Recently I saw where someone had posted a request looking for ideas for hiding valuables around the house. The responses she got back made me decide I needed to post my own response in a whole separate post.
Everyone of the responses that she got back were good ones, until you sat down and gave it a little thought. For one thing, every one of them were places I have seen in the news before where thieves have looked and found valuables in homes. For another thing, and to me even worse, what if the house burns down or is flooded out? Every one of the places that were posted such as inside books (one woman had several thousands of dollars in them!), in canning or other jars, in the hamper, and fake wall sockets, among others. Can you imagine what would have happened to any of these homes if there had been a fire? Every bit of their well-hidden valuables and cash would have been totally lost!
I have a better solution. I keep several fire and water safe boxes in my home. One is a large one for larger size valuables, although I make sure I don't have many of those. In the others, I keep copies of important papers, photos (along with any pertinent info on the backs) of all my valuables. This includes TVs, DVD players, and anything else like that around the house.
I do try to put these boxes (not all in one place) in different places around the house that, maybe a thief would find if he had time, but he'd have to do some searching. But even if he did find them he wouldn't be able to get into them. And (OMG) if we had a serious fire or flood, my stuff would still be safe.
As for keys to the boxes. Each one came with 2 keys. The first set of keys I sent to a well-trusted family member (in my case my in-laws). That way if for some unknown reason, I can't get to the ones I have at home, I can call them to send them to me. The second set of keys, I take all the keys except one (usually the one with the cash and jewelry in it) and put them inside one of the other boxes.
I came up with an ingenious way to hide the last key. Maybe a thief could find it, but he'd have to really search, plus he'd be seen by my neighbors. I used to keep it on my key ring, but what if someone breaks in and takes my purse along with the boxes? So I put the key into a plastic bag, then put this bag into a small hard plastic container. I wrap a long plastic wire tie around the container and have the end of it poking out of the ground near a plant. By putting the wire tie on it all I have to do is pull on it and my container comes up easily. I planted these in my garden in the front of the house. This way if some stranger is digging in my garden my neighbors will see. If I should ever hire someone to come and do gardening, I would dig them up and keep them inside till that person is done.
Inside the house I keep a piggy bank and that's where I put my $10 a week. Then whenever I go out to do any gardening I get the key, then go in and add the contents of my piggy bank to the box and re-bury the key.
This way, if we do have a fire or are broken into, the most I've lost is maybe $30-50 at most.
This sounds like a lot of trouble, but it's actually not. It's very easy to keep up with.
By Cricket from NC
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Thank you for some good ideas. My sister used to keep a decoy wallet with a small amount of money in the kitchen. The idea was that thieves would take that and run away.
It's not free, but in my honest opinion - the safest place is a Safe Deposit Box at a bank. These are available in a variety of sizes for usually a very nominal annual fee. Your items are safe from burglars and from fires / floods. However, the suggestions in this post are also quite clever too.
You know the only real safe place to keep your valuables is in a safe deposit box. Other than that, no place is truly safe from everything. I worry about fires, but I also have to worry about tornadoes. I'm always trying to figure where in my house would be safest to put things during tornado season.
I've never tried the wall outlet thing.I think it's interesting, but I can just imagine forgetting about it & moving, or something happening to me & nobody knows where things are hidden. They'll tear the house down looking! lol! If I'm going out of town, I will hide things in the bottom of my kid's laundry hamper (not my own), wrapped in a towel under dirty underwear & socks. I have a couple of other places I can hide smaller things, that I'm about 99% sure nobody would ever find,but I don't broadcast that to people because I don't want it to become commonplace to look places like that. Of course, if there was a fire, it would likely burn.
I have a couple of fire-proof lock boxes that I don't use anymore because that's one of the 1st things a thief would take & they're too big to really hide them. I lost the key once & the locksmith told me that I could always drill the lock, shoot it out or use a crowbar. Thankfully I found the key! Of course if you have them hidden is odd place, they'd probably miss them & take things more obvious & out in the open.
What gets me is the people who go to so much trouble to hide their valuables, but yet they will hang all of their keys on a hook by the door, where anyone coming inside (including friends, kid's friends, service people,etc) can get them & have access to vehicles, sheds, your home, etc. ! Or leave the door unlocked when they leave the house! Isn't it sad, I remember when we never had to worry about leaving our doors unlocked or hiding our things!
I do like your idea of how you hide your key outside! I've been trying to figure out how to hide a house key for my kids to find it, because they invariably forget theirs on the 1 day I'm not home before they are! I may have to try that one!
Crooks have be known to take those boxes and then get someone to open them. The only safe way to have valuable items at home is to have a safe and have it bolted to the floor. It is sad to have to say that but it is true!
Great suggestions! Now I know where NOT to store my valuables since all these suggestions are now out there in cyberspace for any crooks to see! I agree, the best place is in a bank in a safe deposit box.
By the way, long ago when real people still made keys at the hardware stores, a friend of mine made a couple of extra keys for his fireproof box, even though they are not supposed to be duplicated. It costs about $25 to get another one from the manufacturer.
I am one of the people who sent in the "hide in plain site" suggestions. I stand by them. While I agree that the safest place for all the things you mentioned are safes and deposit boxes, this is Thriftyfun.com no spendmoneyyoudon'thave.com
You got 4 thumbs down and I will no doubt get one too, but that's ok. I hide my things in my kitchen cupboard, but the chance that someone will know it's me they are breaking into and go right to that spot are off the charts astronomical.
So, I will continue to be safe and smart and thrifty. And, I hope, lucky.
Poor But Pround
I agree with "poor but proud", not because of her (or his) objection to spending money on safe boxes, but simply because it is not any better protection against thieves than those suggestions made in the other posts. If a thief has enough time to search in strange places for valuables (bottom of hamper, freezer, wall outlets etc.) then they would also have enough time to unbolt a safe box from the floor and simply take the whole thing with them to where they can quietly drill the lock out.
There are some really serious boxes that weigh so much that it would make moving them difficult, but most boxes are not even designed to be bolted down. They might provide fire protection, but if you are worried about thieves you might as well wrap them in gift wrap and add a bow.
Probably the best protection is to rent a safe deposit box at a bank for important documents, and include in it a list and photos with descriptions of all the valuables you keep at home. That way if the house is burglarized you have complete descriptions, serial numbers, etc. of what was lost and you can use this for police and insurance reports.
It really is sad that we have to worry about such things.
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