Forget hiding your valuables under your pillow, in a safe or stuffing them in your underwear drawer – those are among the first places professional burglars look for jewellery and cash.

A panel of former burglars, brought together by department store chain John Lewis, have advised holidaymakers that the safest places for family heirlooms are actually cereal boxes or storage for children’s toys.

One of the six ex-offenders said cereal, pasta and rice packets make the best hiding places because “they [burglars] are not going to go through all your food packets”.

He said people often keep valuables, such as car keys, in their kitchens but they are usually easy to find. “Most people have got a ‘bits and bobs’ cupboard in their kitchen where they often keep their keys,” he told experts at John Lewis home insurance. “DVD cases is another good place to hide valuables because they are harder to find.”

People were also advised to stash valuables inside toy boxes in children’s bedrooms saying that there was an “unwritten rule” that thieves do not enter kids’ rooms.

The panel of six ex-burglars, who were put in touch with John Lewis via the St Giles Trust charity which helps ex-offenders back into legitimate work, said the rise in online shopping has made it much easier to identify unoccupied homes.

“If you’re walking down the road and see a parcel on a doorstep there is a good chance someone is not in,” a member of the panel said. “I would suggest not ordering parcels if you won’t be around when they arrive and getting neighbours to check for parcel deliveries regularly while you’re away.”

Q&A How does the ONS calculate the crime figures for England & Wales? Show The Office of National Statistics (ONS) uses two main sources for their crime data statistical bulletins: the Crime Survey for England and Wales and the police recorded crime numbers. The Crime Survey for England and Wales is a face-to-face questionnaire. People are asked about their experiences of a selected range of offences in the 12 months prior to the interview. The ONS say this is the most reliable indicator for long-term trends, as it isn't subject to changes in the way that police forces monitor and record crime, and it will include people talking about experiences that weren't reported to the police. Police recorded crime is the number of notifiable crimes reported to and recorded by the police. The list of notifiable crimes is determined by the Home Office. The ONS say this data is more reliable for the recording of rarer crimes, like murder, and for crimes like theft, where people are often inclined to report a crime to the police as part of an insurance claim. This data cannot measure crimes not reported to the police because victims felt them too trivial, or where they may be reluctant to come forward to the police for personal reasons.

Leaving lights either on or off for long periods was also identified as a key giveaway. The best room to leave lights on when away is the hallway, the panel said, but timer switches were deemed the best option because it creates a better illusion that someone was at home.

Burglars can spend up to two months watching a house before making their move, but would spend as little as five minutes inside before fleeing.

Some of the ex-offenders questioned said they target identity documents – such as passports, driving licences, credit cards and bank statements – rather than stealing TVs or DVD players because of the potential gains from selling the information on.

Dr Claire Nee, director of the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology at Portsmouth University, who has interviewed hundreds of burglars to analyse patterns in offending said: “Identity documents are very valuable at the minute due to identity theft for fraud and people trafficking.

“We also know from both our research and criminal statistics that burglars are going for small, valuable items – jewellery, electronics and cash.

“Finally, be careful about your conversation on the way to the airport. Talk loudly about your house sitter for instance, not about how you are looking forward to your fortnight away.”

The Crime Survey for England and Wales, published by the Office for National Statistics, shows the number of domestic burglaries declined by 2% to 669,000 in 2018, compared to the previous year.