You did it. You know you did. I did it, too. We all did. We hid things where the grownups wouldn't look. It was a great concept. In fact, that concept is the answer to why my mother looked for my sister's diary under the bed but never noticed it on the crowded book shelf out in the hall. I hid notes for my best neighborhood friend under certain rocks down by the brook. I hid them in a crack in the foundation. I stuffed them up the downspout, but only in dry weather. I even tucked a note written in code behind the loose hubcap of my father's Oldsmobile. He drove off before my friend could retrieve it and lost both his hubcap and my note forever.
Secrets are excellent fun for kids. The thrill isn't so much in the importance of the secret itself, but the idea that you know something others don't know and aren't likely to find out. As grownups, though, things turn around some. The secrets themselves have more value, like that secret stash of money you're saving up to buy a special gift for someone close who doesn't think you can afford it.
Yes, things change when secret notes in a childish scrawl aren't the issue anymore but identity theft is and you have a lot of important information you want to keep handy, yet safe from home invaders. Suddenly, you're a grownup with tangible objects called valuables that, in addition to protecting them from outsiders, you need to keep from your kids because, let's face it, a passport with crayon marks all over it is embarrassing if not invalid.
So what do you do? Well, you can go back and forth to the bank to your safety deposit box, you can buy a safe, drill holes, and bolt it to the floor (not a good idea, however, if you're living in a rental apartment and want your security deposit back someday), bury a waterproof container in the backyard, or you can locate a piece of furniture with one or more hidden compartments. There are antiques with secret compartments and new furniture is also available with them.
This is a workable idea because, unless you are a twelve-year-old using paper route money to buy something taller than you are, most people can bring a piece of furniture home without arousing the suspicion of parents, roommates, spouses, mothers-in-law, or outlaws casing the neighborhood.
Look for secret compartment furniture that is easy to operate. The designs available from False Bottom Productions on www.greatstuff.com have this quality as well as the unique advantage of being customizable to the customer's specific needs because each piece of furniture is custom made.
When choosing a piece of furniture with a hidden compartment, look closely to make sure the hidden area is completely concealed and that there is nothing to arouse curiosity such as oddly placed ornamentation or molding that either doesn't quite fit snugly or that can loosen through wear. Be wary of designs that require tools to open the compartment; extra equipment such as magnets and metal rods often get misplaced.
The most important advice of all is to choose a piece of furniture that will look like it belongs in the room where you put it. Then, your secret hiding place will have the full advantage of concealing your valuables where people simply won't look and you'll have the same feeling of security you did as a kid when you put your note under the rock that looked just like all the other rocks and only you and the friend with whom you shared your secret with knew how to find it.