Where to Safely Store Spare Car Keys

The golden rule: separate from the main key

Everything else follows from this. A spare kept next to the main key is stolen in the same burglary, lost in the same misplaced bag, and forgotten in the same jacket. The spare earns its keep precisely because it is somewhere the main key is not. Couples should each know where the other's spare lives — emergencies do not check whose key it was. Whatever option you choose below, check it against this rule first.

Good options, ranked by practicality

With a trusted person nearby. A partner, a family member or a trusted neighbour within easy reach is the best storage for most people. In a lockout, one phone call solves it. Choose someone reliably contactable and make sure they know the key is there and what it is for.

In a proper key safe at home. A small wall-mounted or portable key safe with a combination gives you controlled access without relying on another person. Fix it somewhere discreet but memorable — inside a utility cupboard, for example — and do not store the combination next to it.

Well inside the home, shielded if keyless. For a spare you keep yourself, the right place is deep inside the house — an upstairs drawer, a home safe — away from doors and windows. If it is a keyless fob, it needs a Faraday pouch too; an unshielded spare by the front door is a relay attack waiting to happen.

Hiding spots to avoid

Under the wheel arch or in a magnetic box on the chassis: thieves check these first — it is the oldest trick in the book and it fools nobody. In a plant pot, under the doormat or above the door frame: the classic burglary spots, checked in seconds. In the glovebox or the boot: inside the car the key is meant to open, which helps nobody in a lockout and hands a thief a working key if they get in.

The pattern is simple: anywhere a stranger would look, or anywhere the key travels with the car, is wrong. Cleverness is not security — a spot the thief finds in thirty seconds is not a hiding place.

Special cases worth thinking about

Households with several drivers should decide whose spare is whose and where each lives — labelled, separated, and known to everyone. If you travel, consider whether the spare should move with a housesitter or stay put. For keyless cars, remember the shielding rule applies to every fob, including the one you rarely think about.

And keep the spare's condition in mind: a spare is only useful if it works. Test it once or twice a year — batteries die in drawers too, and a dead spare discovered during a lockout is a miserable moment. For classic cars with simple keys, a spare is so cheap to cut that there is no excuse for only one — get two spares and store them in two places.

Renters, sharers and shared houses

Not everyone has a discreet utility cupboard or a trusted neighbour of ten years. In shared houses and rentals, the calculus shifts: a key safe needs landlord permission to fit, and housemates come and go. The trusted-person option often wins here — a family member or a long-term friend rather than a current housemate whose tenancy ends in June.

Avoid the communal key bowl by the front door, which every shared house seems to have. It is convenient for everyone, including anyone who walks in uninvited. A spare deserves its own private spot, even if that spot is simply a locked drawer in your own room. And if you move out, take the spare's location with you — update the plan the same week, not eventually.

Write down what the spare is and where it lives

Memory is unreliable under stress, and households change. Keep a simple record — not with the key, but somewhere sensible like your phone's notes: which car the spare belongs to, where it is stored, and whose hands it is in. If you move house or the trusted person moves away, update the record and relocate the key the same week.

One caution: do not label the key itself with the car's registration or your address. A lost labelled key is a gift. A small tag with the make, or nothing at all, is enough when the storage location is documented separately. Review the arrangement once a year — people move, relationships change, and the trusted neighbour from years ago may have moved away. A yearly two-minute review keeps the plan real.

When the spare is lost too

It happens: the main key vanishes, and the spare — stored so carefully — cannot be found either, or turns out to have a dead battery. At that point you are in all-keys-lost territory, which is a bigger job: the car needs a new key generated from scratch, usually via the VIN and the vehicle's security system, rather than a simple duplication.

The way back from this is the same lesson, applied twice: get two keys made while you have one, store them in two different good places, and test both yearly. Redundancy only works if the redundant parts actually exist and actually work.

The holiday problem

Holidays break every routine, which is why they deserve their own plan. If the car sits at home for two weeks, the spare should too — with the housesitter or in the safe, not in your suitcase travelling with the main key. If you are driving to the airport, decide in advance: does the spare stay home with someone who can reach the car, or travel with a companion in a separate bag? The wrong answer is both keys in the same luggage, lost or stolen together. And if the car is parked at the airport for the duration, a trusted person holding the spare is worth more than any parking upgrade.

No spare to store? That is the real problem

All of this assumes you have a spare, and many drivers do not — which is why lockouts turn into emergencies. A spare cut while everything works is the cheapest locksmith job there is, done at your home in one visit, and it immediately needs a good home from the list above. For key cutting around Alvechurch, Bromsgrove and Redditch, see our car key replacement service — call or WhatsApp 07367 634032 and we will sort it.