We need more secret compartments.

[Furry Alairia and Algeria]

But then who will ruin our life? WHO WILL RUIN OUR LIVES?!?

Mom.

She can't debate on how Israel should have Palestine, or how Palestine should have Israel. Not even Dad. I ask again, WHO WILL RUIN OUR LIVES?!?

[Northwest Slobovia]

This thread is why you should never watch the National Treasure movies drunk or stoned.

Oh, that reminds me. If you're going to look for secret compartments in really old buildings, have someone stand lookout. The librarian was not amused last time. ... Well, I honestly thought she was very amused, but not on the outside.

Maybe if you hadn't been carrying the crowbar...

I've actually seen secret rooms in old castles. Often, they were simply the result of many renovations and uneven floors/irregular walls, and were mostly sealed off as a result. There's a nice one in the ...grrr, can't think of the name... castle in Bergen, Norway, where the building was expanded by building a new outside wall around a couple sides of the old one. Somebody had wedged a narrow staircase into the gap, so there was a whole "secret" wing of the second floor. Or at least that's what it looked like, but I couldn't get in there, 'cause there were signs saying the second floor wasn't necessarily structurally sound any more...

[Lunatic Goofballs]

Oh, that reminds me. If you're going to look for secret compartments in really old buildings, have someone stand lookout. The librarian was not amused last time. ... Well, I honestly thought she was very amused, but not on the outside.

Maybe if you hadn't been carrying the crowbar...

I've actually seen secret rooms in old castles. Often, they were simply the result of many renovations and uneven floors/irregular walls, and were mostly sealed off as a result. There's a nice one in the ...grrr, can't think of the name... castle in Bergen, Norway, where the building was expanded by building a new outside wall around a couple sides of the old one. Somebody had wedged a narrow staircase into the gap, so there was a whole "secret" wing of the second floor. Or at least that's what it looked like, but I couldn't get in there, 'cause there were signs saying the second floor wasn't necessarily structurally sound any more...

Exploring old castles is fun. But there are so few that allow it.

[Nervium]

I used to stick keys underneath drawers...


Then forget about them.

[Rebellious Fishermen]

I, too, need more secret compartments in my life.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Maybe if you hadn't been carrying the crowbar...

I've actually seen secret rooms in old castles. Often, they were simply the result of many renovations and uneven floors/irregular walls, and were mostly sealed off as a result. There's a nice one in the ...grrr, can't think of the name... castle in Bergen, Norway, where the building was expanded by building a new outside wall around a couple sides of the old one. Somebody had wedged a narrow staircase into the gap, so there was a whole "secret" wing of the second floor. Or at least that's what it looked like, but I couldn't get in there, 'cause there were signs saying the second floor wasn't necessarily structurally sound any more...

Exploring old castles is fun. But there are so few that allow it.

Old buildings in general, the more renovations the better. Lots of strange old stuff gets sealed off, or just locked up and forgotten.

And if you can get into buildings where they are hiding stuff, there's all sorts of fun to be had. For a while, I worked at the university of mumble, mumble, which had a nuclear engineering program. They had a swimming pool reactor, but prefered that not too many people knew where it was. For various reasons, I knew it was the the mumble, mumble building, and a couple of weeks of pacing off hallways in the basement led me to a set of locked doors which must have led to a big space that wasn't on the building map. It was suggested that I not do that any more.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

Exploring old castles is fun. But there are so few that allow it.

Old buildings in general, the more renovations the better. Lots of strange old stuff gets sealed off, or just locked up and forgotten.

And if you can get into buildings where they are hiding stuff, there's all sorts of fun to be had. For a while, I worked at the university of mumble, mumble, which had a nuclear engineering program. They had a swimming pool reactor, but prefered that not too many people knew where it was. For various reasons, I knew it was the the mumble, mumble building, and a couple of weeks of pacing off hallways in the basement led me to a set of locked doors which must have led to a big space that wasn't on the building map. It was suggested that I not do that any more.

They always say that when you search for secret compartments.

[New Chalcedon]

When you go to a friend's house, a restaurant or airport terminal, do you ever search for secret compartments? I do. People look at me funny from time to time, and sometimes I'm asked to stop. But that just makes me more motivated to find their secret compartments!

Unfortunately, there are a lot fewer secret compartments around than there ought to be. Come over to my house sometime. I have secret compartments everywhere! With my kids, I need em. So why don't more people have secret compartments? If I were a furniture maker, a general contractor or an electronics manufacturer, I'd at least offer a secret compartment as an option on everything I build. Let's face it; the world is a far more interesting place with more secret compartments!

Now clearly, I am not going to give an exact number of secret compartments I have, or their locations(It's a secret). I don't expect that from you either. But perhaps we can discuss the obsolete secret compartments of our past. Because the younger we are, the more secret compartments we have(except for me of course). So what have you? What sorts of secret compartments have you had, or possibly still have(perhaps they are declassified)?

I'll start: When I was a kid, the fabric on the bottom of my bed's boxspring came loose leaving a cavernous inner chamber. Well I quickly re-purposed it into my longest lasting and most successful secret compartment. All I needed to to was find a way to bind it back together in a secure but resealable fashion. Fortunately for me, velcro was all the fad at the time. I'm pretty sure that I still had a couple things inside it when that bed finally got tossed in the dump. Nobody was ever the wiser. Until now.

My grandparents own a large-scale model ship, about 4' long and 3.5' tall. It's mounted on a desk, and the desk does have one hidden(ish) compartment about it.

[Vladislavija]

Has this secret compartments thread moved to some secret subforum?

[Maineiacs]

I keep losing things amid all my piles of unsorted junk, does that count?

[Reploid Productions]

I can just imagine the field day Goof would have at the Winchester Mystery House. Secret everythings everywhere!

Secret compartments are nifty though. My parents attempted to use various ones to hide Christmas presents, however my sister and I were scarily good at locating them, including the plumbing access panel that required moving furniture and screwdrivers to get into. My favorite one as a kid was in my desk- the way it was built left a great deal of open space hidden around/behind the side drawers. So long as I wasn't too greedy and avoided stuffing it to the point it interfered with the drawers, I could hide a wide variety of stuff in there, easily accessed by pulling the drawer(s) completely out of the desk.