What are the best places to hide spare keys?
With a busy schedule, hectic family and juggling responsibilities it pays to be prepared. And one way to avoid getting locked out of your home is to stash spare keys somewhere on your property. This way, you and your family can get in the home when the keys are lost or forgotten. Any parent of a teenage child will tell you it happens a lot!
But hiding keys around your home also comes with risk: that the spares could be discovered by burglars and you could be vulnerable to theft.
So forget the doormat, letterbox and power meter. Thieves know to look there.
Here are three good places to hide your spare keys around your home.
Spare key hiding place #1: the neighbour
If you trust your neighbour, it’s a good idea to keep a spare set of keys with them. Of course, they need to be home when you’re locked out for this system to work. You can always leave a key to your house hidden on their property, with the key to their place hidden on yours. A neighbour a few doors down is a better bet than the next door neighbour, as clever thieves who find a spare key will try the homes directly next door for a hit.
Spare key hiding place #2: Kidde key safe
The Kidde key safe is really the best way to keep a key hidden on your property. You can store spare keys inside, which are only accessible via a unique code. The safe unit is extremely difficult to break into, and is small enough to be securely attached to an out of sight wall. It can also be padlocked to a water metre or fence post (good for real estate open for inspections). It can take up to 1000 different codes.
Spare key hiding place #3: key party
One of the best places to hide spare keys is to mix it up with plenty of dummy keys. Simply fill a jar with old spare keys – the more the better – and affix each with a different ribbon. So, only you and your family will know that the blue spotted ribbon is the right key to the house – all the others are duds. You can hide the jar around the garden or the rear of the property. Any thief finding the jar will find it extremely difficult to check dozens of keys. The noise of rattling keys is also more likely to be heard by a neighbour. Hopefully, any thief who finds the jar will be put off and try another easier home instead!
