyhow???
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting “MAD as hell” – and I don’t think I can take much more anymore! 😮 I wonder how all those tent city dwellers and those 43,000,000 Americans on Food Stamps feel???
Is our Federal Gov’t paying attention to what’s happening in Tunisia?
And some of those hungry 43,000,000 and homeless Americans have GUNS, I bet. Is there a modern-day Spartacus lurking under a highway somewhere, cleaning his gun barrel and stocking up ammo? I fear that somewhere out there in the future, lies a straw, just waiting to be picked up by some clueless (or evil) Federal Government official (like Bernanke) and put on the camel’s back!
Have a nice weekend, everyone – while they last! 😉
You are scaring the hell out of “us”.
The modern American residence is designed for easy access. Ifn you want to harden your home unless you have technical expertise and top shelf DIY skills you are royally fooked.
However, 3M has  a product line it invented. It’s top of the line product is called ScotchShield. It’s the same window security film to prevent smash and grab thefts that jewelry stores and banks use. Cheap it ain’t but it is an order of magnitude better than the generic big box discounter competing products. Makes yer windows less vulnerable.
Thank you for the good ideas I hadn’t thought of. Sorry I won’t share mine. Why? Because likely some of the people we’d be hiding our valuables from are on here taking notes. When you post your good idea you educate them too.
OPSEC is our best defense. That and having made the decision you will meet force with force to protect what’s yours.
Bill Hutson, then the incumbent City of Boulder, (CO) Â facilities director was tasked with finding what material would make their proposed new courthouse as proof against attack as possible. Ballistic and thermal attack. He discovered from firing various rounds at various barriers that a sandwich composed of a foot of concrete between two slices of 2″ OSB stopped anything a civilian could throw. If it’s a professional military firing RPG’s we’re SOL.
Personally I’d prefer building granite about a meter thick all around. Proof against ballistics and fire but prohibitively heavy. Â As Rawles is fond to observe, “mass is your friend.”
Rule #1:  Don’t make it easy to get in to your home.
Solid doors that lock well, good hardware installed properly, long screws into door frames and the like. Â Ensure the bad guys cannot get in through an open window. Â Use the above-mentioned security film on your windows. Â These things go not only for your home, but for your tool sheds as well. Â Far too many homes have been entered by burglars who found what they needed to get in lying out in the yard.
Illuminate your home at night. Â This is a safety thing as much as anything else.
If you have a safe, ensure it cannot simply be removed by a burglar and cracked elsewhere at their leisure.  Anyone just looking for quick cash will be too busy taking anything not nailed down in the 6-12 minutes they have to bother with the safe bolted to the closet floor, and it’s not worth their skin to come back.
DON’T LEAVE KEYS AROUND.  If you do, the risk is lessened greatly, and suddenly it might just be worth their skin to come back, particularly if they scored big otherwise.
Most simple hides you can imagine will be found by a burglar.  Most any hide can be found given time and equipment by law enforcement if they know what they’re looking for and are sure you’ve got it on the premises.  And none of this is going to help for the people you let into your home who know who you are, what you’ve got, and where and how you keep it.
Barking dogs will NOT alert neighbors to a burglary in progress.  If your dog barks, then your neighbors will tune it out, because they’re already used to doing so.
The best, and really only effective solution is to avoid doing the things that make you an easy target, and to avoid looking like you’d be a better choice to rob than your neighbor who has windows wide open, calls in contract workers on a regular basis, and has conveniently left his ladder sitting outside his unlocked tool shed.
Am I the only one here who thinks a book safe is the first thing of the sort I’d look for, if I were so inclined?
@ GodSend –
You have some interesting and very valid observations. Once the numbers of the unemployed, poor, homeless & hungry grows large enough ……. society, as we currently know it, is going to dinintegerate.
While our government is ‘pissing-money-away’, money that we don’t have, around the world on stupid wars and foreign aid to others …….. our own citizens here at home are suffering and our infastructure is falling down around our ears.
Interesting times are upon us.
