If and when the government declares martial law after a disaster, it will be under the pretense of safety and security for the general public. And I’m sure that for many authorities, that will be their sole intention.
However, if the disaster is something that causes severe food and water shortages, the government could start confiscating supplies from “hoarders.” They will demonize people who have stockpiled lots of food and call them “selfish” or “unpatriotic.” They could even go door to door looking for hidden food stockpiles.
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So you have to ask yourself: If the authorities searched my home, how quickly would they find my emergency supplies? Would they find them right away, or would it take a while? Would they find everything, or would they overlook a few things?
If your emergency supplies are easy to find (in the pantry, closet, or cabinets), consider moving them to some harder-to-find locations. Not only will you keep your supplies safe from the government, but you’ll also make it harder for burglars and looters to find them.
Granted, if they search your home for long enough, they will likely find your food eventually. However, since they will have countless homes to search, they’ll probably move on after searching all the most obvious locations. As long as you don’t make them suspicious, they won’t waste time turning your entire home inside out.
Still, you may have to give up some supplies just to satisfy the authorities, but you don’t have to give up everything. Assuming you don’t want to be dependent on the food banks for your survival, hiding your survival supplies during martial law will be of the utmost importance.
Here are the best places to hide your survival supplies during martial law:
1. Among Miscellaneous Storage
If you have stacks of cardboard boxes filled with random items (clothes, documents, holiday decorations, etc.), then you can easily hide food, water, first aid supplies, and ammunition among all of it. Even if the authorities find some of it, they may not find all of it.
If you still have the original boxes for your appliances or electronics, use those too. Empty out the styrofoam or anything else inside and replace it with supplies. You could even go a step further and hide food inside old appliances and electronics.
For example, if you have an old box-style TV, hollow it out and put supplies in it. After the SHTF, no one is going to be interested in your old TV, especially if there’s no power. Look around for other obsolete devices you never use.
2. Under The Floor
If your home has a crawl space, you could create a trap door in the floor. The authorities might think to look here, but if the door is well-hidden and blends into the surrounding floor, there’s a decent chance that they won’t notice it.
3. Above The Door Frame
This won’t work for all doors, but it will work very well for doors in closets. Simply put a magnetic gun holder or safe above the door frame inside a closet.
Then, you can attach firearms to the holder. It’s not likely that the searchers, in their haste to search as many houses as they can, will even think to look there.
4. Behind Air Vents
This one is easy. Just unscrew an air vent and put some food and supplies behind it. You could also create a false air vent and put supplies behind it. It’s unlikely that anyone would think to search for supplies there.
5. Inside The Wall
There are many ways to do this. You could install some fake electric outlets and hide small items like jewelry or wads of cash behind them. Or you could cut a hiding place into the wall behind a large painting.
Another idea is to make a hiding spot behind a piece of trim. Watch the video below to see how easy this is.
6. Inside Furniture
If you’re a handy person, you could create hidden drawers and compartments on the underside of coffee tables and end tables. Or you could remove couch cushions, carefully remove the fabric, hide supplies inside the couch, then sew the fabric back into place.
You could also hide things inside your box spring. Carefully cut through the fabric along the edge of the box spring, place supplies inside it, then reattach the fabric. Most burglars and authorities would never think to look inside a box spring.
If all of this sounds like too much work, check out CovertFurniture.com. They specialize in making furniture with secret compartments, although they can be kind of expensive.
7. Inside Home Decor
When looking around your house for a place to hide your supplies, don’t just look for hiding places. Look at what’s in front of you and think about how to turn it into a hiding place. For example, if you have a large lamp with a lot of empty space inside, you could line the inside with a bag and fill it with rice.
And remember my idea about hiding supplies in your couch? Well, don’t forget about the cushions. Just cut them open, along with any decorative pillows you have, hide your items inside of them, and sew them shut again. Just be careful that you keep the sewn side of the cushions hidden and out of view.
Or if you have any potted plants, you could put a waterproof bag or container at the bottom beneath the dirt.
8. Under Floor Cabinets
No matter where you live, there is extra space beneath floor cabinets. All you have to do is remove the front panel and slide your supplies under the cabinets. Here’s a video showing how.
