DH has and hidden something valuable "for safety"

Having a lot of belongings feeds into his anxiety. If he could let go of some of it, that would help him.

How annoying OP I have had many elderly relatives who hid things over the years. I love the term ‘squirrelling’ from a PP. However the strangest one I ever saw was when a friend bought a very old house.They decided to remodel the separate toilet and bathroom into one room. Knocking through the wall they found hundreds of pounds sandwiched between the plaster and the wall. The wall had then been wallpapered several times over.When were the previous owners ever going to get the money out? The money was so old it wasn’t even legal tender anymore. This was over forty years ago and I still ponder on it😂.

DH keeps his watches in a pair of socks

You might think I'm mad, but 'Asking the Pixies' has proven to work for myself, my husband and many doubting friends.
Tell him to stand quietly in an area where he last remembers having his watch. He can close his eyes if it helps, but he must say out loud and very clearly, "Dear Pixies. I have lost my watch. Please find it and return it to me. Thank you."

The lost item is then quite easily found, even somewhere you've looked before.
Well, anything is worth a try :)

Oh I did this with my grandmother’s ring she left me about 6 years ago - god knows where I put it “for safekeeping”. I suspect when we move house I may finally find it.

No help with this item, but we've started taking a photo on our phone of where things are hidden (when we go on holiday) as we had this problem once!

Christ, I couldn't cope with this. I have enough trouble finding things as it is, without someone actively hiding them.

@Beebopwasthebest And he hid my car keys between the beach towels in the airing cupboard..

Why did this maniac hid your car keys? 🤔

My mum used to do that - I called it squirreling. Although not with anything valuable, just things like her bus pass.

In future try to appeal to his sense of logic: if you hide a valuable item and can't remember where it is, if you were to be burgled you wouldn't know if the burglars had stolen it or whether it was still hidden.

I wouldn’t assist at all.

We have two safes but as bedside tables so not really used as safes but they do lock and weigh a lot!

My husband would probably hide something under a floor board.

I swear this is how half of archaeological discoveries are made...

"I hid 'abcd' for safety..."

2000 years later

"Crikey Wilfred! We've just dug up the find of the century!"

No man who has a waterproof watch EVER goes near water with it if the watch is expensive. Could be a Rolex designed to go to the Titanic, it gets put to one side.

My Grandad hid my late Grandma's jewellery and wouldn't tell anyone where it was, even when he had to go into a home. Family searched for it unsuccessfully - the house was going to be cleared and sold. I found it in the first place I looked...
No suggestions on where the watch might be though.

Toilet cistern if the watch is waterproof.

Why does it matter? Surely if it's your car keys you'd need to look, but a watch, can't you just wait for it to turn up?

My DD forgot where she had hidden her rings, not using the safe, they were found under the marital mattress.
My friend was not so lucky, as she remembered a few days after she had thrown out the old Tampax box.

@Beebopwasthebest I can't help you with places to look beyond what people have already said, but have you heard of Tile? https://www.tile.com/en-gb

You can put tiles on your keys, in your wallet, not sure whether they make one small enough to stick on the back of a watch. Then you can call the tile from your phone and find your keys etc or whatever the tile is stuck on. I use it to find my keys all the time as I am also prone to putting keys in ridiculous places.

Also if you leave the tile somewhere when you're out, the tile app on your phone will tell you where your tile was last seen. Helped me when I left my keys in a pub, I could see on the map where I'd left them!

Might help you avoid or deal with these situations in the future. Hope you find the watch soon!

Where would he put it if he was hiding it now?

In some oven gloves? (Now I’m going to have to find a safer place…..!).

A photo would be my suggestion. Email or secure folder (as long as you remember the password 🤣)
I have a list of things I can't find at the moment.
None of them valuable, just irritating.
Oh, and St Anthony can FRO, he never listens to me at all 🙄

Glad I'm not the only one whose husband keeps changing where he hides the car keys from hypothetical burglars.

Just let him look. It's his watch. But photo on phone or message to himself and partner is a good idea. However given some of the replies on here eg sleeping near the Christmas presents perhaps it isn't as someone may hack/steal your phones

As I have never been toOP's house, I have no suggestions on where to look - if I needed to hide something, I would look at my surroundings and wait for inspiration to strike.

But I would love to know how this situation has come about. Is there not a place where he usually keeps his watch? Either on his wrist, or if he takes it off at night, to shower or whatever, some obvious surface, or at a push, a bedroom drawer? Or, if he is in the habit of expecting burglary at any moment, why can't he just hide it in the same place every time? Or has he just been randomly overcome with the idea that today is the day you will be burgled? It all seems a bit irrational and obsessive🤔

This gave me a chuckle! 😆