59 replies to this topic

[ttruscott]

One easy place to access a 'between the walls' space for a tube or length of ducting pipe is under the railing around your deck. The walls are only 3 or 4 feet tall and the flat 'railing' comes off more easily than you can access the inside of other walls.

Ted

How to Hide ANYTHING...my book review.

Freedom from Fear: Taking Back Control of Your Life and Dissolving Depression...a book review.

[Campy]

Originally Posted By: mistylady

The attic is great for hiding things that don't need to be grabbed fast and can stand extreme temps. No one wants to dig through that insulation up there. A small box built on a rafter. Or a false ceiling in the attic. Of course I have never been in our attic so I'm not sure whats up there other than some critter that wakes me up running around at 5 am. So my ideas may not be good ones for all cases. When I get done tossing mothballs up the to get rid of the critter, the attic will be itchy and smelly. I wonder if it will stink up the house? Better do some thinking on this....

The mothballs will not "stink up the house". The critter will leave of its own accord, typically in 10 - 14 days.

The mothballs will not kill the critter, just make it so miserable it will wish it were dead

Hey, it beats the heck out of having a "funky" smell and then trying to find where the critter died (usually some place you can not get at without demolishing half the house).

Suggestion - when you go into the attic the 1st time, rig up several pullys and clotheslines over to the entrance to the attic. Then for future forays up there, put the mothballs in some cheesecloth bags/sacks and run them down on the clothesline. Beats the heck out of crawling through very itchy insulation every year.

This is what I did in my attic (basicly a 2 1/2' - 3' high crawl space). My entrance to the attic is at one end of the house. My 1st trip into the attic I moved several 2"x12"x6' planks up there as well as several large pieces of plywood scrounged from a dumpster at a local construction site (makes life easier crawling over the beams). I have 2 clotheslines to the far end of the house and one to each side in the middle of the house. The entrance area I can scatter mothballs by hand.

[GirlNextDoor]

I wonder if Nancy Drew got started this way?

Edited by GirlNextDoor, 14 February 2009 - 02:31 AM.

[Cat]

Cool secret room pictures and ideas!

http://realestate.ms...ecret?GT1=35006


A fireplace that SLIDES away???

[themartianchick]

Our house has a "hiding" place. It is in my daughter's closet. It is sort of a closet within a closet and when adult sized clothes are hanging in there you cannot see the door. I've never gotten a good explanation for what it was for. The house is a big old Victorian, that still has a carriage step out front and has a carriage house in the back, so we believe that the house dates back to at least 1850. This area was a hotbed of Underground Railroad activity, so it makes us wonder about the things that this house may have witnessed.

We also own a rental property that has a similar setup of a closet within a closet, but the space is much smaller. The problem with the Underground Railroad theory is that the second house was likely constructed in the 1920's or 1930's, long after there would be a need for an Underground Railroad hiding place. I guess we'll never know!

My kids enjoyed playing and hiding in the closet. Our grandkids live in the rental house and they seem to enjoy theirs , as well! Over the years, I imagine that generations of kids have enjoyed spaces like these ones...

[Cat]

People have always wanted spaces to store things they wanted to keep safe... be it runaway slaves, or cash and jewelry in a time when most doors were commonly left unlocked most of the time.

I have no treasures other than my family, but I'd still like to have a "secret hidey-hole" just for fun.

[Ambergris]

Rats! I saw this and thought CookieJar was back.

[Cat]

Rats! I saw this and thought CookieJar was back.

I know. I miss her, too. Anyone know if she's OK?

[Dee]

I miss her too. She added so much to this board and was such fun! I hate having her gone. Nope, don't know anything about her.

[WormGuy]

I have sent her two PM's in the last two years with no reply back.




John

[snapshotmiki]

She was the one who convinced me I was in the right place!!!!!!!! I miss her too!!!!!!!!

[Janieha]

This is cool. Our master bedroom has three large walk-in closets. One has double sliding glass mirrors on it and couldn't be anytikng but a closet. The other two have one normal door each, both opening into a larger than normal walk in closet.One is located where it just isn't expected. I am currently using it for non clothing storage.I think it would be fairly easy to make a book case door for it. It wouldn't be a large room but it could hold things I didn't want other to see -- or even all of us for short period.

Thanks for the idea.

Edited by Janieha, 28 July 2011 - 04:45 AM.

[themartianchick]

Welcome, Janieha! It is so nice of you to join us!

[Jeepers]

Hi Janieha and ------->

[dogmom4]

Rats! I saw this and thought CookieJar was back.

I know. I miss her, too. Anyone know if she's OK?

I miss her too. It's been about a year or so since we last talked. Everyday life was just taking over...but, she was doing ok.

[kappydell]

i remember reading about some folks during WWII who hid their sugar stash in a compartment under the middle step - they had steps that the front part was closed, so they hinged one so it could be opened into a box the width of the step and about a foot deep. Apparently their neighborhood had a person who was paid to stop by and see if you had too much sugar (hoarding) or were using the proper whole-wheat-bran-white flour instead of just white for bread. I found the location interesting, as it would be reasonably accessible but not one commonly thought of. a variation would be the bottom of floor cabinets, down where they go inward to allow for your feet - that is all empty under them and a false bottom on a cabinet filled with pots & pans always appealed to me as an unlikely to be searched place. Specially if you artistically strewed some mouse traps about to look like they could be nipped while searching!

[Cat]

Check out the last post in this thread for secret staircase storage... they're drawers!

http://mrssurvival.c...=1

[ma & pa steel]

Our house has a "hiding" place. It is in my daughter's closet. It is sort of a closet within a closet and when adult sized clothes are hanging in there you cannot see the door. I've never gotten a good explanation for what it was for. The house is a big old Victorian, that still has a carriage step out front and has a carriage house in the back, so we believe that the house dates back to at least 1850. This area was a hotbed of Underground Railroad activity, so it makes us wonder about the things that this house may have witnessed.

We also own a rental property that has a similar setup of a closet within a closet, but the space is much smaller. The problem with the Underground Railroad theory is that the second house was likely constructed in the 1920's or 1930's, long after there would be a need for an Underground Railroad hiding place. I guess we'll never know!

My kids enjoyed playing and hiding in the closet. Our grandkids live in the rental house and they seem to enjoy theirs , as well! Over the years, I imagine that generations of kids have enjoyed spaces like these ones...

LOL in the 20 or 30's might have been hidey hole for moonshine.

[themartianchick]

Oooh... I hadn't thought about the moonshine aspect!

Edited by themartianchick, 01 August 2011 - 09:43 AM.

[gofish]