Let’s say we’ve reached the moment everyone’s been afraid of. Disaster has struck so severely that the government declared martial law.
There might be chaos and pandemonium in the streets. Chances are people just aren’t as prepared as you are, and they might be willing to defy shelter-in-place orders to get what they need.
As much as this might seem like the time to load the shotgun and pull the curtains, there are always going to be crazies out there who think they can outgun Burt Gummer. Not to mention, the risk of someone breaking into your bug-out or bug-in location when you aren’t there!
If you’re worried about how to hide your supplies from would-be looters during martial law, or any other disasters, you might want to try some of the following.
Divide to Not Be Conquered
Regardless of the specific strategy you use to hide your supplies, the wise move is to split up your supplies into multiple batches. That way if a successful looter does get access to your wares, they might find some, but not all of them.
Ideally, you want your various stashes to have redundancy. Rather than putting all the toilet paper in one place, all the antibiotics in another, and the MREs all in one big box. Try putting a little of everything in each stash.
Unfortunately, having a stockpile of antibiotics, let alone two or more, is very hard. However, you can learn here how to stockpile antibiotics for a prescription before the next crisis hits.
Create a Sacrificial Stash
A good supply-hiding strategy also needs to deploy a little deceptive psychology. Let’s imagine a situation where Burt Gummer’s grandson is threatening to shoot his way in, or you’re simply away when would-be looters get at your shelter.
You can trust that they’ll keep searching until they find something. They’re not going to believe that you’ve been living on saltines and herbal tea.
So let’s say they find a 55-gallon barrel drum or a big tote with a modest handful of supplies. This small sacrificial stash makes it look like you’re already running desperately low. An inventory sheet with most everything checked off, and a bunch of empty cans and pouches in a nearby waste bin sells the perception that you’ve been foolishly overeating.
Don’t Hide Supplies in Light Items
Hiding supplies inside lightweight items, like a potted plant with a false bottom might sound brilliant on paper. In real life when someone is looking for anything of value they will quickly ransack, smash, and knock things over hoping to get lucky.
If they find one potted plant with a false bottom filled with MREs or a heavy flour canister loaded with 22 LR ammo, you can bet they’ll completely toss the place.
Related: Common Habits That Could Make You a Target for Looters
They might even start to get rough with your family members trying to get you to talk.
A Discrete Outdoor Storage Bunker
A storage supply bunker hidden outside away from the house or in an outbuilding gives you a great fallback stash. Even if your house does get ransacked and they find the supplies of value, you can still tape into the exterior stash to get you by.
Of course, anything stashed above ground outside has a real risk of spoiling or degrading. So, this is a strategy that’s better suited for things like fuel, and sealed MREs rather than canned goods or ammo.
The trick is to leave these supplies alone, and untouched until you absolutely have to access them. If you have a bunker hidden under the brush pile, or underneath some strawbales in the pole barn, you’ll leave a trail every time you affect the area.
Buried PVC Stashes
Imagine a scenario where looters get into your house, or they try to shoot their way in, and you have to evacuate.
Sealed PVC tubes buried in remote locations on your property give you fallback stashes you can use to either move on or take back your house when the time is right.
Related: 36 PVC DIY Projects for Your Homestead
You can make all kinds of these loaded with non-perishable food and medical supplies. The ends of the PVC can be sealed watertight. If you bury it 2 feet deep in a shady spot, the tubes will be pretty much insulated from the effects of weather.
Inside an Exterior Liquid Propane Tank
If your rural property already has an outdoor propane tank, a second false tank can be a great exterior storage depot. It doesn’t have to be a massive tank that looks like it’s capable of heating the whole house.
You can usually find disused 100 or 200-gallon options by searching online for “Salvage Propane Tanks.” You could even go with an exterior fuel oil tank.
Attach some simple plumbing that runs a pipe into the ground, and you can position it just about anywhere near the house. Use a cutting torch to open a seam and turn it into a concealed door. A fresh coat of paint, and perhaps some repurposed gas service stickers hide everything in plain sight!