9. Inside Random Boxes/Bottles
Here’s an idea. Next time you have an empty bottle of bleach, shampoo, dish detergent, or any other solid-colored bottle, don’t throw it away. Instead, clean and rinse it out thoroughly, and stuff some Mylar bags of food inside.
To do this, you may have to cut off the top or bottom of the bottle, then superglue it back into place when you’re done. Few people would look twice at some old bottles of cleaning supplies underneath the sink.
10. In The Cat Box
This may sound ridiculous, but you can indeed hide items in your cat’s litter box (of course, you’ll need to own a cat for this to work). The idea is that you can wrap items in plastic bags and then store them underneath the litter. How would the authorities possibly think to look there?
To keep things more pleasant, consider having two cat boxes but only one cat box that you actually allow your cat to use. Keep the other box closed off from the cat so it won’t do its business in there (and potentially ruin whatever you have stored).
11. In A Survival Cache Away From Home
Another option, of course, would be to bury your supplies away from home. This is a common tactic used by preppers for bugging out: the idea is you can hide supplies en route to your bug out location so you can resupply along the way.
Of course, your mobility is going to be restricted by martial law, and you more than likely will not be allowed to leave the city. But still, it’s something to consider. Examples of places in town where you can hide items could include a public park, an abandoned building, off the side of hiking trails not too far from town, and so on.
Here’s a guide to survival caches and what to put in them.
12. Buried In Your Backyard
This is probably the most obvious place to hide your supplies. But unfortunately, that means it’s one of the most obvious places for the authorities to look. If you go this route, you’ll want to flatten the earth as well as you can and hide any signs that something is buried there.
If you have a garden, that could be a great place to bury some supplies (not so much that there’s no room for roots). Make use of PVC pipes, pelican cases, metal ammo cans, and food-grade plastic containers, as long as they’re 100% waterproof.
Other Ideas
Of course, there are plenty of other hiding places. Really, the only limit is your imagination. You just have to change your mindset. Instead of looking for hiding places, look at what’s in front of you and think about how to turn them into hiding places.
Here are some other articles with more ideas:
- 8 Secret Gun Safes You Can Hide Around The House
- 11 Places To Hide Your Guns Where Nobody Will See Them
- 12 Best Hiding Spots For Valuables In Your Home
- 17 Places You Can Hide Your Food Storage
More Tips
There is more to protecting your survival supplies than simply hiding them. There are several other things you can do to throw authorities off the scent or convince them you don’t have anything worth taking. Here are a few ideas.
Get Some Decoys
If the authorities really do decide to confiscate guns, food, and other supplies during martial law, then when they come to your door they aren’t going to be satisfied until they take at least some items from you.
That’s why you need to have decoys set up to make them happy. Buy a really cheap gun or two that you are more than willing to give up, and have food and some other supplies that they will seize to make them happy before they move on to the next home.
Build Ghost Guns
Ghost guns have become a rather controversial topic in our political discourse because there’s simply no way of tracking them. But this is exactly why they will be of much value during martial law.
For example, did you know that if you buy aftermarket Glock parts (such as a Brownells slide with a Polymer 80 frame) and put them together, there are no serial numbers and you can have those parts shipped directly to your home without going through an FFL dealer?
There’s simply no remote way that the government could track that. You can do similar things with other types of firearms such as AR-15’s as well.
Act Desperate
When the authorities barge down your door and begin searching your house, here’s a trick you can use in conjunction with the above strategy of having decoys: act like you’re desperate.
So when they confiscate your decoy firearms, act desperate say things like, “How can you take those? How am I supposed to protect my family now that I’m unarmed?”
All the same, when they go after your food say the same sort of things: “How am I supposed to feed my family now? That’s all we have and the stores are all closed!”
Obviously, you don’t want to complain too much or get violent lest they decide to arrest you. Just try to come off as somebody who has very little left. You really need to put the desperation in the tone of your voice.
Report That Your Items Were Stolen
You can also report that many of your items were already stolen by burglars and looters, or taken by the authorities previously.
If the authorities have a registry of firearms owners in the area and know exactly which guns you own (they knew this information about gun owners during Hurricane Katrina back in 2005), then you can report your firearms stolen to the authorities right before martial law has taken place.
