Casual Conversation

Put it wherever TF the socks go that disappear after doing laundry. You’ll never see it again.

I straighten the paper clip and sound it

Eat it

In the sock dimension.

You get paid if they don't find it. You don't have to produce it yourself. Melt the paper clip down mix it with other metals. Use a sander to completely destroy it. Vaporize it. Etc

Put it in a box with other paperclips on my office desk.

Stick it in the dirt of one of the 130 plants in my place

Pull a kitchen drawer open all the way and stick it to the bottom of the granite with a bit a blu-tack

Does the paperclip need to stay in shape?

Straighten it, cut it into as many tiny pieces as possible with wire cutters for 4 minutes, then spend the last minute spreading them around random places in the carpet, vents, lawn, etc.

Down a plastic drain pipe. Fish it out with a magnet on string 24 hours later.

slip it in the vent of a random heavy appliance like the fridge

I just drop it in one of my "unsorted stuff" drawers.
I don't have to be able to find it again to claim the money, right?

Eat it. There's only so much that fits on a paperclip.

I'll assume the detective can use an x-ray device so I guess somewhere it won't stand out.

Maybe jam it into the frame if a sliding window.

Maybe into the body of the old wood stove.

Maybe jammed into the basket of the subwoofer.

Maybe wrapped inside a bayonet cap of a light bulb.

Maybe poked into a tube of the metal bed frame.

Maybe wedged into the mechanism of an old vcr.

Maybe in a gap between two corrugated iron sheets on the roof.

I dunno.

I don't know how plumbing works, but I think this would work:

I'd empty the hair from my hairbrush, tangle the paperclip in it and put the clump down my shower drain. Hair clump keeps it from draining away keeping it "in my house." Retrieve after with one of those spikey stick snake things. Spend the remaining 3 minutes touching other hiding places to throw the detective off the scent.

If that doesn't count as in the house I'd probably just slip it into a pocket of a coat in my closet. I doubt they'd think to check every pocket of every item of clothing. They're probably checking all the vents and window panels and little holes in my walls, and I don't think they'd catch me because I go in my closet a lot so it's not like I've disturbed dust to go in there during the 5 minutes.

I'll hide a bunch of them at different places along with the target. So that they lose confidence or keep looking for similar places every time they find the wrong ones.

Depends wether I need to find it later myself. If yes then I'd probably remove a baseboard and put it behind it next to the nail so you can't even use a metal detector. If I don't need to find it then I'd drop it down the crack under my bathroom doorstep which leads to the subfloor space where you're never going to find it again.

3d print a flower pot with a pause in the job. Drop the clip in a cavity in the vase with some glue so it doesn't rattle around, resume the print job to finish and seal it inside, put some plants in there.

In my jean jacket pocket. I could just move around with it.

unscrew a screw from the wall, put it in some spare space behind it, screw again

In my home? Probably in a fruit.

Buy 10,000 paperclips and scatter them throughout the house. Hide the target one somewhere obscure. It'll take more than 24 hours for him to find the exact right one.

They'll have to go through me to get it, because I'm eating it.

Sort of cheating - flush it down the toilet.

Playing by the rules - turn it into dust with an angle grinder.

Use a neodymium magnet on a long string to place the paper clip near the bottom of a long vent duct.