A False Rain Barrel
Assuming you’ve got a rain barrel system set up on your home, garage, or outbuildings, it’s easy to add another one or two. Instead of plumbing them into the system, you use them to store supplies.
Some dummy plumbing fixtures and hardware will make it look convincing enough to a looter. However, the inside of a rain barrel is going to get very hot on a warm summer day. So, it’s not the place to store anything remotely perishable or heat sensitive.
Secret Under-the-Floor Storage
Under-floor storage compartments are a great way to stash a fair amount of supplies out of sight. Especially if you don’t have a formal basement or a basement crawlspace.
After accessing the subfloor stringers, you can easily install a series of milk cartons using heavy-duty fasteners.
Then conceal the underside of the milk cartons in the basement or crawlspace.
Flooring and location are also important factors. Ideally, you want it to be a closet or a lesser-used part of your home. The area will sound different when anyone, like a looter, walks over it.
A closet floor makes it easy to plausibly hide the door seam under old shoes and lightboxes. Under the bed in the guest bedroom is also a good option.
When it comes to flooring type, a hardwood floor can be troublesome as it leaves a noticeable seam where the boards meet unevenly. A tile floor is easier. Especially if you have dark grout lines. With a carpeted floor, try to hide the door seam at the natural edges of the carpet.
Inside Heavy Furniture
The underside of a big couch, or a hide-a-bed that isn’t truly a hide-a-bed is another easy place to hide supplies in plain sight. This is a much better alternative to things like a fake potted plant.
Would-be looters might toss sofa cushions, zip or even cut into them. They might pick a couch to look under it. However, inspecting the frame where you can conceal shallow totes behind a thin sheet of furniture-grade particle board made from cheap lumber won’t look suspicious.
Stairwell Drawers
Stairs are always creaky and a looter likely wouldn’t even notice that they sound slightly off when stepped on.
They’re also an area of inefficiently used space in most homes. So, why not kill two birds with one stone and turn your stairwell into a hidden storage space for prepping supplies?
⇒ Why You Should Never Hide Your Stockpile in Your Basement
The riser should lift up using a hidden recessed hinge. A firm latch will also keep each riser locked in place. You’ll also want to seal it in with plywood or drywall that’s painted to match.
Taped Inside Old Speakers
Old speakers are just big boxes that can be repurposed to store prepping supplies. You just take a cone out with simple tools, to secure supplies inside.
The trick here is to tape down those supplies or somehow secure them so they don’t rattle or clunk when the speaker gets shaken. A looter might pick it up and give it a toss, but likely won’t put in the effort to tear it open.
You could secure pouches of MREs or boxes of lightweight bandages. Canned vegetables or pills probably aren’t ideal for secret speaker storage.
A False Wall in a Pantry, Cupboard, or Closet
If your home is blessed with a deep built-in pantry, reach-in cupboards, or closets with a lot of depth, a false back wall can make an excellent place to hide supplies. However, there are a few tricks to making this work properly.
The false wall needs to go from corner to corner to hide the seam. You also don’t want to go too big, as would-be looters might notice the difference in thickness if it’s more than say 10 to 12 inches deep.
Inside Spray Foam Attic Insulation
While most attics offer a lot of disused space, they also tend to get very hot and humid, which can degrade long-term stored supplies. One possible way around this, to make use of the space is to seal supplies inside spray foam insulation.
Related: 7 Things You Should Never Store in the Attic
The closed cells will greatly reduce thermal transfer to keep the supplies at a reasonable temperature. It also hides them until you need them. Just be sure to put the supplies into sealable plastic bags before applying the spray foam.
When you need them later, a box cutter can carve the bag out of the foam in less than a minute.
Inside an Old Spare Tire
A spare tire is a wonderful place to hide your supplies in plain sight. It also lets you make use of the available space in the garage. This is a strategy that’s been used by drug smugglers for years.
