Top Secret Tissue Box

If you're looking for somewhere sneaky to hide items in plain sight, a tissue box is a great place. A common sight in just about any room of the house, you can stow items inside while the box continues dispensing tissues. I've seen this idea in a few places before but nobody offered a solution on how to open and close the box while maintaining a completely untouched appearance. I've addressed that problem here with an invisible magnetic closure.

Step 1: Materials

-Tissue box of the proper style with hole on top. The ones that drop low down in front are less suitable for this.

-Tape

-Small rare earth magnets

-Extra cardboard from a cereal box or another tissue box

-Scissors

-Knife

-Hot glue

Step 2: Open Up

The first step is one of the most important. Carefully separate the flaps on one side of the box. Make sure not to damage any of the outside. You are going to want this to look completely untouched. I had success using a serrated knife to cut through the glue holding the flaps together. Once you have the flaps apart, remove the glue as best you can. The magnets will be placed where the glue used to be so that the thickness of the magnets is not visible.

Step 3: Shelf

If using a brand new box of tissues, you will need to remove some. Decide how large you want your storage area to be and remove the appropriate amount of tissues. Cut a piece of another cardboard box to fit inside your box. The easiest way to do this is to use the bottom of your box as an outline for sizing, then make a flap on each side. In the photo you can see the box I took apart already has a usable flap so I kept it and added another one that I marked in pen. After your shelf is cut out, insert it into the tissue box with the flaps facing down. If you face them up it will be much more difficult to secure.

Step 4: Magnet Calibration

Now that your box has some empty storage space inside, you will need to add magnets to close it up neatly. You don't want any fasteners visible on the outside of the box. First you'll need to test your magnets. Use some scrap cardboard from your shelf and place it between 2 of the magnets. Pull the magnets apart. If they are difficult to separate, add another layer of cardboard and try again. Once you find the right number of layers (mine was 3), create a neat stack of cardboard, subtract 1 layer because the tissue box will provide one of the layers, and glue your magnets to the cardboard stack.

Step 5: Add Magnets

The cardboard stack you created is going to go inside the box. Your magnet placement is very important. Make sure you put them where they will not cause the cardboard to bulge out. This is typically in the same places you removed glue from. I used a magnet inside and a magnet outside to find the proper alignment. Once I found the right spot using the magnets outside the box, I glued the inside magnets in place and removed the outside magnets. Once the inside magnets were done, I attached another set to the inside of the flap.

Step 6: Test!

Open and close your magnet snaps to make sure everything is lined up properly and that the normal end of your tissue box looks the same as the end with the magnet closure. If not, you can make adjustments or you could always add the magnets to both ends!

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, please consider voting for me in the Hiding Places contest!

As always please feel free to ask questions or post any suggestions in the comments.

Comments

[gavthelegoman]

what happens if the tissues run out?

[DanC66]

I like this one for its simplicity and ease of make 'n' use.

[mcgypsy9]

I love this idea but in my household, someone would, without even giving it a second thought, throw it away thinking it was empty and they would not even consider the weight if another item were inside!

[mdeloor]

I've done something similar with the cube shaped tissue boxes using adhesive velcro dots. But I like your magnet idea much better! My purpose for doing it was to make the cube shaped tissue box refillable. I like their size, but the stores charge twice the price for half the number of tissues. Being able to refill the cubes is a win win for me.

Also if you open them up completly as you also done, and lay them flat, you can mist the surface with either a decorative spray paint to match your decor, or a spray adhesive. If you do the spray adhesive you can cover the box with a light weight fabric or even another type of paper to better fit your decor. I have one in my bedroom that has a combo of fabric & gold & white paper doillies.

Looks like I'll be modifying it to your much improved magnet method! Thanks so much for the great "ibile". You've got my vote!

[gravityisweak]

Thank you! I like your idea of custom coverings too. It got me thinking it might be fun to make some of the boxes from scratch using other cardboard. Unfold your tissue box and trace the template. You could do one for a kids room using their favorite cereal box or something similar. Thanks for the vote!

[nearboston]

Great idea. Did you ever think about replacing the outer most rare earth magnets with 2 small pieces of that flexible rubber like magnetic sheet? It would reduce any bulging

[gravityisweak]

No, but thats a great idea. I did consider using just a thin strip of metal, like a cutout from an altoids tin or something similar but I didn't have any lying around. The bulging is really hardly noticeable at all, but the magnets i used were quite small.

[Inspectorj]

Niiiiiice!

[JemBobs]

i could hide things from my sister in there.

love it. Never seen or heard of it before!

[mikeasaurus]

So THAT'S where the sour patch gummies have been hiding!

[gravityisweak]

YUP! Right on the bedside table for easy midnight snacking. It's also a great place to hide the empty box, but very sad when that's all you find.

[Matlek]

Simple but efficient! And no one will open a tissue box to see if there is something hidden inside!

[DIY Hacks and How Tos]

Clever. The problem with most hiding places is that they aren't functional. Great solution.