Home safety experts agree.  One of the best ways to keep your valuables safe is a home safe preferably one that is bolted to or built into the wall or floor.  Of course, in your Willow Creek Crossing Apartment, you can’t install a safe into your wall or floor.  Still there are things you can do to protect your valuables.

First, think like a thief.  If you were a thief, your primary goal would be to find valuables as quickly as possible and get out.  Enter your apartment, and think, where would I look first for valuables.  Under the mattress, check.  Behind the toilet tank, check.  The bottom of a sock drawer, double check.  These are all the first places a thief would look.  It’s quick, and it’s typical of where people put their valuables.

Another quick and commonly used place to store valuable is behind a picture on the wall.  However, what if you put the valuables between the picture and a cardboard frame behind the picture?  Few thieves take the time to open up all of the pictures.

Few thieves would bother to go through all of the food you keep in your refrigerator either. Foil a thief by wrapping up your valuables in aluminum foil, so they look like just another left over.

If you were a thief, would you spend a lot of time looking through your kid’s room? Probably not, too many things to go through, and very low likelihood of finding something really valuable.  So, hide your valuables in a toy.  It will then just become part of the chaos, hiding in plain site.

If you have a lot of books, the old book safe is a great place to hide things.  Take an old book, cut out a hole in the pages, and put your valuables there.  Certainly thieves know about book safes, but also don’t want to take the time to go through every book on your shelf.

You can hide your things in other common household containers, like coffee cans, or aspirin bottles.  Just remember to let the coffee or aspirin cover over your valuables, and you’ll throw the thief off track.

Here’s another great way to throw off a thief.  Offer up a fake stash of goods.  Put a hundred dollar bill in your sock drawer.  Once a thief believes he’s found your valuables, it’s time for him to move on.  Most thieves will keep searching your apartment until they find valuables, so a fake stash gives them a reason to believe they’ve completed their mission, and they’ll move on.

Remember, if you come up with an idea of where to hide your valuables, a thief has probably come up with the same thought.  They are professionals after all.  So the best solution of all may be a safe deposit box at a nearby bank.  Not always convenient, but always certainly, quite safe.