It takes a lot of work for a would-be looter to get at your stashed items. Even if they get wise to the strategy. It makes it hard for them to raid your stash on foot, as they can’t easily grab the supplies and go.
A loaded tire will also be poorly balanced, causing it to roll poorly, wobble and fall over. Any would-be looter will constantly have to manage the tire while trying to make their slow retreat.
Of course, once the tire is fully inflated and stashed with supplies, it will also be hard for you to get at the contents. So, it’s better for storing next month’s MREs, rather than the ammo or medical supplies you might need at a moment’s notice.
During a time of martial law, you need to take a multi-pronged approach to hiding your supplies. This starts with dividing up your supplies so that if any one stash is found by would-be looters, you don’t lose everything.
Creating a sacrificial stash that’s easy to find, and making it look like you’ve already been tapping into it foolishly, might be enough to get them to move on. Empty MRE pouches and cans along with a checked-off inventory list might be enough to convince them you don’t have anything else worth scrounging around for.
Interior hidden storage bays under a closet floor or inside the frame of heavy furniture give you a good place to stash supplies that you want close at hand. Exterior storage areas like dummy tanks, and rain barrels are also handy bulk storage options.
Burying some sealed PVC tubes at the fringe of your property gives you a backup stash. This might come in handy if looters overwhelm your home and you’re forced to flee leaving your interior supplies behind.
In such a scenario, knowing how to survive in the wilderness becomes crucial. If urban areas become too dangerous, seeking refuge in more remote locations might be your best option. Surviving in the wild isn’t just about basic skills—it’s about knowing how to live off the land long-term.
That’s why I rely on the Long-Term Wilderness Survival Guide. This isn’t your typical survival manual; it’s a practical tool that teaches you the forgotten wisdom of our ancestors who didn’t just survive in the wild – they thrived there. So, when you need to head for the hills, make sure this handbook is in your backpack; it could be your lifeline in uncertain times.
By combining these strategic hiding spots with the knowledge of wilderness survival, you’ll be better prepared to face the challenges that come with martial law and protect your essential supplies from those who might try to take them.
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The big problem, what is said here alphabet agencies read this too. The open border illegals like dangerous criminals, mental health illegals and terrorist read this stuff too. Any “Ne’er-do-well” is at large in America as these people have been let into America by hook and crook.
Let’s Go Brandon and the minions have spread them throughout America. So what we thought were safe cache areas mayn’t be anymore. An AI being used in many technologies is also a game changer. We will need new paradigm shift in our prepper tactics or use the tried and scorched earth policy as a last resort.
Sometimes hiding in plain sight works.
why not just shoot them and be done with it and burn the bodies
Good article! Still though, stash hidden on your property will probably be discovered. The government will find it. They will use trained dogs and everything else at their disposal. Your local cops will take your stuff (most local cops don’t support the second amendment for the citizens). Your neighbor will snitch on you. Relatives will snitch on you. Look at how people are now, and times that by whatever number you want and that will give you an estimate to how bad it will be.
Yeah remember your cousin who needs a little cash flow help and the neighbor who borrowed your chainsaw and didn’t return it. Or the door knocking religious end of the world bible thumper looking for a handout for the poor.
There will come more who will not be so nice and what will you do?
There is not enough ammo or sleepless night that will wear us down eventually.
Yes a belief in God and Christ is part of the spiritual answer for the future. But what do we do do in the mean time to survive the coming world and local events?
we can’t just hide out in a bunker that is a trap, or in the woods along with other hungry hunters shooting the poor scared animals in short supply.
We can demand today that the woke government sanctuary states be defunded. Demand the weak woke commies in federal government to close the North and South open borders. Then post money for the abduction and deportations of illegals out of the country. Drill baby drill and manufacture new border wall material to fix, repair the existing border wall. Place the National Guard on rotating orders from all 50 states to ensure adequate border security.
