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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Hello me solve an argument please

110 replies

FunkyFantasticFudgeball · 24/07/2017 20:43

Ongoing argument in our house so I'll let mumsnet decide. Is it safer/better to leave the keys in the front door at night or hanging close by? Person A thinks it's a security risk to leave the keys in the front door, burglars could smash the glass panel in the door and let themselves in with the keys. Person B thinks it's safer to leave the keys in the front door in the event of a fire.

OP posts:

LurkingHusband · 25/07/2017 10:52

Can anyone point to a Yale lock for a UPVC multi-point locking door ?

Angeldt · 25/07/2017 10:57

Please remember if you were taken ill whilst at home alone - no-one you have given a spare key to/ or family returning home can use their key to get indoors if you already have the key in the lock from indoors.

BeepBeepMOVE · 25/07/2017 11:00

Keys in door are stupid. Get a yale and keep them no where near door.

Even the hook by the door is stupid, if someone knocks on your door selling driveways/window washing but is actually scouting for houses to rob they'll see the hook.

bridgetreilly · 25/07/2017 11:11

In my house, if there were a fire, I'd almost certainly leave by the back door, which does have a key (single key, not visible from the outside) in it all the time. But I live in a very safe place, and I keep my main keys in the front door too, because otherwise I lose them.

bridgetreilly · 25/07/2017 11:13

Even the hook by the door is stupid, if someone knocks on your door selling driveways/window washing but is actually scouting for houses to rob they'll see the hook.

Tbh, my house is so hard to find, that if a burglar has actually managed it, I don't think he'd be put off by the lack of visible keys. Even people that I've given detailed, specific directions to usually drive past it at least twice without noticing it.

SwedishEdith · 25/07/2017 11:17

If someone breaks in and steals stuff then it's just stuff in danger of being lost. If there is a fire and I can't get out then it's my life in danger of being lost. I know which I would rather not lose.

That's my view as well. And I've been burgled 3 times - in a house with a Yale lock.

SabineUndine · 25/07/2017 11:26

Shots they'd have to get in to begin with. Through the door. If they got in through the window, they'd get out through that too, it's ground floor. My keys are on my bedside table so that if there were a fire, I could get out of the nearest door or window in seconds, rather than having to fumble through a smoke-filled hallway.

holeinmyheart · 25/07/2017 11:42

Just been burgled ( bastards) and they jemmied a window downstairs in this old house. I stupidly locked the doors upstairs and they bashed four of them in , damaging the architraves and mangling the locks. I so wish I hadn't locked them. They didn't get away with a great deal and went out the same way that they came in, as no keys to any door was left anywhere.
At night when I am alone in this large isolated house I have inside bolts on the bedroom door and two dead locks. I have fire alarms wired in and battery operated and a escape ladder. I wouldn't leave the keys in the lock or near the door. I have them beside my bed with my mobile phone. I feel safe alone at night despite this being the 4th break in in 31 years. They didn't break in when the house was occupied.
I am afraid the police were rubbish. Although my next door neighbour also in a large house in its own Grounds, called them around 3am one night and they came straight away.
My neighbours in the village would come if I could wake them, which is comforting.
If burglars are determined you can't really stop them. We are thinking of getting an alarm but we are not sure what message it gives out. We never leave anything in the house of real sentimental value anyway.

PurityOfChaos · 25/07/2017 11:46

I keep my keys in a magnetised key box that is hidden by the door when the door is open, I have never left keys in the door.

mygrandchildrenrock · 25/07/2017 12:28

I used to live in a city and had various locks and alarms and was burgled about 4 times. Moved to the middle of nowhere and haven't locked a door in over 10 years. So far no burglars or fires!

Klaphat · 25/07/2017 17:01

Even the hook by the door is stupid, if someone knocks on your door selling driveways/window washing but is actually scouting for houses to rob they'll see the hook.