Comments….. a note about the scotch shield product by 3-m. I had this product installed on my windows. The thermal advantage is a plus, but the security factor is what I had it installed for. It’s not cheap, but is probablly better than burglar bars. They also have a better product that they use on municipal buildings. it will withstand bomb blasts, probably overload for a residence, but you never know.  This stuff is great to prevent smash and grab. a burglar would have to beat out the window frame before he could get in.
   Anyway, the window film might be a good addition to an entire program of hardening the entire house.
Comments….. hiding place possibility–perhaps inside childrens stuffed animals or dolls? I have seen some childrens’ rooms with literally scores of dolls and stuffed animals laying on the floor. it would be doubtfull that a burglar would carry out a stuffed animal or toy out the door as stolen booty.
MadMarkie
The TRAGEDY is that this is being done INTENTIONALLY! As the movie says: “There will be blood!” THEY want America to disintegrate – that’s why we MUST make sure THEY are the FIRST to hang when TSHTF!
I would not hide anything in my house that would cause a person to want to break in and take my life.  I would only hide papers and perhaps the budget money but certainly not a lot of money or gold and silver. Almost all of the home invasions you see on TV are committed by people who know the victim has something valuable to steal. Don’t make yourself a target. As for dogs they are great for keeping the nieghborhood teenage drug user from breaking into your house but they won’t stop someone who really wants to get in. Dogs can be tricked and killed easily. They are a good idea but not failsafe.
Dogs were cited as the number one reason that a burglar would pass up your house. Â So, even if you have a dog, Â make sure you have snot smear lines across every window. Â Generally, Â the higher the snot smear, Â the larger the dog will appear to any would be robber.
NRA used to provide stickers for doors and windows that said  ”  The owner of this property is armed.  There is nothing in here worth risking your life”   I have them on all my entrances.
Put a sign up on your neigbors yard that says “I’m a liberal & don’t believe in guns.” They will go for his house first.
I have to agree with you GoneWithTheWind. There is big trouble at our door steps and the time to take action is now. I have a big to do list that I keep hammering away on. It takes time, but each day that I work toward these ends, the better we will be prepared for the un certain. Think for yourselves and run through your plans.
Lots of good ideas here for hiding”things”….now my question is…has you personally given any thought to hiding something much more valueable than “any-thing”?
I am refering to people,say a family member who shot up a goonsquad that was pillaging the area,or a family that you wanted to help out in hiding from the bloodhounds after their souls for whatever…maybe even you yourself having offended the powers that be and wanting to lay low for a spell.
Im just asking the question to get people to think about it… ….PLEASE DONTÂ EVEN THINK ABOUT SHARINGÂ YOUR PLANS OR IDEAS ONLINE…. just keep those to yourself and those who need to know….understand,we dont want to educate/inform the wrong people …now do we?Â
Its just something to chew on if you if you havent considered it. Thanks!
Comments…..Be very careful with your choice of food/drink product packages in which to hide valuables. When our home was robbed, the guys who did it not only took valuables, but they also took food items from both the pantry and the refrigerator!Â
Food, water, first aid kits, firearms & ammunition stored in 4 different zip codes. Three of whitch are owned by me.
Favorite cache type: Electical panel, fake, of course. Just crossed my mind there is space in the bottom of my real ones too. Great post, now you’ve got me thinking.
I’m in an apartment, wish I wasn’t, but I am. Can’t do anything to alter the walls due to it would be a lease violation and worried about some lunatic breaking in and always worried about fire. How would I best protect and store my silver I am starting to accumulate?
As an apartment dweller there are still things you can do. Drill into bottom of bedpost and seal with a cork or plug of your choice. Into bottom of your LazyBoy. In a heating duct; push the package way back with heavy monofilament fishing line attached, and tape the end of the line into corner of the duct work with duct tape. Into the access panel of your washer/dryer. Under the used cat litter in the cat box. Taped to the back of the toilet tank.  Take off a hollowcore  interior door and drill a hole into the bottom and plug it after deposting your stuff.  The list of ideas is almost endless. Just walk around and think.
lostinmissouri , letting people know you have firearms is a bad idea. they could just break in when they know you not home and have a field day. make them think you have nothing worth taking.