Make those coming in legally and vetted, dragnet the existing illegals out of the country. Make come through legal ports of entry then the Bidenomics way of corrupt business today.
America has gotten sloppy in her ways by the added Marxism flooding our country and the stinking department of education must be defunded.
We need to revamp the education system defund the public union schools for a better solution to our future leaders in all of our society.
Unions funnel large amounts of money into political campaigns to make a one sided election go smooth. How do you think Let’s Go Brandon got elected? One day voting and election ballots counted that day.
Military and disabled citizens vetted for absentee voting only. All other outside mass mail in ballots considered to be false.
It’s time to put on the big boy pants and quit the backsliding we have since Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden family clans have come into power.
Isn’t that why the earlier Americans fought wars of independence from the king and queen of the UK or something else?
These illegals are here to be the George Floyd riot starters for 2024 and you and I will have to eventually fight them.
Since the open borders we have a segment of the population mixed in with people who lived in those backward wilderness conditions of survival. We have lost the notion to as a couple generations have become couch potatoes using social media as their guide in life and current news of trick talk by the CCP.
You can’t make this up happening in real time, why are Chinese and other foriegn countries given free will access to our natural resources and farmland?
Many other countries especially the China CCP has bought up tons of American farmland next our military bases and secret police stations in major cities.
It won’t matter if we run for the hills to escape “they” know where you are and can wait until we run out of supplies to make the kill or take us to holding camps for further process.
What can we do now to avoid the inevitable coming soon if this 2024 presidential election is like the last, cheated?
Well, win or lose, Trump is still a loser.
Latest news on FEMA, they have run out of money for field operations this year, gonna have to scrape by to keep paying all the bureaucrats.
World War Biden is coming, look to your preps.
What you want Michelle Obummer, the cackling hen VP, or CA gov Newscum in office and continue with G Soros DA criminal lawyers.
We have criminals rotating in and out of jail to commit crimes, while the homeowner goes to jail for defending their hard earned property.
On top of that illegals are getting home loans by taxpayers who can’t afford their homes for the freeloaders.
So what is it are you lying now or where you lying then about how civil antifa and BLM are peaceful protesters?
Don’t forget your never Trumper attitude may get Hillary Clinton back as a potential presidential candidate a very annoying thought.
MAGA, Trump is the one to re-right this Titanic boat the Bidenomics crowd has allowed the CCP to buy American farmland, bogus dude!
Femur will have enough to arrest and detain. To all the people who feel Denver airport is coming?
WOLVERINES!!
Denver airport is coming? I saw Red Dawn and I’m aware of… things… under DEN but I’m not aware of how those two relate. ‘splain to me?
In chaotic times living in mass density cities will be a disaster not so much for smaller towns. But you know the big city spill over will come to less dense areas.
The non-deported illegals will either go back home or we will be fighting them on our home turf. The police will eventually be looking at protecting their families from the chaos ensued naturally.
We can start now to be more proactive at least by electing new political non science college majors and get military background, business type into office.
Balance the budgets in state and federal agencies for dam once in a blue moon chance. kick the Chinese off our American farmlands, they don’t let us own their valuable property there. We got too many Weasels in politics to be tared and feathered out of office including non elected bureaucratizes of are there to collect retirement.
Lol, the depicted PVC pipe has holes drilled in it and silt screen around it – any supplies in that are going to get wet unless they are already sealed from the elements.
Otherwise OK, but the picture makes the article appear like another one of those conjectural articles fabricated from the author’s imagination instead of actual experience concealing items.
You have some great ideas – there were a few things I hadn’t thought of in your article. That, coupled with pictures you take of what you have done yourself, will be a home run!
Vote for Maga….and we’ll be just fine…..Just don’t hide your head in the sand .
