As I was looking at this video:
I stumbled upon an interview of a "professional" London thief who makes a living out of stealing from people's apartment. This guy explained how he behaves once he is inside the apartment of one of his marks. As I was reading I started to realize that I hide my goods in the places that this thief was looking first. I made a little list of things you should and should not do when hiding your goods in your house.
1. It's not important how good you are at hiding your stuff, if a thief has enough time he will find what he is looking for. If you are going to be away from home for a considerable amount of time the best thing you can do is let him find a small amount of money, in order to convince him that he doesn't need to search further. The amount of money you leave depends on the type of home you live in. Don't expect to live in a Villa in Beverly Hills and leave $5 as "bait money"
2. Hiding your money too well can be counter productive. If a thief doesn't find what he wants he could destroy your entire house in the chance of finding it. You will end up making way more damage to your house spending way more money than the ones you were trying to save.
3. If you really need to hide your stuff the best place is a kids toy. I know that not everybody will be able to pull this off but if you have a family with young children consider yourself lucky.
4. If you have a safe be sure that it is safely stuck into the wall, most thieves wont try to force it open they will just bring the whole thing with them.
5. If you aren't creative enough, you can buy these, or you can make them yourself
