Steps

1. Avoid the typical hiding spots where most people know where to look:
   
   
   • The top shelf of your closet
   • In your pillowcase
   • Amongst other books
   • In a lock safe
   • In your handbag/purse/old backpack
   • Behind your TV or computer
   • Under a pile of stuffed animals
   • In your underwear drawer
   • In the little space under your bureau
   • In your bed, between the mattress and the frame
2. Put your diary inside a desktop computer. Most computers have lots of empty space inside the case, and very few people think to look inside them. People, and parents especially, may not be very good at dealing with technology and not even realize it can open or that there is any space inside. Just be sure not to store it somewhere where it will damage your computer, start a fire or block airflow to components that need cooling.
3. Tape it to the underside of a chair, desk, table, or interior of a drawer.
4. Put it under a loose floorboard in a hardwood floor (best for old houses).
5. Conceal the cover of your diary with a book cover (make it look like a very boring book so that if anyone finds it, they won't want to read it!) and hide it amongst your other books.
6. Make a hollow book and put your diary inside.
7. Act natural when anyone comes into your room as if you have nothing to hide. This way, that person will be less likely to look around for your diary!
8. Make a decoy. If a nosy person comes into your room and starts snooping, get a little notebook and quickly write 'my diary' on it and then drop it onto your bed. Casually leave the room. Maybe she or he will read the decoy diary and, finding very little there, simply leave the room and you will have nothing to worry about. Add bogus entries every so often, as if they had really happened, but that the snooper can recognize as fantasy (such as your fantastic trip to San Francisco, or how you spent two years in a foster home, or how you rescued a dog from the pound and now it is your best friend). This will make them wonder if other things you wrote were true or fantasy, and you can tell people that you want to be a writer so you make up a lot of things. Later, when you're done with that diary, go back and put a code by the fantasy entries before you hide it permanently. The famous writer Anais Nin did this for years!
9. See if there is enough room to stick the diary between the back of a framed picture and the wall. Nobody looks behind pictures.
10. Lift a removable ceiling panel (if you have one) and place your diary (or anything else you have to hide) on one next to it. Why would anybody look in your ceiling?
11. Slip your diary inside a newspaper roll, and set the newspaper next to your chair, on the shelf, wherever a newspaper looks natural but discreet. An example of a bad spot is on an end table, where it may seem to invite someone to pick it up, open it, and find the diary by mistake.
12. Write your diary in a completely ordinary-looking school notebook (you might even put school notes on the first few pages) and keep it with other school stuff.
13. Consider the alternatives. If there are absolutely no good hiding spots you can access easily or your nosy person has already discovered them all:
    
    
    • Consider writing your diary in a shorthand or code that only you understand, so that even if intercepted no one will know how to read what you have written. Note, however, that almost any code that isn't generated by a computer can be broken by someone with enough time and experience, and that if you write in a code that doesn't look like normal English, it will be obvious to everyone that you're hiding something. Also, the more complex the code, the longer it will take to write out and the longer it will take to decypher when you want to read it. The more practice you have with your particular method, the quicker your writing/reading will become.
    • Or, as a twist to the above, consider writing in a language with a script different from your own; for example, Japanese. It works best if you choose a language few people know and/or you have an interest in (if anyone finds it, you can always say it's practice or something).
    • Consider instead keeping an electronic diary on a computer. Write in MS Word or a similar program, and then put a password only you know on the file when you save it. Then, put it in a folder and put a different password on that folder, giving an extra layer of security. For even better hiding, place the passworded folder in a directory on your computer that people would be unlikely to look in. For example, name the folder something innocuous, like "data3", and then place it in a directory called "utilities", instead of naming it "diary" and putting it in "My Documents".

Tips

• If nosy people don't know you keep a diary, they won't think to look for it. Don't be flashy about writing in your diary or snotty about it being secret, interesting, and private.
• Read the book "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh to find out what to do if evil classmates actually do get hold of your diary. It's not a pretty sight but this book will help you deal with it. Harriet is also a great notebook-keeper.
• If you already have a computer, it is not that difficult to transfer files onto it, and then simply make them hard to find, and then hard to access. Good places to hide files might be in iTunes folders (works REALLY well), moviemaker folders, and anything that might seem like an unlikely hiding place. Another plus to this idea is that many adults/parents/nosy people are not very experienced with technology, which makes it even harder to find the diary!
• Put it on your mp3 player! Just make sure it is password protected!
• Another great place to put your virtual diary is on a jumpdrive or memory stick. It may be easier to hide than an actual book.
• Also if you want keep 2 diarys, in 1 diary put boges, boring entrys and put it in a obvious place. in the 2nd diary put all your secrets and personal stuff and hide it in a safe place. this is a good place: If you hang head first over the edge of your bed you will see the bottom mattress, under the botom mattress you might see metal bars, well that whiteish tanish sheet on top on those bars is a compartment that cvers the wood and springs under your bed. Hang over the end of your bed and tear it, not all the way just a small tear about a foot across and slide your 2nd personal diary in there, make sure its in reach of your hand. But, dont try to attempt this if you don't have a long blanket.  Also, you might have an inch of mattress hanging off, tuck the torn sheet under that, if your mattress doesnt hang down a bit, just use a long blanket to cover it. WARNING! DO NOT ATTEMPT IF YOUR PARENTS WILL BE ANGRY! OR IF YOUR SIBLING IS NEAR OR IN THE ROOM WITH YOU!

Warnings

• Never:
  • lose your diary. It could fall into the wrong hands!
  • take it to school with you. Kids ALWAYS go through other kids' bags and will read whatever they find!
• Remember that anyone, including your parents, can read this page, and therefore might have a better idea of where to look.
• Never leave around just because the diary came with a lock. A person can shake it around and the lock will just snap off!

Things You'll Need

• A big hollow book (optional)
• A diary
• A pen or pencil
• A computer (optional)
• A safe