Do you have a spare key in or around your home?

[OhioOhioOhio]

Where do you hide it?

One in the combination padlocked bikeshed

Neighbour also has one

I keep a spare house key in my car just in case I go out without it.

No.

Key Safe in a weird place in the garage.

My sister used to live somewhere where they never locked the door and the car key was where it should be so it wouldn’t get lost...in the ignition!

My best friend has one. I have a key to another friend’s house. My son has one but I forget which son has it as I have three. My daughter has one but she is abroad. It is in case I am not here when she comes home. DH has one. We sometimes leave it in a safe place but only if we are desperate and the time difference isn’t much between going and coming.
We live in a village so a daytime burglar would soon be noticed.

I'd like to get a key safe. Are they viewed negatively by house insurance though? I've no idea how easy they would be to break into.

Depends on the insurer.

In a key safe. I now have every door key on my ring after one of the dogs jammed the kitchen door with a plank of wood and I couldn't get into the back door (never used for access) until a joiner managed to get in the kitchen door.

I have a random pot with spare keys in for if friends are staying over a few days, or need to give one for some specific reason.

None hidden outside. If you're old enough to be going out by yourself you're old enough to have a set of keys. Forget your keys, good luck getting in. Start contacting others and go and collect from whoever is the nearest.

Key safe. Dd12 doesn't have a key, just uses that one.

I used to keep one in the freezer in the unlocked shed

I wouldn't go for a key safe, unless very well hidden. They're screwed to the wall with a couple of fairly weedy screws, and they're really an open invitation to any burglar. They can be pried off the wall in three seconds with a small crow bar, taken somewhere more private, and whacked with a hammer until the keys appear. They're really not that robust.

a letterbox ... set at the bottom of the door for maximum security

These aren't allowed for new builds now, because they're rotten for posties.

If you're old enough to be going out by yourself you're old enough to have a set of keys. Forget your keys, good luck getting in. Start contacting others and go and collect from whoever is the nearest.

Great advice for everyone who never gets robbed, loses anything, forgets their keys at work, gets their car broken into or has a serious accident, can remember everyone's phone number off the top of their head and doesn't live alone!

Spare keys in useful places are for emergencies, which do happen sometimes otherwise the word 'emergency' would not exist.

I've actually never had to use mine in this house but I can recall two previous occasions when I got home from work with no keys - one was where I had driven to to work, dropped the car at the garage for its MOT, taken my house key off as it had my locker key with it, used the locker key to open the locker when going home and left it in the locker, which I didn't realise until I got home as I had my car keys. And I had also managed to not realise until after I had clicked the steering lock on, the key to which was also on my house keys at work (which wasn't 24 hour and this was pre mobile phones).

The other time, I was the last to leave work. I had my keys (home and work, but not car) in my hand and left to go to the loo, and dropped the lock catch. I then went back in to get something I'd forgotten and left again having put my keys down when I was getting whatever it was, and not picking them up again and the latch was down. I didn't realise, I just checked the door was locked and left. I was seeing a mate for dinner, went straight there, I worked 50 miles away so after dinner I drove 50 miles, only to get home about midnight unable to get in. I did have a mobile phone then so had to call said friend and go back 50 miles and stay the night with him! Keys were on the desk next day where I had left them.

(Twice going back to work in the same clothes as the day before too! Different jobs though - incidents at least 10 years apart)

Obviously they were both pretty stupid things to do, but sometimes we do daft things. Everyone does sometimes.

Dp has used my spare key actually. He was here and I left for work and locked the front door, forgetting he didn't have a key. So, he was locked in. He went out the back door, round to the shed (which is at the front and it's a terrace so you have to walk round the backs of the houses to the end and up the road|), got the spare key, let himself in, went back and locked the back door, then left using the spare key to lock the front door and put the key back in the shed. I was at work and suddenly at some random point in the day, thought 'OMG, I've locked him in!' so I texted to see if he was OK.

They're screwed to the wall with a couple of fairly weedy screws

I don't think this part is compulsory, I think you can secure them however you want. You could have it set into concrete if you prefer.

Buried in an oily rag in a bag under a particular patio stone in back garden, it’s a bugger to dig up, once had to take up 7 blocks to find it in the rain

I've got spares for mine, my parent's and my sister's in my car. Never needed to use mine - touch wood- but have my sister's when her husband took both sets of keys to work and left her locked in.

There's a key safe at the side of our house that was there when we moved in; only discovered it when I cut a couple of giant conifers back. It's overgrown now and never used, I don't think I'd even know the code. It must be fairly sturdy, though, as I managed to use it to climb over our back fence when I locked myself out a few years ago.

DH and I have keys, DS1 has a set, two friends and our dog walker have a set and the neighbours on one side have a set. There's probably a spare floating about in the key cupboard, too. We had new doors in a while back and the front and back locks are Ultion ones which are meant to be quite secure. Both doors open outwards instead of inwards so are tougher to kick through, so hopefully we never need worry.

I seem to be the keeper of keys for lots of people we know; we have MIL's keys, my Mum's keys, my Dad's keys, three friends locally and at least two different neighbours. Where we live is fairly safe though, and our neighbours are wonderful; their alarm goes off whenever there's a power cut (frequently because our local electric board is run by toddlers) and she'll text me from work to ask me to nip in and sort it out. Likewise they'll always do the same if ours goes off while we're out. It's a reassuring thing having neighbours who'll watch out when we're away from home.

Spare key at my parents' and sister's who both live nearby.

I do like the idea of a key safe though, and will probably do this once the eldest starts secondary school. Seems sensible.

You could have [a key safe] set into concrete if you prefer.

Good idea. It might help to avoid this sort of thing:

www.echo-news.co.uk/news/14595575.security-fears-as-burglars-target-outdoor-key-safes-to-raid-homes/

Yes, it's a bit idiotic to have it on display and also for it not to be well secured. It's not a surprise that they can actually be broken into though. I suspect very sturdy ones are incredibly expensive.

If I had one, I'd probably have it buried. I guess if you have one in constant use it's more of a risk as it needs to be accessible and people might see it being used. Maybe more effort needs to be made to make them less obvious, like put them inside a garden gnome or something!

What I have is a keysafe-safe. So I put my keysafe inside that. Keeps it safe from burglers who could quite easily break into a keysafe.

I have a key in a key safe which in turn is is inside a tupperware, all hidden under a bush in the garden.

Anyone I know with a key safe has it to let carers access their property - having it buried or in a hard-to-access place would defeatthe purpose.

No, we have a concierge from 7:30-6pm, so I could rely on them to let me in if need be. My cousin and a friend also have a key.