Conclusion
There are many more places you can hide your valuables during martial law. All you have to do is unlock the creative side of your brain. But the authorities will be likely to overlook most of the above places and ideas, so those will be a good place to start.
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I find it funny that you write about avoiding martial law but you also support donald trump. Some of his supporters have threatened to kill State health directors because they ordered a Virus shut down. Or they protest because they have to wear a mask. Some preppers believe that the country is being attacked by ANTIFA terrorist. 79 years ago there was a massive anti-facist group in the U.S. ; It was named the U.S.
armed forces. It was also considered to be 100% patriotic to be in that group. How many of you’re related to someone who was in that group?
What makes you think I or Nicholas support Trump?
Who says that Trump will invoke martial law? Maybe it will be governors of each state or the United Nations or some form of foreign invaders. Other words do not think that a certain political organization is going to it. It can be anyone from around the world that can do it. Hell the martial law can be invoked world wide.
Guess where they will look now!
We hear “Martial Law,” but the logistics of a Nationwide Martial Law would be a nightmare for any Military Commanders. Declaring Martial Law in a city, even a major one? No problem. Declaring Martial Law in a State? It’s doable, but works the easiest on islands and peninsular land. Declaring Martial Law across the nation? Our military isn’t big enough to maintain that sort of presence in all 50 States, even with cooperation from LE in a fast manner. The Martial Law threat will creep, from cities to states, and then state to state, before they could attempt a nation wide declaration.
Maintaining Martial Law is a problem for the occupying force. There would soon be activities to thwart the attempt for one, and the terrain can easily be used against an occupying force, especially in the West, to bottleneck and restrict troop distribution. As good as real time satellite imagery is, it still has issues and blind spots in mountainous terrain.
That is what the United Nations would be for. So, yes, ML is the LAST thing this country needs.
Have two “hidden” sets of supplies. One is much more obvious than the second. This way your “stuff to let go” will be confiscated while the real supplies will be safer. Nothing is ever really safe.
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Tell your children and relatives to NEVER tell anyone about either supply. Children like to brag. Use some “thing” to encourage them not to tell. Beating them to death is counter productive, snicker!
I’m sorry! I truly believe in being prepared and anticipating disasters and emergencies. But I can’t even begin to give credence to the paranoid inventive fantasies that are sprinkled through out this essay. You’re saying the U.S. government is going to come into your home and take, steal, confiscate your food and water? Like I said, I’m sorry that goes beyond the pale for being paranoid. In the future I probably won’t be searching for your posts. I know that probably means nothing to you. In my opinion paranoia is a personal function. When you post it for other easily swayed minds then you aren’t doing your readers a favor.
I belong to some prepper subreddits, and know that not everyone is lives in the USA. Some of the members are in South America, or Eastern block countries. So this is good information for them too.
At the beginning of the shutdown, I was worried about my amassed medical supplies being taken, possibly by looters – not the government. Though masks was touch and go, for a while since those were being confiscated.
I believe that it is not paranoia to be prepare for the worst, I thank you for this information because even if they are seeing it helps me use my imagination and prepare to save supplies and food for my daughters and my self. I am a single parent and this information is crucial. Whoever don’t understand it, they are blind. in our city there were talks of Marshall Law when they began to loot. Government was really open about it. So being prepare gives you the heads up. I love doomsday preppers. I have learned a lot watching them also. Thank you so much!!!
The suggestions in the article are useful whether it’s government authorities doing the confiscating or marauders or gangs or left-wing goons or agents of a self-declared Autonomous Zone. I used to think the talk of government confiscation was over-the-top. However, LEO confiscation of firearms DID occur in Hurricane Katrina. If a situation is sufficiently bad, if the populace is sufficiently desperate, if government authorities are sufficiently eager or emboldened or unaccountable, we can’t rule out confiscation by government authorities. I never imagined my own state governor would or even could, with impunity and with mindless compliance and acquiescence by the people, and with cooperation of law enforcement, ban the right of assembly, order businesses and churches closed, throw millions out of work. I now put nothing past my government.
