HIDING LIFTS FROM PARENTS
I am the queen of deception and manipulation, the stakes are high for me already because my parents are abusive and it makes being caught so so so much worse. But I got you! Here are my tips for hiding your lifting from parents. By the way, hiding things is a long term process, if you aren’t aware. Everything you say and do can add up to suspicion. And I mean EVERYTHING (well, for me and my situation anyway, but it’s better to be safe than sorry).
First, you’re gonna have to change how you do things. And by things I mean shopping. NEVER buy things (when you do buy) full price, ESPECIALLY if it’s clothing. Start being all about the best deals (which you should be, anyway!). Start op/thrift shopping occasionally. Do clothing or stuff swaps with friends and let your parents know that. Your parents have gotta believe that you KNOW how to shop cheap (and also, I recommend you actually start learning how to do this if you ever decide to stop lifting!) Also it is a good idea for you to be saving money, have a job, yadda yadda. If you don’t have a job this makes this 100x more important. If you’ve got expensive taste, lie about how much the stuff costs in the first place. Or just say you’ve got it on sale, or thrifted it brand new omg what a steal ;)!
Something you’ve also gotta know how to do well is TETRIS. lmao. Not the game, but how to compact things and pack well. Practice a lot at home. The reason for this is when you come home with all your stuff, you won’t be carrying all your bags with things in them, you’ll only have one bag. This is important as well if you lie and say you’re studying at a library etc. Before you go home, roll, fold, shove everything into one bag so it looks like you hardly got anything at all in the first place. I’ll make another post later on how I do this in 5 minutes (it’ll be a video). You can really stuff an almost 1k haul in one tiny backpack. I promise. JUST PRACTICE.
If you need to hide hardcore (like me), specifically for bras, panties, and small clothing items, when you need to wash them take them into the shower or bath with you. Fill up a sink or bucket and let them soak with water and soap/washing liquid while you shower or bathe. After you get out, just scrub them and y'know, get the stains and clean them, rinse under clean water. Hide them within your towel and take them into your room, and squeeze excess water with your towel and hang them to dry in a place that can’t be seen. Bras and panties should be hand washed anyway, makes them last longer!
When your parents ask where you got a clothing item or whatever, just be like ‘oh it was on sale at _ (insert store)! It was $10 marked down from $30’. USE SALES AS EXCUSES MORE THAN STUFF LIKE ‘a friend gifted it to me’. Also, you could say you found it an op/thrift shop. In my area thrift stores always carry store brand stuff anyway, so it’s believeable. My parents think I legitimately spend only $30-$40 whenever I go “shopping”, which here is equivalent to ~3 or 4 hours of pay at minimum wage.
ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO GET RID OF TAGS, BARCODES, even the brand name if you can. Take them off before you get home or when you get home, take them off and make them completely illegible (I keep tearing until its just confetti). Or if you drink cans of soda shove them in there and then throw it out.
When hiding stuff, DON’T KEEP IT IN ONE PLACE. It’s MUCH BETTER to be caught with a SMALL AMOUNT of items than EVERYTHING you’ve ever gotten, ever. I hide stuff under my bed. On top of my closet. Under the pile of clothes in my closet. Underneath the messy pile of cords in a box. Behind my nail polish collection. Inside books (stickers, flat items can be stored in books). Inside my school bag if I have to. In the back of every single drawer. Behind my table. Hidden inside every purse/bag I own. Sure, it might be harder to find a specific item later for you, but this is the same case for your parents. Also when it’s spread out this much it ends up being 5 items max in each location, which is MUCH LESS SUSPICIOUS.
Going shopping all the time can also be suspicious. Make believeable lies like you’re going to a library to study with a friend, or you’re going to a friends house, or even if you’re hardcore like me say you have a club after school that you go to and instead of going to that go to the shops and lift (for clubs say it’s something like sports club, because you can’t prove it with work. Or say it’s art club and draw/paint shit occaisonally so you have something to show when they ask what you do there). Always tetris your stuff, make it look like you didn’t shop at all (UNLESS it’s food, just have it out, that’s really easy to lie about. Say you got hungry and popped into a store).
I know, this may seem EXTREME. But it honestly isn’t. Most people live with their parents for an entire 18 or more years, and if you plan to live with your parents for 1, 2, 3 or more years, you can’t risk it. To not be caught takes a lot of planning, a lot of time, and a lot of willpower.
