Seven Ideas for Hiding a Spare Key Outside Your Home

The rationale for avoiding these “bad idea” hiding spots is burglars are acquainted with the cliched and common hiding locations that homeowners have been using for decades.

Where you should hide your spare key is really dependent on where you live and the types of features around your home.

Here are some ideas for you to consider when hiding a spare key.

Steel keys and steel keys with brass plating will stick to magnets, but solid brass keys will not. If your keys aren’t attracted by magnetic forces, you can always pick up a magnetic key holder – there are a lot of different options available at hardware stores and online. Although they’re designed primarily for vehicles, you can use them for hiding a key somewhere outside your home as well.

Do you have metal gutters? Stick it inside your downspout extension as deep as you can manage (if you keep your gutters clean). If you have a grill in the backyard stick it in some nook or hidden area of it. If your home has an electric box you can stick it to the back or inside the door panel.

Any hiding spot that’s out of sight and away from your doors or windows should work. Just make sure to look at your hiding spot from multiple angles to be sure you can’t see the key.

Is there a loose brick on an exterior window sill or retaining wall somewhere around your backyard? Hide a key under there, especially if it’s not obvious on first glance that the brick is loose. If you do have to hide a key under a rock, do it far away from any entrance to your home. If you have river rock in a fake dry creek bed in your backyard, pick some random rock to put it under. Remember at least the general vicinity of where you hid the key because if you do need it you don’t want to spend more than a few minutes flipping over rocks to find the right one.

If you do get a fake rock, consider burying it and the key it contains somewhere, like a planter. Just remember where you put it. Chances are good someone trying to break into your home isn’t going to attempt digging around to see if you’ve hidden a key in the dirt. You probably shouldn’t try to bury the key itself without any protection to prevent rust or corrosion and make it easier to find.

You can always get a lockbox, like you would see on a home for sale, and set it aside somewhere inconspicuous. Lock boxes aren’t exactly great ornamentation for your door, but in terms of securing a spare key they can provide an extra layer of defense.

If you have a raised porch or deck, you can go underneath, find a corner and hammer in a nail to hang a spare key on. This is an out of the way, inconspicuous location that’s easy to communicate if you need to give someone access to your home when you’re not around.

A few articles and videos have suggested the siding hiding spot. If your home has siding it likely has seams where one sheet overlaps the other. The seam should have enough of a gap between the siding sheets that you can slide a key behind the top sheet. All you need to do is tie a small length of fishing line to the key ring hole and make sure the line dangles out from behind the siding. If you need the spare key, it’s just a matter of pulling it out of the siding by the fishing line.

One of the options that eliminates the chance a burglar will find the hidden key outside your home is to entrust a spare key to a neighbor or friend. Just keep in mind the potential complications.

1. You’re giving your friend or neighbor a bit of an obligation. It’s not like you’re asking them to drive you to the airport at 4 a.m., but it’s certainly a bit of an imposition.
2. What if they’re not home or around when you need your key? Or you happen to get home late at night and have to rouse them out of bed to retrieve your spare key.
3. They could always misplace your key or forget where they stored it.
4. There’s also a risk that your neighbor or someone in their household could let themselves into your home.