locking yourself in

How do people deal with the locks on their doors. The lock on the front door (the only outside access door) of my flat has requires a key on both the inside and outside. This means that at night I am effectively locked in. If there was a fire at night, I would have to find my keys to unlock the door to get out. My wife loses her keys all the time. If I leave for work and lock the door behind me, I could end up locking her in all day.

This is so different from the locks in the States.

How do people deal with the locks on their doors. The lock on the front door (the only outside access door) of my flat has requires a key on both the inside and outside. This means that at night I am effectively locked in. If there was a fire at night, I would have to find my keys to unlock the door to get out. My wife loses her keys all the time. If I leave for work and lock the door behind me, I could end up locking her in all day.

This is so different from the locks in the States.

I thought this was really strange at first too.  I guess I still find it a bit funny if I think about it but I guess I have just adjusted to it.  I always make sure the keys are in the same place so I know where they are.

I guess it just becomes a habit after a while...  But I do totally know where you're coming from as I never had to use a key to lock a door from the inside before I got here!

Ah but stops you locking yourself out!

I always keep keys in same place, if you worry about being able to find your keys in the event of a fire then I guess you could leave the keys in the lock on the inside.

I had a door like this in the States.  It caused me to start a habit of a peg by the door for my keys because I was terrified of being locked inside. Even after I moved to places with thumb bolts, I used to hang them on the bolt itself.  That way I knew where they were, and I had the benefit of having my huge collection of keys fall onto the floor if someone managed to open the bolt.  It was useful for living alone in a city, and it actually alerted me one day when the maintenance guys opened my door when I was about to get into the shower.  I hadn't heard the (supposed) knock, but the clank let me know someone was in the flat.

I leave my keys in the lock itself so I don't lose them. 

As for your wife, she will really have to start putiing her keys in the same place, etc.  But I bet she only gets locked in once max!!

If you leave your key in the lock on the inside, you cannot unlock the door from the outside. This is of course not so bad, because it means someone is on the inside and they can come to the door when you knock.

As for the advantages, I do not see any. There are plenty of locks in the States which require a key to lock from the outside, but nothing to lock from the inside.

It is just one of the things to get used to. I was more curious as to what other people did. I think we will get an extra key made and leave it by the door.

If you leave your key in the lock on the inside, you cannot unlock the door from the outside. This is of course not so bad, because it means someone is on the inside and they can come to the door when you knock.

The idea is that you put the key in the lock once everyone is in for the night.  No need to be able to unlock from the outside because you are both inside.

We leave a key in the lock on the inside.  

I think this would be against fire regulations in many parts of the US. You aren't allowed to put a gate with a lock on a window in front of a fire escape in New York City; in case of a fire there would be a problem if you couldn't find the key right away. Although people tend to put locked gates there anyway, because the chance of being robbed with an open fire escape is probably greater than the chance of a fire.

In the UK, what would happen if there was a fire on the one day you locked yourself in and then happened to forget to leave your key in the lock?

As for the advantages, I do not see any. There are plenty of locks in the States which require a key to lock from the outside, but nothing to lock from the inside.

The place I had in the States that had an interior keyed bolt was that way because there was a window in the door.  If it had a regular dead bolt with a thumb thingy, someone could have just smashed the window and opened the lock.  If there's nothing like this in or around the door, I agree it's probably not that much safer than a regular thumb bolt.  I guess it could cause a problem for a thief that came in through another access point such as a high/small window.  It'd be harder to get stuff out without using a door.

But, yeah, I always felt a bit afraid of being locked in in a fire.  Sort of like here with the huge bars on most sub-ground and ground floor windows (at least in this area of old Georgian/early Victorian homes) with no way of releasing them in an emergency.

In the UK, what would happen if there was a fire on the one day you locked yourself in and then happened to forget to leave your key in the lock?

Have you actually ever known this to happen?  The odds are so tiny as to be negligible.

Last one in locks the door and leaves the key by the door in a designated place or in the lock.  It's not rocket science

Vicky

It happens.

One of the buildings on the street that junctions with ours had a fire a decade or so ago.  My husband and his brother heard the guy die in his bedroom because they couldn't get him out in time in part due to the bars.

This is why such locks have been outlawed in the US for apartments. I had one such and routinely left the key in the lock. Problem was, the front door was a French door and it always worried me that people on the outside could see my key chain (car keys, office keys also attached).

FYI, it's not a great plan to have the key right by the door - too easy for burglars to get them through the letter box. I also personally don't love the idea of leaving the key in the lock - our last house had a window next to the door, so it would have been too easy for someone to see the keys hanging there, smash the window, and drive off with the car.

We have a table at the base of our stairs and our keys are ALWAYS there. It just becomes a habit after a while - to come in and chuck the keys on the same table every night.

I don't know why, but I don't feel safe having our keys downstairs (let alone in the door or next to the door) at night.  So they live in our bedroom, next to our bed where they can be easily grabbed in case of emergency.

If you leave your key in the lock on the inside, you cannot unlock the door from the outside.

Yep....DW usually does that to me when I get home from work and I'm stood outside knocking on my own door!