Hidden treasures: the art of “safely” storing precious items
Over60 community member and regular contributor, Sandra Ludinski, shares her story about losing and finding treasured items.
As we were about to leave for a recent holiday, I decided to hide my Pandora jewellery in one of those “safe places” that turned out to be so safe that even I couldn’t find it when I returned home. Six months later I found my jewellery, purely by accident, but was so relieved as I’d spent months trying to remember where I’d put it. Doesn’t everybody hide their valuables in a board game?
For some time now my Mum has been telling me I’m getting more and more like my grandmother, who stashed her valuables and money away in the pockets of most garments hanging in her wardrobe. When Grandma passed away, care had to be taken with sorting out her clothes as you never quite knew where the next lump sum would turn up! I don't know how much money Mum found, but suffice to say it was a considerable amount – all concealed in many items of clothing.
One of my grandfathers had no time for the banks, in fact he didn't trust them at all. They weren't getting hold of his hard-earned cash. He filled old Golden Syrup tins with his money and then buried them in the backyard. I often wonder how many of those tins are still buried and whether, in fact, any of them were ever freed from their underground hiding place.
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I also recall being on holidays with my grandparents at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast when they were broken into. Grandma had hidden their holiday spending money in the freezer and it was gone. Only recently I was reading that the freezer is one of the first places robbers check for money and valuables, so let’s all cross that one off our list!
In my time working in aged care I heard several stories about elderly people secreting away their savings in places they deemed safe. There was certainly a lot of distrust and suspicion surrounding banks in their younger days.
One lady told me that she knew her husband was squirreling money away somewhere in the house but couldn’t figure out where. One day she walked into his study unannounced. On seeing her, the husband quickly jumped to his feet, closed the book on his desk and hurriedly placed it in his bookcase. His wife had noticed that it was his diary that he'd quickly returned to the shelves so one day when he was out, she went to the bookcase, thinking that she’d found his money stash. Not only did she find his recent diary, but diaries dating back 20 years. Imagine the surprise she got when she opened each diary to find love letters from another woman, the oldest dated 20 years ago and the most recent only three months old. Now that’s what happens when you open Pandora’s box. I'll bet he was wishing it had indeed been money she’d found.
Another lady told me she kept her savings in a brown paper bag, taped to the inside of her Alsatian’s kennel roof. Even if a robber thought to look there, they’d have to be either brave or foolish to go looking. Mind you, she’s lucky her dog didn’t eat the money. One elderly gent confided that he had kept his small emergency stash under his dog's food dish – not a bad spot, either.
There were several people who said that they’d picked the favourite tree in their garden and dug holes under it to hold their money. In fact, one family member told me that his Dad’s favourite saying was, “Do you think I’ve got a money tree growing in the backyard?” When his father’s will was read, he was told just where to find the money tree and was pleasantly surprised to find a sizable amount of money buried around it's roots!
Of course there were those who hid their savings in more obvious spots like toilet cisterns, curtain hems, hollow table legs, under furniture and in rolled up socks. But my favourite story came from a very sweet man who said he would never forget where he buried his money. His wife’s favourite flower was the daffodil. In memory of his wife he had made a garden bed in which he only ever planted daffodil bulbs, which flowered around the time of her birthday. With a twinkle in his eyes and a cheeky wink, he told me he’d put a lot of money into getting that garden looking so nice!
Without mentioning names, do you know anyone who hides their money around the home rather than depositing it in a bank? Can you tell us where they stash it?
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