Well, I don’t live in a house. I live in an apartment, and so a spare key can be retrieved from the office.
But maybe this is like the TV sports poll and I wasn’t supposed to even click the topic unless I live in a house.
It’s highly unlikely for me to lock myself out, mainly because I don’t lock the doors. (Large loud dogs are a much better break-in deterrent than the doors or windows. And, if I happen to be away should something terrible happen, like a house fire, my neighbors and I have a mutual pact that we will go open doors, if it’s possible, to give our dogs a chance of escape.) But I do have a key hidden, because the littlest miss has accidentally locked me out while playing with the door handle.
Even if the key were misplaced, if the Littles were outside with me, we’d just go hang out in my dad’s camper in the side yard until someone got home with the key. There’s snacks and drinks and books and WiFi and a TV, so no worries. And if I anticipated a long wait? I could break into the back door and repair the damage for less than the cost of a locksmith.
I said “key hidden” which is sort of true: we have a numeric keypad on the garage door, so I could get into the garage that way.
And there’s a house key hidden in the garage, so I could unlock the door into the house.
Now, if the power is out, that keypad won’t open the garage door, so THEN I’d be screwed.
When we did the key in the garage thing, I made a point of showing both kids (18 and 21) and my husband where I’d hidden it.
Not a month later, my son got home unusually late. I was waiting up for him because I was concerned he might need a ride home. I heard the garage door open/close, but he never came in the house. Yeah, he’d forgotten where the key was hidden. It didn’t occur to him to knock on the door to the house. 20 minutes later we finally opened the door from the house to the garage, and there he was.
I voted, “something else”.
I have a, “most easily repaired window”, picked out. Broom, mop, and plastic sheet and I’m good to the next morning. I have the replacement glass already (actually an entire framed window from some remodeling). That and an hour or two for replacement and we’re good. A second coat of paint on the trim the next day and done.
Not screwed at all. It isn’t really possible. My car is parked in an attached garage. If I did lock the keys in the house, I have a spare set in the garage and would realize this when I couldn’t get in the car. If for whatever reason, I’m parked outside, I live with my grandparents, who are home about 95% of the time (I don’t think they have left the house in almost two weeks, they send me to the store for them in the winter time). If they were away, I would call them, and they would be home shortly.
I put other.
I have a spare I keep at work. I guess that could be filed under “hidden key” but this is more of a hassle to retrieve than lifting a plant pot or whatever (and the thread is all about level of hassle).
Something else.
There are four doors (garage, front door, sunroom door, side porch door) entering our house. We have zero keys for any of them, and therefore never lock any. If one door were accidentally locked the others would all be unlocked. Life in the country, I guess.
It takes basically zero effort to get into my house without a key. It’s beginning to bother me, to the point where last night I dreamed I had to defend my home against a persistent burglar.
Multiple rhododendrons in the back yard, decorative lanterns and bird feeders hanging from the branches. One lantern also contains a spare house key. So far, the birds haven’t used it.
I went first choice.
a - I always have at least two copies of the house key on me when I leave the house and our locks require a key to be locked
b - I have a couple sneaky ways to break in with minimal damage
c - there is a copy of the key with a friend who is fairly close
d - Herself has a key and I could run into town and get it from her
e - worse comes to worse, I break a window and fix it
So all in all I’m not worried about it at all.
Bolding mine.
That bolded part seems like overkill. What’s the backstory? How do you keep the two keys separated so losing one doesn’t lose them both? e.g. two keys on one keyring isn’t really redundancy, at least not against loss, which is the 99.99% failure mode for getting locked out after leaving with keys.
Although I have zero home keys, I have many sets of keys for work. I keep one set in my vehicle, one in my gf’s car, one in our “farm truck” and one set in a key box hidden behind the building.
If I am out and about and have to stop at work for some reason, it is nice to know I can get in without driving the extra 13 minutes to pick up keys from home (where there is another set in my key-safe).
After the second time being locked out, I bolted one of those little lock boxes in a hidden place under the elevated deck in the back of the house. It’s uses a mechanical combination lock. Have used it once, recently.
So I voted for hidden key.
Not at all. We have a deadbolt-only front door. It can’t be locked from the outside without a key. The back door has a passage lock and deadbolt, but both have to be unlocked in order to exit, and we never use it for general exit. I suppose it could be remotely possible to somehow lock the passage lock and walk out without the key, but it’s so remote as to be non-existent.
My house is so easy to break into it’s scary.
Worst comes to worst though, I could ask the neighbor if I can go up to her attic. The wall between us up there is just plywood nailed to studs. It wouldn’t be hard to get through.
When she moves out I’ll have to put something more secure up there, and put a lock on the attic door.
A few months ago I locked myself out and had to call a locksmith. Since then I’ve kept a spare key in a lockbox out back.
Not a big deal. I’d call someone with the key. Failing that, I’d force open the side-door on the garage. It’s the second easiest to break-in with, and that door would be cheaper and easier to replace than any of the windows.
One on the keyring with my car key, a house key, and nothing else and one on my normal keyring with the usual assortment of way too many keys. There are rare times when I want nothing else in my pocket than my car key and a house key; not often but they exist. So keeping one there works. And there are times when I head out to the garage to putter at things and ------ that takes more keys than a normal person should admit to. All of those are on my “every day” ring.
I have a keypad for the garage door opener. So unless there is a power failure, I can get into the garage. There is lockable chain from there to the kitchen. But the chain allows you to open the door just enough to reach in and get the key that is hanging on a hook and unlock the chain.
Anyway, our mail goes through mail slot.
Not at all. None* of the doors here fit their frames properly, so half the doors won’t stay shut even if you’ve turned the lock while the other half are semi-jammed even when unlocked.
*Not literally all. Just most of them.