Keep an extra key to your house and/or car on the end of your dog leash. When you take your pet for a walk in the neighborhood, or in the park, you will not have to worry about locking yourself out accidentally. You also won't have to worry about losing your keys if they are in your pocket when your dog starts running, you won't have to take your purse, your keys will always be there, handy and useful!
By Chichijunk from Cleveland, OH
This page contains the following solutions.
I needed a spare car key in case I locked mine in the car. However, the price of a programmed key was over $100. So instead, I took my key to the local hardware store and got a regular key made, put it inside a magnetic box, and hooked it under the car.
My uncle taught me a good way to hide a key, under the vinyl on the house. He had a spot on his vinyl siding that he put a extra key in case they were locked out, or if someone had to get in for emergency purposes.
I am forever going outside to my laundry room only to return and find the door has locked itself and I am locked outside.
My neighbor and I exchanged house keys so that we could enter each other's homes in case of an emergency or to feed pets while one of us is on vacation, etc.
I painted the inside of a mayonaise jar with white craft paint. I keep it in the refrigerator in the garage to store our house keys in. Works great and no more fumbling.
I put an extra key for my house and my car in the outside fuse box and I then lock it with a combination lock. To remember the combination, I put it down as a phone number and put the number in my storage unit.
Simply tie some mono filament fishing line to your key and slip in into one of your house siding openings so only the filament is exposed. Pull it out when needed!
We all have our favorite key hiding places for our own use. However, to tell the location of a well-hidden key for a 911 call may not be easy, especially by the person who may be in need of emergency personnel.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Does anyone know of a safe, yet accessible place to hide a spare car key under the hood, or any other place that can be gotten to while locked out? I don't like the idea of a magnetic box because all someone has to do is pull it off the car plus, as hard as I hit speed bumps and potholes, at times, it would never last!
I keep one in my wallet and one with a nearby family member. That won't help if I am out of town and lock my purse in the car, but since I don't go far and neither does she, it works for me.
That said, my dad used to use the magnet holder in the inside of the hub cap, but that was 30 + years ago...hub caps probably aren't the right kind of metal today. Maybe duct tape to the inside of the hubcap?
Keys are really expensive these days if the have a chip in them, so you may not want anything so risky that if you lose it you are out a hundred bucks.
That won't help if you are over a couple miles away, your cell is inside the car or they work. You can tie it with a double fisherman's knot using fishing line to the back of the license plate. Wrap it like your never going to need it. Then when you do, it will be there. Here are some good ideas.
Does anyone know of a creative, secure way to store an extra house key outside? We don't want to do something obvious like put it under the door mat, but we want it as close to the door as we can. I know you can buy fake-looking rocks to put a key in, but I was wondering if anyone has any free ideas! Thanks!
Make a deal with one of your neighbors to swap keys--your key under his door mat or flower pot and vice versa.
you could hide it inside of a potted plant or if you wanted to spend a bit of money, you could by one of those rocks that have a hole in them just for keys. i'm not sure how expensive they are though.
We have one that looks like a thermometer and
you hide the key inside. It slides open. Why couldn't
you buy a pretty thermometer and tape it to the back?
I have a flower pot on my deck that I fill with sand and put a citronella stick in...I keep a key hidden in the sand
We have always taped a spare key to the underside of the cover of our circut braker box. It's not too close to our door, but in a pinch it's there and it gets you into the house.
A friend of ours put a key to their house on a nail in the crotch of a tree (the side closest to the house so the sun's rays wouldn't reflect from the key). Even for those of us who knew it was there (emergency use) it was a little difficult to find.
Why on earth would anyone want to share with the Internet world where to hide house keys ... that's advertising to all the thiefs out there!
Criminals are not the smartest people ... don't point it out to them.
Grandma Bess, where did you get your thermometer one at ?
Do you often need the outside key, Or is it an emergency key? If you use it frequently keep the front door key in the backyard, perhaps on a nail on the fence, so that nobody sees you going to get it and use it.
My neighbor keeps my key in her unlocked garage on a nail in her tool cabinet.
Make a deal to park it at a neighbor's house under or in a fake rock that is a few houses away from your house.
I once dropped my daughter's friend off at her house and the child fetched her entry key in this manner.
There are many suggestions as to where to hide keys around the house, but where can you hide a car key for times when you lock yourself out of your car? It must be somewhere on the car, able to be retrieved when you're away from home. Under the hood is not good, for most cars release hood from inside the car. I have a magnetic box for this purpose, but can't figure where to hide it that a thief won't think of right away.
By Cay
