16 Worst Places To Hide Cash in Your Home

While digital wallets and contactless payments are taking hold, we still like cold, hard cash. Plenty of us like keeping an emergency stash at home just in case.

However, burglars and sticky-fingered guests know that most people have a hidden wad of bills somewhere. Here are some of the more obvious hiding spots you should avoid to protect your financial fitness in your own home.

No matter how well-organized, top dresser drawers can often become a catch-all place for lots of small goods and knickknacks: underwear, hair ties, cufflinks, and rolls of cash. 

People like to sock money away there because it’s out of sight but still in an easy-to-remember location. It’s easy for crooks to remember, too.

Opinions on fridges and freezers are mixed. While some home safety experts think they’re a smart option, many caution against it. Why? If you “think up” this tactic, it’s because you've seen it before in a movie or TV show — just like the bad guys.

Also, during economic downturns, thieves are known to steal food out of fridges and freezers. 

During the Great Recession, I know many people who had crooks break in during the daytime (sometimes while the homeowners were upstairs) and help themselves to milk and meats along with wallets and laptops.

Sadly, yes. Kids’ rooms are a target ‌for home burglars. The bad guys know kids often have tablets, game consoles, TVs, and iPads. They will rummage through your kids' room looking for cash in addition to pocketing any high-value goods.

It’s a cliche, but yes, people still tuck money away under their mattresses. Many naive homeowners think the bed is so obvious that no one hides their money there anymore, and that must make it a safe spot. It’s not; it’s one of the first places thieves look.

Using your toilet tank is about as cliche and obvious as your mattress. One TV show after another has crooks and good guys using the tank as a place to stash drugs, cash, and other valuables, and it’s one of the most common places thieves search.

This is another common place that robbers target. Many people keep cash there not to hide it but to just have a place to store it — along with their phone, watch, and jewelry.

Jewelry boxes might as well have “steal me” carved into their lids. Home intruders know it’s a hot spot for keepsakes and valuable goods.

Home pilferers rummage through bathroom cabinets, looking for re-sellable drugs. Even OTC cold medicine has street value, as many contain ingredients commonly used to make methamphetamine.

Bullet-proof safes with keys and combo pads are not secure — unless they weigh several hundred pounds and are bolted in place. If the safe box is light enough to pick up, they’ll take it and run.

Burglars commonly target office drawers, desks, and file cabinets. They know that important papers are often stashed away inside, including passports, Social Security cards, and checkbooks.

It turns out that people like stashing money in suitcases, carry-on bags, and hat boxes. Maybe it’s to safely tuck away cash for an upcoming trip or have a Plan B in case they ever need to disappear in the middle of the night.

Those old Maxwell House and Folgers cans are another hiding spot to ditch. A tin coffee can in the open is a big invitation to hooligans. Even if a thief thinks it’s just coins inside, they’ll still take the can.

If you want to use your coffee can as a coin jar, make sure not to leave it out in the open.

Avoid obviously fake containers — cheaply built storage ware that looks flimsy and phony. Burglars know that a “fake” store vessel is a decoy and will guess it must be hiding something good.

Your dirty laundry is not safe from thieves. They will commonly rummage through your clothing, clean or soiled, to look for loose change, credit cards, house keys, and wallets.

People like using vases and pots. They’re popular outdoors for keys and indoors for cash and jewelry. These objects draw a lot of attention and are quick for thieves to rummage through (smash).

Everyone knows that people commonly stow cash in handbags and purses, but did you know that it’s not safe to leave it out in a separate room or closet at night?

Thieves can and will enter homes — with homeowners down the hall or upstairs — if they see a purse left out on a hall table or coat hook. 

This also goes for jackets (with pockets for wallets), backpacks, and laptop bags. Take them with you at night and put them out of sight from doors and windows.

Hopefully, you don’t have hoards of cash at home tucked into floorboards, fiber insulation, or toilet tanks. Banks where deposits are FDIC-insured are a safer bet. The top high-yield savings accounts will also help you earn more on your stash.

But for any cash you keep at home, be smart about where and how you hide it. Avoid these hiding spots and consider cleverer ones, like false stair treads, high-quality storage containers, or even a real container at the back of the pantry.