Only one in a 100000 has the skills and/or ambition to tackle most all of these preps. So either way, accept and deal with whatever God throws your way (returning to God is not so bad…?) OR retreat to a nearby country where people have not gone woke sick and bat shit crazy (e.g., Mexico where many expat communities have formed and where the population knows how to deal with crooked gov officials and where family values still apply). Bring gold/silver and cryptos for when your pension or SS checks stop arriving or posting to your checking account. IMHO, this is a strategy that will see you surviving longer than in a collapsed insane America regardless of how well you think you may be prepped. Hungry angry mob rule will win and you will lose! Most of the world is not as evil as Zionist run America!
A few years ago American retirees built retirement homes somewhere around Baja Mexico. For a while all was good than some political garbage caused the local government to confiscate the retiree’s homes. They lost everything and had to go back to the USA to live with family or relatives.
So just because it is cheap or the government in foriegn lands looks inviting think again and have a backup plan, indeed.
Real estate in Mexico It may have changed where you can own the house and property but you can’t will it to your son or daughter. The land goes back to Mexico.
There was a similar real estate ruling long time ago in Hawaii non natives could only lease the land for 99 years then either reapply or move. Even though Hawaii is a state of America.
Religion, politics and real estate can get you in trouble no matter where you are in this world.
God bless MAGA!
Most important is keeping your ego in check and the pride of what , who , thing s of yourself to yourself
Dont Tell , Dont Comply , Dont let your guard down
When it comes and it will come , the crime familys of socialist control will lie, cheat , steal all they can on the way down .
yours is thiers to take or grab for the empire of elites who think they are special.
Rule s are for you only , not them
so when it happens , they will buy off all they can , with your s , what ever they can take .
keep a multitude of hiding places , never all in one spot , give your pantry a full load , so they will think they have it all , when they come .
The one thing that they will use is , doing what is right, buzz words , giving for each other , buzz words , for the global necessity , buzz words , and they will take all for thier stock pile
Since they have no conscience and believe they are good , and everyone gets to heaven in thier own way , thier own works , as a ladder , this for that , levels of right and wrong .
Truth , need s no defense , it always exposes , lies , and matter of time before everyone will be accountable for what they did.
Forgiveness , Relationship with God thru Jesus Christ
or Dead works of the ladder to what ever thru self, narcism, evil selfism .
God will forgive all who repent , change , turn to him in faith and follow jesus christ in belief . only 2 ways . up thru the right door , jesus christ
or down thru the wrong door that leads to final death , eternal judgement .
Christ paid it all , and he waits for those who choose the payment over selfism , fake , false ways, that lead to death
keep prepping , hide from the evil crime familys
that’s why Jesus told His guys to get a personal weapon, for defense in. Luke
He told his guys that 2 swords was enough. I don’t believe it could be successfully argued that it is for personal defense because otherwise he would have had them get 12 swords – but rather, because he knew one of them would later be cutting off Malchus’ ear, so he could heal it. Hard to do that without a sword.
I mean, I support the Bible AND personal defense, but I wouldn’t use the scriptures in question to prop up the latter point of view.
-prov. 27:12
prov. 27:12
All good advice, BUT now you have told everyone where to look lol
Cheers from Australia
Sadly, most of these articles are written for HOME-owners. I live in a small, rented downstairs condo, and it’s much more difficult to find places to stash. No interior stairs, no attic nor basement, no place for false walls. Also, I’m a single senior citizen on a very limited budget without the tools or skills necessary to make creative nooks.
In the event of a shelter-in-place, government-seizure situation, the amount of supplies that can be considered kept in “hiding” is not enough to sustain life for long.
I would welcome more articles that can find ways to help more people like me — apartment dwellers, seniors & singles, limited budgets, without tools or skills to use them. I believe there are numerous others in my situation that would like non-traditional, simple ideas in this forum.
Thank you for all the ideas, just please be open-minded to include those of us who want to, or are, prepping, but are extremely limited.
Hi zCatLady….you could take your shot gun…cover it in carpet …dump in some catnip..and call it your cat toy….there’s many things you could create for your cats that you could hide stuff in…..Peace….