Where to safely hide gifts 100%?
We’ve all been there. Just a few days before a special occasion, we finally come up with the perfect gift idea for that special someone. But then we realize that everything can go wrong if that person accidentally discovers our surprise, especially if it’s a family member. Living together in the same house makes it very challenging to enter without being seen with all those packages.
Therefore, we have compiled the best tricks for safely storing your gifts without the risk of them being discovered or stolen.
Best places to hide your gifts at home
A) Personal corners: In every home, everyone has their own personal space in their room that others respect and don’t snoop around in. These types of corners, like your personal nightstand or private drawers in your wardrobe, are perfect for hiding a nice surprise.
B) Inaccessible and rarely used places: If your gift is of a certain size or if it’s for your partner, it will be difficult to keep it well-hidden in your personal drawer. In that case, you’ll have to resort to a common area in the house that is infrequently visited by others. For example, a storage room, a filing cabinet, an attic, etc. It’s important not to leave it in plain sight and, if possible, hide it in a way that it becomes inaccessible unless several other items are moved first. A good way to do this would be to hide the gift in a travel suitcase because obviously, if no one is going on a trip, nobody will open the suitcase cabinet, let alone look inside.
C) Unlikely hiding spots: This refers to hiding your gift in the last place someone would think to look. Every home has these special and unique places: under a loose tile, on top of a dusty cabinet that hasn’t been cleaned in ages, in a small gap between two pieces of furniture, at the back of a box of old clothes that hasn’t been used in years, inside an empty box of another product, etc.
D) Get products designed for future hiding purposes: If you don’t have any secret or hidden corners in your house, you can find multiple products online that serve as hiding places for objects. For small items, book-shaped safes are often used, like the one I’m showing you in this link. For larger items, there are more ingenious articles like this disguised safe in the form of a power outlet, which I’m also showing you in this link.
E) Safe box: If you have a safe box in your house, you can store a gift inside it. This option is particularly interesting if the gift has significant economic value and the person receiving it doesn’t have access to the safe. If you don’t have a safe box at home yet, you should know that it’s very easy and affordable to buy one and install it yourself, as explained in this article.
Other places to store your gifts
Obviously, the safest places to store your gifts are in your own home. However, if the gifts are meant for a family member and you can’t enter the house without that person being present, it will be impossible to hide them there. Therefore, here are the best alternative places to temporarily hide the gifts you have purchased:
A) Car trunk or motorcycle compartment: If you have a personal vehicle, you can safely store your gifts in the trunk until you can bring them home when the recipient is not there. However, make sure they are not visible, and nobody has seen them, as you run the risk of them being stolen.
B) Workplace: Depending on your profession and your relationship with your company, you may be able to keep personal items at your workplace without any issues. Take advantage of this and safely store your gifts until you can bring them home. Just like the previous point, make sure no one sees what you’re hiding and that your belongings are not accessible to others without supervision, as someone could take advantage and spoil your surprises.
C) Relatives, friends, or neighbors: If you can’t store your gifts securely at home, you can ask trusted people to keep them at their homes.
D) Storage unit: If needed, you can temporarily store your gifts in a storage unit, but be careful: make sure no one sees you entering with your purchases, and never do it during Christmas since it’s the time of year when there are more thefts in storage units.
E) Private locker in a storage facility: In most large and medium-sized cities, there are numerous storage and rental companies that offer personal lockers at very competitive prices. If your gift has significant economic value, this would undoubtedly be a very good option to safely and securely hide it, as these facilities have high security and surveillance measures.
How to enter the house without the gifts being discovered?
If the recipient of your gifts lives with you, and the presents are of a certain size, it will be impossible to enter the house without them discovering your surprise. Therefore, follow these steps to enter at the right moment:
A) Try to find out in advance if the intended recipient of your gifts is actually away from home.
B) If the person is at home, you can enlist the help of others to distract them when you arrive, giving you enough time to hide your surprise.
C) You can ask the lucky person to run an errand outside the house, giving you the opportunity to bring the gifts inside.
D) Seek the assistance of friends or family members to arrange a meeting with the person who will receive the gifts, allowing you time to prepare your surprise. This is very common with children. For example, you can ask a family member to take them to the movies or somewhere else while you take advantage of that time to prepare everything. Since they are young, they won’t suspect anything.
How to make online purchases without other household members discovering them?
If you decide to buy your gifts online and the recipient of those gifts lives with you, it can be problematic as the delivery person can come at any time, and it’s possible that the person you bought the gifts for may open the door before you. However, there are several tricks to avoid such a situation:
A) Choose a specific one-hour delivery window when the lucky person is not at home.
B) Have your purchases delivered to the home of someone you know to avoid ruining the surprise.
C) Use your workplace as the shipping address if it is allowed and doesn’t violate company policies. Otherwise, don’t take the risk.
D) Ship your purchases to a self-service locker near your location. Nowadays, these lockers are available everywhere, and this way, your surprise will never be discovered. It’s also very convenient since you don’t have to be present to receive the delivery at your home. When your package is available, you’ll receive a notification on your mobile, and you can pick it up whenever it’s convenient for you.
Conclusion: Safely storing your gifts is not so complicated
As you have seen, storing your gifts securely and well-hidden is not difficult at all. Above all, don’t go crazy or overcomplicate things. Keep it simple and practical, as explained above. Avoid extravagant ideas like hiding your gifts at the bottom of the trash or among dirty laundry, as that could lead to mistakes, carelessness, or confusion that would ruin everything completely.