Have you ever locked yourself out of your house?

[ZephyrHawk]

Back when I was a latch-key kid, I didn't actually have a key. We could open the garage door with a code. But, one day, the power went out while I was at school, so the garage didn't work. I went to my neighbor's house. It was fine.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Sort of. I was taking the garbage cans to the curb for pickup, using the side door on the garage and unlocked the side gate to move them. While I was outside the gate, putting the cans on the curb, the wind blew the gate shut. It's about 6 feet tall, and I couldn't reach over it. Yes, I was in my pjs.

I went and got one of our front patio chairs to stand on and reach over the gate to open it.

 

[10MoreMinutes]

Twice.

Once when I was a teenager, and it was a snap to pop the screen off my bedroom window and open the window itself (which I never locked) and crawl back in.

And once a few months ago. I live on the third floor of an apartment building, so the window trick wasn't going to work. Luckily, I had made a copy of my key when I moved in and gave it to my brother, who lives 30-ish minutes away. So I sat in the lobby of my building and waited for him to get there.

 

[nene0182]

Like others, we can only lock our doors with a key so I can't lock myself out. Which is probably a good thing.

 

[smiths02]

I locked myself out of an apartment before (at dusk, leasing office closed, DH would not be home for hours). I ended up going through a window.

When we bought a house, I made it impossible to lock myself out.

 

[Kitty 34]

yup but it was a long time ago

 

[3boymthr]

Yup, which is why my mom has a spare key to my house. Of course one time it happened when she was away. DH and middle son (who was then about 8) then pushed open the window to DS' bedroom (the lock was broken) and DS then stood on DH's shoulders went through the window to open the door for everyone else.

When I was a kid we never got locked out but that would be because we never locked the door.

 

[DebbieB]

When I lived at home, one day I forgot my house key and my mom wasn't home. It was snowing and I knew she kept a spare key in a fake rock under a bush in the backyard. I was on my hands and knees in the snow trying to find the fake rock, couldn't find it. I got into my car in the driveway and sat in it until she came home. She moved the rock...............

 

[Atlas722]

Several times. The latest time was on July 28th of this year.

 

[North of Mouse]

Oh, yes, twice for sure! Both times, new homes, different states, not used to how the doors locked. Went outside to be sure son caught the school bus ok, was in my robe, and 'met' my neighbor for the first time to call dh! 2nd time, had to go to four new neighbors before I caught one home - they all worked! How humiliating!!

 

[goofyernmost]

Just a minor suggestion. Install and use deadbolt locks. You have to lock them from outside you cannot lock the door without having the keys with you. They only way you can lock yourself out is if you lose your keys. They are also much more secure then regular door locks.

 

[manning]

https://www.build.com/schlage-fe575...02102&ef_id=V@sd0QAABN-7YClW:20161217031843:s

 

[pat fan]

Many many times. Good news is, I've found all (I hope!) the easy ways to break into our house and then fixed them, lol! I now have a hide-a-key somewhere on the property, plus my neighbor has a key to the house now.

I also lock myself out of the car, so I make sure there are spare keys for that too. Sometimes I wonder about myself.....

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Yep -- with a new baby asleep in the living room. I pushed in a window A/C unit and climbed through the window. We hid a spare outside after that! Unfortunately, it's been used many times since...

I did the exact same thing, except I was also recovering from a C-section! My brand new baby was asleep in his bassinet in the living room. I went out to get the mail and out of habit, locked the door behind me. When I tried to open the door, I went into panic mode! I knew that a second floor window was open, and the next door neighbors had a ladder under their front porch. I pulled the ladder out and was trying to put it up against my house when the neighbor came outside. She knew I'd just had a C-section, and she made me stop. She put the ladder up, climbed to my 2nd floor window, crawled in, came down the stairs and unlocked my front door. I was a crying mess by this time and was so grateful for her help!

 

[katie111]

Yes. With my sleeping baby inside. I had run across the street to the bus stop & accidentally locked the door. Had to call 911, it was pretty embarrassing.

Growing up we got locked out all the time. Used to grab a ladder & pushed in one of the screens. All the kids used to fight over who got to climb up the ladder & climb in.

 

[Saimaeve]

Constantly. In one of my first apartments, the door would automatically lock behind you. So I got locked out that way a few times. I was on the 2nd floor so I was skilled in climbing onto my balcony. (It was a new complex and I was the first person to move in to the unit by a few weeks so there was no neighbors)

I once got locked out by my dog. I was taking a bag of trash out the back door and she somehow managed to jump up and hit the lock.

Another time, it was in the middle of a blizzard and my front door had an 8 foot snow drift up against it. I had gone out the back to secure the fence that had blown down and the backdoor slammed shut, locked, and froze shut somehow within the 10 minutes it took me to get the fencing secured. I had to tunnel into the front door.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Yup - first time was when I was in labor and we were at the hospital. My husband asked our neighbor to bring my bag that he'd forgotten and the neighbor locked the door knob lock that we didn't have a key for. This was during Hurricane Opal in 1995.
We got home the next day with a newborn (our first!) and my husband had to break a window to get us into the house only to discover we had no power. And we didn't get power back until later that evening right after I'd told my husband I was going to find us a hotel room for the night.

I just locked myself out yesterday when I grabbed the wrong set of keys. Luckily I now have a key hidden outside so I just went and got that to get in and get the correct set so I could get to my doctor appointment.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

*knock on wood* NO, I've never done it to myself.

Yes I have been locked out of the house before, I got into a fight with my ex husband and I got mad and went outside and he locked the door so that I could not get back in. It didn't help that it was like 30-something degrees and raining. Lesson learned, if you are going to get mad and walk out... be sure to take your purse and keys with you.