The government has confiscated or made law in the past that certain items must be confiscated or turned in. They did that during WWI & WWII & they can do it again if something happens. It’s only being paranoid if it doesn’t happen, but in reality it has happened & could happen again. It’s always better to think of the worse, prepare for the worse, & to hope & try to make things where the worse won’t happen. Those ideas will also help against looters during times of unrest or natural disasters, but honestly some of it I would never do. It’s seen in too many tv shows & movies & written about too many places.
Nothing personal. But you are a fool with your head buried in the sand.
I like your thought process of preparing and protecting yourself and family, no one wants the survival of their family to be forcibly dependent on the anything or anyone else. I just think maybe this post causes negative and resistful thinking on why we would be asked to comply With giving up our items of value and having to be OK with receiving basic survival essentials from them instead. If a time like this were to ever occur there would be a lot of people who aren’t fortunate enough to have what they need to survive. Then instead of worrying about the government coming into your house and taking your things you’ll have to be worrying about desperate people evading your home and doing Much worse to you and your family than the government would. If there is no reason to believe that anyone has anything more than the other person you’d be much safer. So yes by all means try to conceal what you can so that you don’t have to solely be dependent on the government But try to see the bigger picture Of just how chaotic and fearful things would be if you had to worry aboutYour family’s life every day because you have a few more boxes of food and toilet paper than most of your neighbors.
And those “basic essentials” you would receive, could very well be your own supplies given back to you….
I get the point of hiding I plain sight, but some of these are a bit odd. The kitty litter will scatter with a mild kick.
The boxes in the storage area will be turned upside down and dumped. You will be asked if you have guns or ammo beforehand. Best have thought this one out a bit better. One answer to this dilemma..JOHN WICK….
Bury in back yard?? Yep–and put a shrub or plant on top. Then mulch. Perfect camouflage.
To those who think this won’t happen, we were in Baton Rouge when Katrina and Rita hit the gulf. Guess what? I saw on TV that FEMA did nothing for several weeks. It took John Travolta and Oprah to take the food and supplies that people needed. I’m not depending on them ever again. Then New Orleans had martial law, no have things ready, an older house is better because it is more likely to have a basement and an attic where you can put things. God bless you.
Half of my preps are poisoned. Only I know which half is which. You’ve got a fifty percent chance of dying if you take and eat or drink any of my food preps. Most likely the ones doing the confiscation (local cops, NATO, Military, etc.) will take the preps that are most desirable to them (commercially packaged foodstuffs metal can goods, Mylar packaged freeze dried and ready to eat foods, nitrogen packaged dried wheat beans, rice, etc.) and destroy the rest (home canned foods, frozen foods, garden crops and livestock. (None of the food or blankets or fuel will go to a distribution center to be rationed out equally to the people that would actually need it. All the people will get is Government MREs and water doled out at some control point. So make sure you have poisoned the food, put methyl alcohol in with the regular alcoholic beverages, reloaded military rounds with something useless like gunpowder and abrasive sand. Put ground glass, oxalic acid, or lye into foodstuffs. Make chocolate candies out of Ex-lax, roll up poisoned cigarettes with tobacco and poison ivy or jimson weed and repackage them into original packages, inject water bottles with magnesium citrate and Ipecac. Total Resistance is the name of the game.
I don`t agree at all with your poison food ideal. To many risks with this ideal.
Are you ok with killing children and babies who could be feed you poison? You need your head checked out fast.
Agree
I certainly agree with your logic. If some “person” is stealing my supplies during an emergency, let them eat poison. But just make sure somebody else in your group knows what is safe. Because if something happens to the only person who knows what is safe to eat, it could end in disaster.
Dude, you seriously need to get some psychological help.
Lol, martial law will never happen. They can’t even control sections of some cities now, what makes you think during an incident they’d be able too?
Even calling back every military member, calling up the National Guard and activating all reserve police officers we are still only talking 3-4 million people, in a country of 330,000 million. 1% of the population enforcing unjust laws will never go over. And don’t bring up “The UN Army”, there is no UN army, 50,000-70,000 3rd world country armed forces on loan for cash is not any army.
“””They can’t even control sections of some cities now”””
Only because they don’t want to–they love it when the Chicago thugs kill each other..and I don’t lose sleep either.