The hook is completely hidden behind the door when it's even slightly open. The only way you could see it as an outsider is by forcing your entire upper body into the house and craning your neck round so you're looking at the wall near the door, or by being inside the house with the door shut behind you. Do you have a magic door that reveals the entirety of both walls when you open it?

paxillin · 25/07/2017 18:21

I'd worry that all this bedside-table or hook- key- keeping would just be too hard in case of a fire. Try doing this blindfolded (smoke) whilst breathing a noxious gas that makes you cough and hold your breath (smoke, perhaps simulate with vinegar) and with a lot of noise (fire, panicking people- simulate by having someone shout in your ear).

I don't think I could faff with a bunch of keys on the bedside table, trying to find the right one, the key hole, not drop it... all of this whilst unable to see, hear and breathe and in full panic mode.

RedastheRose · 25/07/2017 18:48

Hanging close by but out of reach of glass of door if broken. Definitely not in the door as it is a security risk.

paxillin · 25/07/2017 18:50

They can climb through if the glass is broken!

WellLetsSayHesSquare · 25/07/2017 19:51

I would say in the door. Not just because of fire but if u have a car thieves are more likely to take the keys and your car. If the keys aren't there they will go looking for them then you have them traipsing through your home smashing things etc all whilst your upstairs in bed.

I'd much rather they take the keys and make a quick exit with the car.

pilates · 25/07/2017 19:59

I agree with person A

Queenofthedrivensnow · 25/07/2017 20:01

In the door but we have a dog that barks at the slightest whisper and gravel surrounding the house - one toe on the gravel and he's deafening us - think we are burglar proof!

bumpsadaisy11 · 25/07/2017 20:03

We had a serious house fire & literally only just managed to get ourselves, our children & our pets out. My husband & 1 of our DC were hospitalised. Both luckily recovered. Though 2 of our cats died shortly afterwards 🙁

I had a lot of visits from the Fire Brigade & Fire Investigation Officers over the following days & I asked them where the best place to keep the keys ( we really struggled to find any of our keys because we were in such an absolute panic)

We were told to keep the keys by the doors, or preferably actually in the door. He said that the very vast majority of people that died in house fires were found by the doors, where they had been unable to get out!!

To the previous poster that stated that they left their keys in their bedside table, we were unable to get into our bedroom because of the ferocity of the fire. We would all have perished if we had kept our keys there!

At the end of the day I can advise from first hand experience, when you house is on fire & pitch black because the electrics have blown, & the whole house is full of thick scolding acrid smoke, it is very disorientating, you don't have anytime at all to look your keys!!

TupperwareTat · 25/07/2017 20:13

bumpsadaisy11 Thats truly awful & I am glad you are all ok now,
I hope you dont mind me asking (Its because its a great fear of mine) but did your smoke detectors go off & wake you?
I have one up & one down, smallish house, front door at bottom.of stairs.

TupperwareTat · 25/07/2017 20:14

Sorry, Im just wondering if I need one in every room?

hookiewookie29 · 25/07/2017 20:29

I leave them in the door and turn them sideways so they can't be hooked out or pushed out.
My kids are 14 and 19 now but when they were younger we put together a fire evacuation plan, which included leaving the keys in the door so that any of us could open it and not have to fumble about trying to get a key in the door.

bumpsadaisy11 · 25/07/2017 21:45

TupperwareTat I am deeply ashamed to admit that although we had smoke alarms, one didn't have a battery in & one had a battery in but it was dead!!!
We rally did learn the hard way.
We got the fire safety officer round when it came to locating the new smoke alarms. He advised one in the middle of the downstairs hallway, not to close to the kitchen door & one in the middle of the upstairs hallway, as equidistant to all bedroom doors as possible.

Bluntness100 · 25/07/2017 21:49

Always in the door, I sat through a fire safety talk and the fireman explained how many people died because they couldn't find their keys. Since then they are always in the door, both back and front.

crazyhairdontcare · 25/07/2017 21:50

I read something somewhere (helpful I know) but it was a policeman saying that you should leave them somewhere easy to find, that way if burglars break in looking for your car keys then they're in and out quickly with minimum searching/opportunity for confrontation. I'm sure there are people that would disagree, but it makes sense to me. Oh and I agree with PP, hell no not in the door.

crazyhairdontcare · 25/07/2017 21:52

On second thoughts, having read some of these replies about fire safety I may rethink the key in door option! How scary.

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