We have well over one hundred cleaning clients, each one has cleanings of their home at least once a month, most twice a month. When you have people entering your home for cleaning during the day when you are at work, you must provide them with a way of getting in.

When I was growing up, we would hide a key next to the door under a flower pot that had no flower in it. It was pretty obvious if someone wanted to break in where a key could be found.

Now a days crooks and thieves know where the nicest parts of town are, and know most people are gone during the day. Leaving a key is necessary to let people into your home to clean, but leaving it in an obvious place is not.

Here are a few options of how you can hide a key, without it being obvious.

1) Extreme Velcro. This stuff is great. It is heavy duty so it can be used outside in wet and dry places. You can use it on rocks, metal, and cinder blocks – you can stick it anywhere and it will hold anything. 

Place a piece of Velcro on the top in side part of your gutter. Then cut a piece and adhere it to the “head” of the key (where you grasp the key when entering a house) on both sides. Then attach it to the top inside part of the gutter. You can use this same principle for under and an A/C unit, or under the electrical meter on the side of your home. Walk around your house, and look for more places that others may not have thought about.

2) Ziploc Bag. Get a small key-sized Ziploc bag and bury it under a pile of rocks or bark mulch roughly ten feet away from the front door or more.

3) Sprinkler Hide-a-key. This works if you have sprinkler heads, but I feel it is better than the fake rock, and can be placed anywhere. In a garden, the lawn, next to a tree. It allows you to keep the key safe, and far enough away from the front door so it is not suspicious.

4) Key-less Entry Door. For those that have the money, having a key-less entry door is great because there is no key to hide or loose. They come in two types of styles, finger print recognition, and punch codes. They range in price, and can cost over $100.

Wherever you decide to hide your key, make sure it is not in an obvious cliche place. Anywhere in the immediate area of the door the key opens criminals already know about, and will check for. Lock your doors and windows, an hide your key ten or more feet away from the door it opens to ensure thieves will have a much harder time finding it.

Leave your comments below on some good places to hide a key.