This post, an original compilation of Whatnot, has been written in accordance with all the rules of Biff’s Whatnot Wednesday.

I thought of baking cookies today so I pulled my cookie sheets out of the cupboard and extracted my laptop from between two of them. Later, when I went looking in another cupboard I discovered where I’d hidden my cell phone.

Are you wondering about my strange storage places? Mind you, if you’re a worrywart like me, you won’t even have to ask, as you probably have all your own hiding places for your valuables. The laptop was sitting in plain sight on the table when we were ready to leave for a shopping trip. Couldn’t have that!

I read years ago that if you’re going to store valuables in the house, you’re better off to keep it in the freezer where no thief will think to look. (Except that now I’ve told. 😉 ) I’ve never done it, mainly for lack of cash to hide, but it made perfect sense to me. I don’t doubt that house-dwellers have various little nooks and crannies where they stuff their stuff for safekeeping. (Beware, though, about storing anything in a hot place like the oven.)

But do keep a record — and do warn your spouse and children that things are not always what they seem. One lady gave away a pair of her husband’s old socks that he never wore anymore — without checking. He nearly had a stroke when he got home, did a random double-check, and learned that his over $1000 nest egg had been donated to the Salvation Army.

To add insult to injury, they hadn’t deemed the socks worth keeping and had tossed them in the dumpster — without checking. That evening guess who was down at the local landfill searching for a pair of socks with a wad of cash stuffed inside. Another lady, trying on shoes in a charity shop, found $1100 stuffed in the toe of a shoe. Bless her, she was honest enough to turn it in.

Yes, do tell someone trustworthy that some things are hidden and they should beware of doing a random discard. Some elderly couples, not trusting banks, squirreled away their life savings with no one the wiser. Money caches in old mattresses and such has gone up in smoke.

Back to the freezer. I read yesterday that you should NOT store your coffee in the freezer. It’s apt to lose flavor. And since our morning java is pretty important, we do want to keep it fresh — and safe. Don’t leave it on the shelf where a burglar may find it; rather, keep it in the back of your filing cabinet, or hidden behind the dictionaries in your bookcase. (You never know, a thief might snitch your novels.)