Are you familiar with the battle of Thermopolese
The U.S Military is highly trained and heavily armed so they will have no problem taking out the resisting people.
It was a very small road on a steep hillside and water to the side I believe. The Spartans just plugged up the road with soldiers and kept it plugged until they were flanked by the use of a small trail. Flanking is always the answer. Avoid confrontation and bypass difficult obstructions. Go the long way. Best to have the long way covered also as it usually will be a small force used in a flanking movement.
April 26, 2020. Pete, We’ve been living under Martial Law “lite” for a couple months now – all in the name of “safety”. And most folks seem to be really good with this.
I like the UN! Them there Blue Helmets show up awful purdy in my scope?
You think that anyone buying ghost gun parts are not being identified, think again. In the 70s it was discovered that most if not all of the child pron sites were government ran as traps. I will bet that the government has records of every ghost gun part that is shipped anywhere and because they know that you will only buy those if you want to hid from government, you will be the first target. They also are probably the ones selling the books on how to make ghost guns or at least get the address that every one of the books are sent to.
If you are going to make a ghost gun, get the book and parts at a gun show, and make sure no surveillance camera is recording your actions, and use cash only.
No internet in the 70’s Skippy…
Another thing to keep in mind is some of the people searching may well have extensive experience searching dope houses on raids. The dope man can be pretty imaginative when it comes to hiding his stuff and narcotics and SWAT officers have learned many of the tricks, including many not mentioned here.
Another location not mentioned is a concealed cupboard under stairs. This works best with paneling rather than drywall. Even though there’s a closet under the stairwell of my home, from 6′ at the back of the finished closet, there’s considerable unused space along the stair run. Don’t make your access in the closet (that’s too obvious), but make it in the room outside. Determine where you want to cut an opening, but make sure the edge of the opening won’t be at a panelling joint. After you’ve cut and finished off your stair cache to your satisfaction, panel that wall. That panel section is not glued with construction adhesive and nailed, but use a tacky but seperatable adhesive like 3M or double sided tape an then nail. Have the trim for the paneling cut to fit, but countersink screws rather than nails so it can be accessed easier and not damaging to the trim. Fill the holes with spackling (it comes loose easier than putty), but measure and write down where those screwholes are for when you need to access your supplies. A false wall plug at the bottom and a false cable TV box at the top, gives easy gripping for removing the panel. You can get creative and you’re only limited by your imagination. Rolling my great grandmother old upright piano into that spot also discourages searches. That 100+ year old piano also has space in the bottom for stacking canned goods without affecting the playability of the piano. I can store enough canned goods in it alone for a 2 month supply of 2x a day meals for two people. Soup, chili and stews might sound monotonous, but when you’re hungry it won’t be. If you’re wanting to keep uncanned foodstuffs (dried rice, beans or anything that usually comes in a box. Take it out of the box and put it in glass or heavy plastic container (glass is best for this really, as a rodent can chew through plastic), this keeps the creepy crawlies from getting into your stash. Sugar, flour, powdered milk, powdered eggs keep for a long time stored this way.
It really is up to you to determine what your needs are, and you’re only limited by your imagination. Yes, some cache projects require some skills with tools, but most folks have a family member or friend that has these skills and can teach you how, if you really want to learn.
I think by “street gutter” you actually meant storm drain. You can’t hide ANYTHING in a street gutter. And you would need a means of protecting and securing your items in the storm drain, like large sized pvc pipe with sealed caps, and chains or cables. Otherwise, good article.
All these ideas are great. As are similar ones from other sites. The only problem I have with all these posts is the fact that you can probably bet that some of the people doing the confiscations have also read them. If they don’t have time to properly check the first time around, they may come back for a more thorough search.
Karl, correct. But if the authorities have the time to check everywhere they will find everything. But you can only do what you can do. To find food they just need to bring in a customs inspection food sector dog. But those dogs are not common.
Case in point hiding things in back garden to find need a metal detector?! Naugh. Just need a very high tech watering can with water. Sprinkle water and where it runs into the ground dig and there is the survival cache. Easy counter to this is loosen up lots of spots in garden. But if they persist they will find.