9 Clever Places to Hide Jewelry

Are you looking for some smart places to stash your jewelry away from curious family members or guests? These tips will give you some great ideas for doing that!

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Just in case it’s not obvious, we’re not talking about how to hide jewelry from professional cat burglars. You’re going to need a different website if you need help with that!

This is just for those of you who want to keep jewelry where roommates, curious kids and guests won’t find or “borrow” it easily.

Unconventional Hiding Spots for Jewelry

1. In Your Clothes

One place to hide jewelry is among your clothes. Necklaces, bracelets and anklets can be draped over hangers under shirts.

You can put earrings and pendants in small bags, and clip, pin or tie the bags to hangers. Make sure the jewelry is hidden from sight if someone rifles through your clothing. Put it on the back of the hanger, toward the wall of your closet.

If you put them in clothing pockets, make sure it’s the pocket that’s against the closet wall. That will be much less noticeable than the pocket that’s hanging in plain sight.

2. In Your Closet

Another option involving your clothing closet is putting jewelry in baggies and taping them to the underside of a shelf or the top of a clothing rod. This won’t work in every closet – particularly if you have wire shelves.

Don’t hide it in shoes. Shoes are used as a hiding place so often that most people know about it.

3. In the hamper

A dirty clothes hamper is one step up from a trash can: no one expects to find valuables there, and no one wants to rifle through what’s in it to find them.

But of course you don’t just want to toss a fine chain necklace into a bin with buttons, zippers and other things for it to get caught on. Instead:

Create a false bottom. The best way to do this depends on what type of hamper you have. If it’s a plastic hamper, you might be able to find a small, flat box that matches it. Glue some old socks or undies to the lid and set it down in the bottom. Anyone looking in will think there’s nothing but dirty underwear in the hamper. If you have a wooden hamper, a wooden or fabric box could do the same trick.

Under the lid. You can attach a sheet of opaque plastic or fabric under the lid of some hampers so it makes a sort of pocket. Stash your stuff in that and make sure it’s not noticeable when you open the hamper.

Under a ridge. Some hampers have a ridge at the top of the container. You can tape jewelry under that.

4. Under files

If you’ve got a drawer or box of hanging files, you can hide small items at the bottom, wrapped in something to make them blend with the bottom of the drawer or box. For example, with a translucent white file box, just cut strips out of a white plastic grocery bag, wrap pieces of jewelry in the strips, and put the strips at the bottom of the box, underneath the hanging files. With a wooden drawer, a paper bag will probably work.

Make sure your files are crammed pretty full, even if you have to stuff junk in them . If there’s a lot of room for them to swing back and forth on their rack, the items at the bottom might become noticeable to someone going through them.

5. Back of furniture

If you’ve got a piece of furniture that’s not hard to reach behind, you can stick pushpins into the back and drape jewelry items over the pushpins. This tip relies on how unlikely it is that anyone would look at the back of your desk or bookshelf or dresser, so consider your hiding place carefully.

If there’s an outlet or something behind that piece of furniture that someone’s likely to be hunting for, they’re going to come across your stash.

6. Inside Household Items

One of the best places is inside an everyday household object. This conceals your valuables in plain sight, making them much less likely to be discovered.

You can hide rings, earrings, or smaller necklaces inside hollowed-out books* on your bookshelf, in the lining of a jewelry box or makeup bag, or on the back of a picture frame or other piece of wall decor.

Another option would be to create a false bottom in a drawer or cabinet or put it in the inner workings of an old clock or radio. Just make sure it’s such an old piece that it looks like junk. Otherwise someone looking for items to pawn might take it.

NOTE: Don’t use a store-bought hollow book. Everyone’s seen those fake hollow books at shops, and they’re not that hard to recognize. If you’re going to use a hollow book, make your own so it will really and truly pass for a real book – and probably not one your potential meddler has ever seen before.

Be sure to choose a book the sort of people you’re hiding it from aren’t likely to pick up and read.

7. In the Bathroom

The bathroom may seem like an obvious place to store valuables, but with a little creativity, it can actually be a decent hiding spot for jewelry. Tuck away necklaces, bracelets, and earrings inside empty toiletry bottles – just make sure they don’t rattle or feel heavier than they should if you pick them up.

Sometimes you can conceal them inside or under a drawer or cabinet by wrapping them in something that more or less matches the wood color and then taping it to the vanity.

Not toilet tanks. When someone first came up with the idea of taping containers of stuff inside a toilet tank, it was brilliant – it still is, really. The problem is, it’s been on a lot of TV shows, so it’s the first place someone might look if they know you’re hiding something from them.

8. In the Kitchen

People hide a lot of things in plain sight in kitchens, and burglars know this. People in your household might know it too.

Avoid hiding anything in jars or bags of dry goods. These are pretty well-known hiding spots.

Instead, try using a fake produce can. Or you might be able to tape baggies of jewelry to the underside of a cabinet or drawer.

9. In the Garage or Shed

If your home has a garage, shed, or other outbuilding, these areas can make provide hiding spots for your jewelry. You can tape things to the underside of a workbench or shelving unit, for example.

Or you can buy a jar of jewelry in soil. Or hide it in a hollowed-out tool or piece of equipment.

Just don’t put it in a toolbox, because tools are valuable and worth stealing. Someone who just wants to pawn goods for cash is not unlikely to look in a tool box.

More Tips

Regardless of where you choose to hide your jewelry, there are a few more things you can do to keep it hidden:

Rotate Hiding Spots: Don’t keep your jewelry in the same place all the time. Rotate the hiding spots periodically to make it more difficult for anyone to find.
Document Hiding Locations: Keep a discreet record of where you’ve hidden your jewelry, in case you ever need to quickly retrieve a specific item. This can be as simple as a note in a secure location, like your locked phone.
Avoid Obvious Spots: Steer clear of places that would be the first places a burglar would look, such as under mattresses, in dresser drawers, or in obvious wall safes.
Consider Decoys: You can also strategically place inexpensive or costume jewelry in more obvious locations to throw off potential thieves.
Regularly Check on Your Jewelry: Periodically check your hiding spots to ensure your jewelry is still secure and hasn’t been disturbed.