Limited access is key to safety at home

“Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without.” Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970), American writer, “If You Don’t Mind My Saying So,” The American Scholar (1967)

Summer is the time when many of us go on vacation, or stay at home and take on home renovations or other home projects. It’s a time when other folks may need access to our homes and we sometimes start passing out our house keys. To keep our inside spaces safe, we need to think about just who has a key to our house.

A survey that I ran across had some very interesting and frightening facts about keys. The study was conducted by Customer Profiles Ltd. and Master Lock Co. Obviously, Master Lock Co. had a vested interest in the outcome since it sells locks, but it is interesting nonetheless.

The study, Danger at America’s Doorstep: Who Has Keys to Your Home?, had these key findings:

n 73 percent give a key to a neighbor or friend.

n nearly 20 percent of respondents have given a key to workers in their home, including contractors, painters and other service people.

n 12 percent of homeowners have also given keys to cleaning workers.

n 10 percent have given keys to boyfriends and girlfriends.

“In each case, these homes become more and more vulnerable to a potential invasion with every key their owners allow to wander.

“However, most at risk are the 68 percent of American homeowners who reported that they have allowed unintended access to their house keys, including instances where total strangers ended up with access to their homes,” states the study.

“Nearly half of the survey respondents realized that relatives or acquaintances of those they’ve given a key to, people they do not know and have never met, have had access to that key.

“Even more troubling, homeowners are giving direct access to their house keys to potential strangers like mechanics, valet parking attendants, cleaning workers and baby sitters. This sends an alarming message that many individuals simply aren’t doing enough to protect their keys and are opening their doors to potential threats to their home and family.”

Over the years, I have certainly been in the same situation. Friends have keys. (What if I keeled over one day? Somebody would have to be able to get in.) I like for at least one neighbor to have a key because stuff happens and, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend the night on my patio because I lost my keys or absent-mindedly locked the door and I’m outside in my pajamas.

I have a pet and when I’m away, somebody needs to come in and take care of her. And occasionally I have someone come in to help me take care of my house and she needs to be able to get in. I can’t always be there. We all need help from time to time and have no problem in giving keys to our friends.

So, it’s easy for your key to end up in the wrong hands. You pass your key on to somebody; it gets stolen or misplaced; somebody else picks it up and knows the connection between you and the person who lost it. It’s like six degrees of separation, and pretty scary. Realistically, if you have five keys out to folks, 50 or 60 people could have access to your house. You might as well just hang it on the door knob over the welcome mat.

The point is, we’ve all worked very hard to have our little sanctuaries, and we need to be a little more responsible with the keys to our castle.

Here are a few easy tips relative to our keys:

n Since we live in valet world here in Las Vegas, have a separate valet key. I’m not suggesting your valet driver will take your keys, but somebody else might and why risk losing all of those keys when you can just use the valet one.

n If you have a lot of keys out to friends, etc., and you’re not sure exactly who has them, go ahead and change the locks. It’s probably a good idea to do that periodically.

n Be very careful with your keys and never attach them to anything with your name and address on it.

n And for goodness sake, don’t hide them outside in one of those little hiding places that look like rocks. Burglars know all the tricks.

Again, be careful. Your home is your castle and you certainly don’t want unwanted guests. Friends and family we pretty much have to let in (LOL) — but don’t make it easy for those you don’t know.

Carolyn Muse Grant is a design consultant, expert home stager and creator of beautiful spaces. Questions can be sent to her at creativemuse@cox.net.