I had an older client who was going into hospital. She hid her jewelry, and forgot where. When she died, I told her son about this, and to search thru everything before tossing. Well, he found the jewelry hidden in a box of Xmas decorations, on a high shelf in garage.
i must not worry about this stuff as much as you do. Our passports, birth certificates, etc are just in folders in a home office. I recently had a big wad of cash I needed to hold on to and it went into my nightstand.
Thanks. Actually when we go out of town, I either put it in our safe or if it’s a weekend, just take the few pieces with me. But our neighborhood has been getting more aggressive break ins. I have tons of beautiful costume jewelry I love, and would take time to replace…but at least it’s just that.
But day to day, I don’t want to make it difficult to retrieve a ring or earrings. I like the idea of telling DH where it’s stashed or writing it down somewhere.
My house has an alarm system and I’ve got an insurance rider for jewelry. I Iive in a small town, which has very little crime. I guess my most expensive item is my wedding ring and I wear that all the time. I never even considered hiding stuff.
The real nightmare would be a thief went rummaging through our file cabinet and messed it all up! Imaging the hours of resorting. We keep legal papers in there and they have no value except to us. I thought about getting a fire safe for them but haven’t done it. What if thief came in and left with the safe? We would all be disappointed.
No jewelry…but my mother hid a Royal Doulton tea pot that went with her dishes. She never found it…actually ordered a second one from Harrods, because they no longer sold her pattern in the U.S.
After she died, and we were unpacking moving boxes…guess what we found? I have no idea where it was hidden…but I now have two.
@gouf78 , sock drawers , lingerie drawers and bedside tables are pretty typical hiding places , but also purses in closets are a no no. Also kitchen, believe it or not has become a common place to hide valuables. I used to hide things in kitchen cabinets inside food boxes…or the freezer. Opals can crack from extreme temps. Strong boxes are pretty obvious too
Do you guys have security systems? I have to say, I don’t have the mental bandwidth to be hiding things all over the place.
My dad used to hide money in books. He had a sudden stroke and never mentally returned, His extensive collection of books was donated. This was overseas. I thought of the money habit a few years later. Who knows.
I am so relieved to finally have put my few gold and precious items in a safe deposit box, with D as a co signer. The deposit box is near my place of employment, so can easily access things if needed. But no need, as what I have at home is sufficient for my unassuming social life.
Ha…PG, mental bandwidth, something that seems to be slipping. The point…tell several someones or write the hiding places down.
I was talking to MIL at her house once and started idly wiggling the top piece of a stair rail balustrade out. She had had the stairs redone several years before. It came out and there was jewelry in the hollow space! She was shocked that I found it and I wasn’t even looking.
My parents had a sailboat that had a secret compartment built behind a cabinet in the galley. That was pretty cool.
I had to make a claim on the jewelry covered by the insurance rider last spring. I was in Berlin just walking along a street when I noticed that my engagement didn’t look right. One of the two diamonds in the setting was missing, prong setting had gotten loose and it fell out. I wonder if it is still somewhere in Berlin or if someone found it.
The insurance company did pay out on the claim quickly, but I felt as if I was in a police interrogation answering their questions. Since the stone was lost, not stolen with a police report filed, I had to account for my whereabouts on the day it went missing. Of course, that day had been filled with sightseeing - try to come up with the time frame when you’ve attended a church service, had lunch, visited two museums and only in the late afternoon noticed the loss. I felt just as a criminal must when establishing an alibi! There were a lot of questions about the hotel and restaurants and if I had had the ring off my finger - no. I was worried that the insurance might go up, but the premium stayed the same.
Did you have to pay a deductible?
The last time I was fetching something from the safe deposit box I was quite surprised to find some nice jewelry in it. My mother gave me some stuff a few years back, but I’d completely forgotten I had pulled out the stuff that looked pricey and put it away. She went to White House dinners. I do not.
I have a piece of furniture with a secret drawer. It’s pretty cool.
My husband is a woodworker. In one of his magazines there were plans for a shelf that slid out from the top and had a secret compartment in it. One would never know it was there, if you didn’t know it was there. I am going to have him build one for me when he finishes the projects that he has been working on.
@greenwitch, no I didn’t pay a deductible. We are long term customers, never a claim (as if that matters!) In retrospect, I’m surprised how easy everything was. I did have an appraisal on the ring and the local jewelry store gave me their repair/refit price on official stationery to submit. The insurance paid out at full cost, even though the store said they often don’t. I do hope not to have to resort to a claim again, however.
Our house has an alarm system although I wouldn’t be foolish with valuables obviously left out. My next door neighbor’s house was robbed - we were home at the time and didn’t know anything was going on. Apparently the house was being watched. Residents left, thieves moved in and out very quickly. They didn’t take much - probably looking for electronics and the house is owned by an older couple without lots of gadgets. A jar of change, an old TV, etc. More of a nuisance and scare than a real loss.
The money in books story reminds me of a wonderful experience we had with a friend many years ago. My friend’s mom had died a few years before. We were all hanging out in his house when he pulled out a book to look something up (at the time we were probably just a few years out of college). He opened the book and there was money hidden in it - he said his mother used to hide money in his books when he was away at college for him to discover and use. He then went through an entire shelf of his textbooks and discovered money in many of them. It was so wonderful watching him discover the surprises his mother had left him!
I avoid putting valuables in books. I’d be too sad thinking they may accidentally be discarded. Nice that it made your friend happy and feel closer to departed mom.
@greenwitch – Re: no deductible on jewelry rider.
I don’t know if all policies are written this way or not, but I would not pay a deductible if replacing a piece of jewelry named on the jewelry rider. Now, if I had to submit a general claim on my house, I would pay the $5K deductible, making one wonder why I bother insuring my jewelry as it is not all that valuable. Force of habit really. Should remove from coverage those items that are not worn regularly and place at bank.
Must also rethink my storage locations since they have all been named here. But again, jewelry is insured…
While I don’t have much valuable jewelry to protect or hide, like Pizzagirl, we have a security system and outside of not living a stack of cash on the kitchen table, I don’t have much that I would bother to “hide”.
No hiding spots - no jewelry to hide!