Clever, effective ways to hide Christmas gifts from prying family members.
For most of us, hiding presents from an impatient partner or snooping kids is as much a Christmas ritual as buying the presents in the first place. Which is why it’s surprising that many people admit to hiding their gifts in the top or bottom of their wardrobes or under their beds – places where curious family members are bound to look!
This year, avoid the obvious and keep your gifts concealed until Christmas by choosing a smarter hiding place.
Take them to someone else’ house
One way to make sure that nosy family members don’t find their presents before Christmas is to store them at a relative or friend’s house. This way, any snoopers will turn up empty-handed, and you can rest assured that your gifts will remain a secret until Christmas day.
If you’re ordering presents online, have them delivered directly to the relative/friend’s address so that you don’t arouse suspicion.
Leave them at work
If you have your own space at work, consider keeping Christmas presents there. Lock smaller gifts in your desk drawers and keep bigger items in a filing cabinet or lockable closet.
If the gifts are valuable, make sure that they are secure, as you don’t want someone to walk off with your family’s gifts!
Keep them where kids don’t go
Kids are likely to look for presents in restricted areas, such as the home office, your dressing room, or the tool shed. So avoid these hiding places.
Instead, choose areas of your home where your kids don’t tend to go – such as the garage or attic.
Hide them in plain sight
You may be able to hide gifts from younger kids in the cleaning supply closet, garage or garden shed, but finding a place for gifts where your partner and older kids won’t find them is slightly more difficult.
It’s best to store presents for them outside of your home – such as in your office or car, or at a friend or relatives’ house – or to camouflage gifts in plain sight. Conceal gifts by placing them behind furniture, in containers in the pantry, or at the bottom of the laundry hamper.
Other good places to hide gifts conspicuously include:
- in a bucket on a high shelf
- inside pots in the kitchen cupboard
- in a locked filing cabinet
- inside socks in a drawer
- in a rubbish bin in the garage
- inside suitcases and luggage
- in a shoebox in your wardrobe
- behind books in a bookshelf.
Put them out of reach
If you’re hiding gifts from young children, consider putting them out of reach on the top shelf of a cupboard or in the ceiling. The ceiling works well as a hiding place for your significant other’s gifts as well, as they’ll need to go to the effort of getting out the ladder just to check if you’ve hidden anything up there.
Just make sure they’re not heat-sensitive items or gifts that mice and other pests might get a whiff of.
Hide them in the car
If your children don’t have access to your car, the spare tyre in the boot makes an excellent hiding place. As with hiding in the ceiling, be careful about leaving heat-sensitive items like chocolate and electronics in your car.
If you’re not using your car in the days leading up to Christmas, lock the presents inside and keep the car in the garage. As long as you keep the car keys concealed, the kids won’t be able to snoop.
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