Home rentals can be tricky at times. After getting the master keys from the owner, what should be the first thing you must do? Call an emergency locksmith and change all the locks! Or at the very least, the lock of the gate and the front door.

You are not sure if the keys you hold are the only keys leading into your home. The owner could be an unscrupulous fellow who can get in and out of your home when you are not around. You do not want that to happen.

There was a news in the past about a landlord who went inside his rentals, went through his renters’ things, then pretended that he didn’t know what happened. Good thing there was a CCTV in one of the rentals so he was caught in the act. From then on, changing locks became a habit.

But here’s one of the tricky parts of changing locks: you need to make sure that you have spare keys for emergencies. Yes, you can call a locksmith when you need one but what if it’s in the middle of the night and you accidentally lock yourself out of your house or room? Here is a suggestion: find a good hiding place. Not under the welcome mat at the front door or even under the plant pot near the stairs. Too obvious! Find somewhere you can hide it properly. It can be an alcove, a dent on the fence, a figurine with a hole in it. Hide your spare key there. You need to have a master key and a set of spare keys inside your house, of course. The spare key hidden outside is for emergencies only.

The same goes for your car. A set of spare keys in a secure place is also very much necessary. It is a must! A co-worker has a spare key for her car in the office. She once lost her car keys somewhere and when it was time for her to go home, she was panicking because she could not find her keys. Good thing someone remembered her emergency spare key inside the office so she went back to get it. To this day, she was not able to find her lost car keys. She promptly brought her car to an automotive locksmith to get her locks changed.

Spare keys are very important to have. Hide it somewhere secure. Lock it inside a cabinet you have access to anytime. Do not make the mistake of locking the keys inside a room which when locked, you would need the keys to get it unlocked. Someone made that mistake in the past and it cost her a pricey doorknob and a chunk of the wood surrounding the knob.