An old saying:
When your family comes, it is a visit. When his family visit it is "inspection".

Designate one room to be off-limits, put all stuff there and switch your regular doorknob
with a doorknob with a simple but effective outdoor like a lock:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002F4HGUG/ref=asc_df_B002F4HGUG4939313/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B002F4HGUG&linkCode=df0&hvadid=168470783755&hvpos=1o6&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13720312384308015876&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007783&hvtargid=pla-281541871903

Lock the door and tell your family that this room is off limits, it is locked and there is no access to it
because you have there some stuff that is off limits for kids.. .... fill the blank. Be it some old precious pictures,
or china or tax documents or whatever. You need to keep it locked because this is the only way
the kids can stay away from it, you tried different approaches and something always goes broken
or misplaced so to keep them off trouble you are just leaving this room locked.

Done.

Anonymous wrote:I had this issue when my sister came for an extended stay. She is very jealous of our financial situation and has been known to help herself to things. I put all our records and valuable jewelry in a big plastic tub and had a lock put on a closet upstairs. I asked my husband to take incoming mail to his office during the visit. (I don't have any sex toys).

Why on earth do you let her stay with you?

I thought I was the only one that fear relatives (read inlaws) will snoop through my stuff. I never want to leave them alone. I don't have anything to hide. It's just not their business to know my finances, my bills, etc etc

Anonymous wrote:We keep our financial information in a file cabinet and keep in locked. You might want to do the same.

However, hopefully they are busy enough with your kids that there will be no time for snooping.

Meh - young kids go to sleep around 7-8 pm - lots of time for snooping...

Anonymous wrote:I had this issue when my sister came for an extended stay. She is very jealous of our financial situation and has been known to help herself to things. I put all our records and valuable jewelry in a big plastic tub and had a lock put on a closet upstairs. I asked my husband to take incoming mail to his office during the visit. (I don't have any sex toys).

Did you have a thread about this? I remember someone had a sister who would take random stuff.

Anonymous wrote:You people have issues.

You obviously have parents that respect boundaries so can't relate.

You people have issues.

I had this issue when my sister came for an extended stay. She is very jealous of our financial situation and has been known to help herself to things. I put all our records and valuable jewelry in a big plastic tub and had a lock put on a closet upstairs. I asked my husband to take incoming mail to his office during the visit. (I don't have any sex toys).

Mrs lowbrow here. We keep personal stuff in the gun safes.

I keep all my personal papers at the office.

This is why I hate my MIL over to watch the kids. I've so wanted to invest in some Nest cams so I can see what she's been up to. I know she got ahold of my iPad once, since she left her search open in Safari (my own fault, it's password protected NOW.) I always want to lock up everything, but it would upset my oblivious husband.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I put things in a carry-on suitcase, which I bought a $10 lock on Amazon for, and then put the carry-on inside a larger unlocked suitcase. It looks inconspicuous.

It's a lot more make-shift than a locked cabinet, but for a friend's short visit, it served my purposes well.

This.

So.etomes when I hide thongs from snooper I can't remember where I hid them so having them on 1 location (a locked trunk/suitcase) is easiest.

I hid my granny-pannies, tax stuff, bank/credit card stuff, hygiene things...that stuff makes its way through grape vine.

Also, I tidy up the places I know the snooper will go -linen closet, under the sink, etc bc I know word will get out that we awould be labeled as lazy,sloppy, disorganized if those areas weren't in order.

Your type of underwear will make it through the grapevine? You know some truly awful people.

My mom is a terrible snoop. It makes it stressful to have her come visit. I don't have anything to "hide" but I'd like privacy (creeps me out she may read cards from DH, etc.). I really resent it - luckily they live close enough we do day visits and if they keep the kids we try to have them stay at their place.

Anonymous wrote:I put things in a carry-on suitcase, which I bought a $10 lock on Amazon for, and then put the carry-on inside a larger unlocked suitcase. It looks inconspicuous.

It's a lot more make-shift than a locked cabinet, but for a friend's short visit, it served my purposes well.

This.

So.etomes when I hide thongs from snooper I can't remember where I hid them so having them on 1 location (a locked trunk/suitcase) is easiest.

I hid my granny-pannies, tax stuff, bank/credit card stuff, hygiene things...that stuff makes its way through grape vine.

Also, I tidy up the places I know the snooper will go -linen closet, under the sink, etc bc I know word will get out that we awould be labeled as lazy,sloppy, disorganized if those areas weren't in order.