Doortop Stash

By Sean Michael Ragan
Category: Furniture, Home
Time Required: 2 hours
Difficulty: Moderate

Pop quiz: What does the top edge of say, your utility closet door look like? I’m betting that you’ve never seen it, even if you’ve lived in your home for awhile. And although there’s not a lot of room to hide stuff in there, well, if you’re like me, the stuff you want to hide is usually on the smaller side. Not many people think of the space inside the door as a hiding spot, but it’s right there in easy reaching distance when you need to get to it. And it’s devious enough that, yes, I think this trick will still be effective even after I blog it all over the web.

You’ll need a suitable hollow-core interior door, a cigar tube, a few tools, and some other odds ‘n’ ends.

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Steps

Step #1: Clean tube (optional)

Just for appearances, I removed the painted label from my cigar tube. Obviously it's not strictly necessary for the stash to work.
Put on protective rubber gloves.
Pour out a little Goof-Off in a stainless steel bowl.
Dip a Scotch Brite pad in the solvent and vigorously scrub the cigar tube.
It takes a bit of elbow grease, but eventually the label should come off.
Wipe the tube clean with a paper towel and let it dry.

4 Responses to Doortop Stash

Sean Michael Ragan on October 13th, 2011 at 3:14 am said:

Jeeem-

Thanks for your comment. I consciously chose to use a container with a screw-top lid to help alleviate the danger of the container popping loose from the lid, from which it is suspended, and falling into the empty space inside a hollow-core door. If you have a solid-core door or the depth of the recess you cut doesn’t penetrate beyond the solid upper rim of the door, this is not a concern.

Cheers-
SMR

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Tod Shorter on April 13th, 2012 at 2:27 pm said:

internet-
The best and cheapest place to find cigar tubes are on ebay. Though you might be able to purchase one from a local news agents but it is likely to contain the cigar.

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Tom Kozak on January 23rd, 2013 at 6:16 pm said:

just keep watching the trash, glancing in dumpsters, etc. pretty much everything you’ll ever need turns up eventually. just don’t eat any of it.

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Jeff Johnson on May 7th, 2013 at 9:41 am said:

You could do something similar to make a hidden door lock. If the hole held a spring loaded pin that went into the frame, a magnet could pull the pin down and release the door.

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