Are you standing outside of a locked house right now wondering how in the world you managed to forget your keys inside of it?

Locking yourself out of your house can ruin your day and force you to take drastic steps to get back into it.

Before you start losing your cool, though, there are some things you can do to try and get back in quickly. In some cases, you might be able to get back into your house in a matter of just minutes by taking the right approach to doing it.

You don’t have to let locking yourself out of your house throw your whole day off track. Take a look at some of the things you should do after realizing that you’re locked out to regain access to your home.

Walk Around and See If Any Doors or First-Floor Windows Are Unlocked

According to a survey done a few years ago, almost 10% of people don’t lock the exterior doors in their homes, regardless of whether they’re home or not.

Some forget to do it on a regular basis, while others make the conscious decision not to do it.

When you’re trying to figure out how to get into a locked house, going through the front door probably isn’t an option. But you might be able to sneak in through another exterior door that someone left open.

Walk around your house and check every exterior door to see if it’s locked. From your back door to your cellar door, give each of your doorknobs a quick jiggle to see if getting back into your house is as simple as walking through a different door.

While you’re checking the doors, check your first-floor windows, too. There is a good chance that you or someone else in your home may have forgotten to lock a window the last time you had it open.

In a perfect world, you’ll find one that’s open and be able to climb right back inside. It’ll be one of the easiest possible ways to get back into a locked house.

Grab a Ladder and See If Any of Your Second-Floor Windows Are Unlocked

Does your home have a second story?

If so, you should check your second-floor windows, too, if you find that your exterior doors and your first-floor windows are all locked.

Grab a ladder from your backyard or borrow one from a neighbor and climb up to each of your second-floor windows to see if they’re unlocked. With a little bit of luck, you’ll find a window that’s unlocked on the second story of your home and be able to climb into it.

Just make sure that you let as many of your neighbors as you can know what you’re doing. The last thing you want is for one of them to call the cops because they think you’re a burglar trying to break into your home.

Consider Climbing Through Your Dog Door

More than 63 million U.S. households have at least one dog living in them.

Many of the people who own dogs make it easy for them to go outside when they need to by installing dog doors, which are usually put inside of their back doors. These doors allow dogs to come and go as they please.

Dog doors can also be used to get back into a locked house when you’ve locked yourself out. While climbing through a relatively small dog door isn’t going to be the highlight of your day, it might just get you back into your house in a hurry.

If you’re not able to get into a dog door yourself, consider calling on your own child or a neighbor’s child to do it for you. You’ll be so glad you took the time to put a dog door into place if it’s able to help you work your way back into your house.

Think About If You Have a Spare Key Stashed Somewhere Outside

Many homeowners hide house keys somewhere right outside their homes to avoid getting locked out.

Some put them under doormats, potted plants, and rocks, while others take more drastic measures to ensure their house keys don’t fall into the wrong hands.

Did you stash a spare key somewhere outside your home at some point in time? Or did someone else who lives in your house do it?

While you’re walking around the perimeter of your locked house trying to find a way in, think about those questions. There could be a spare key outside that you can use to unlock your front door.

Call Your Spouse, Parent, or Roommate and Ask Them to Bring You a Key

If you live all by yourself and haven’t given anyone else a key to your home, you’re obviously not going to be able to call anyone to come and bail you out.

But if you live with a spouse, a parent, a roommate, or someone else, they can lend a hand.

Give them a call once you realize that you’re locked out of your house with no other way in. See if it would be possible for them to run back home to give you their key so that you can get back inside.

This might not be possible if they work an hour away or if they’re tied up at an important business meeting. But more often than not, they’ll be happy to come and let you back inside.

Check If One of Your Neighbors Has a Key to Your House

Do you remember giving your neighbor a key to your house two years ago so that they could water your plants while you were away on vacation?

It couldn’t hurt to walk over and ask them if they happen to still have that key handy.

People are often quick to give out keys to their house to their neighbors, either so that their neighbors can access their home while they’re away or so that they can have a house key somewhere nearby “just in case.”

But people are also often quick to forget who they’ve given a key to. Even if you’re not so sure that you ever gave your neighbor a key to your house, you should still check in with them to see if they can help you out.

Figure Out If You Can Remove One of Your Doorknobs

Most of the doorknobs that are installed in exterior doors of homes aren’t designed to be removed from the outside.

This would sort of defeat the purpose of putting a lock on an exterior door in the first place. But there are some doorknobs that can be removed from exterior doors from outside of a house. See if you have any of these doorknobs on your home and take your best shot at removing them from a door if you can.

As long as you don’t have the deadbolt on a door locked, removing the doorknob from it will help you get back inside your home. You may have to replace the doorknob later if you’re not careful when removing it, but it’ll be well worth the added expense.

This is another situation in which you should tell your neighbors what you’re doing. You don’t want them to look outside and think that someone is trying to break into your house when it’s you.

Get in Touch With a Locksmith in Your Area

Have you tried all the other methods of getting into a locked house listed here and come up empty?

You might think that you’ve just about run out of options.

But in reality, you haven’t even tried the most reliable option of all yet. There is one more thing you can do that’s guaranteed to get you back inside your house in no time.

You can call on a local locksmith to come out to your home right away to get you into your house. A locksmith can bring the right tools to your home and have you back in your home in minutes.

Just be sure to hire the right locksmith for the job. Before you call a locksmith, check to see that they have:

• Plenty of experience working in the locksmithing industry
• A long list of residential locksmith services
• Affordable prices that are competitive compared to the prices offered by other locksmiths
• A reputation for providing excellent services
• Easy-to-find contact information and the ability to take a trip out to your home immediately

It might take you a few tries before you land on the right locksmith to help you. But it’ll be worth taking some extra time to make sure you find the best locksmith in the business in your general area.

It’s a good idea for all homeowners to have a good working relationship with a local locksmith.

You never know when you might need one to help you get back into a locked house or a locked car. You also never know when you might need to have new locks installed in your home.

Call the Police to Come to Your Home in an Emergency

We want to make one thing very clear to you before we talk about this option: you should not—emphasis on not—call the police to come to your home simply because you’re locked out of it.

There are plenty of people out there who have real emergencies on their hands. You’re going to be making it hard for the police to respond to them when you call on them for a non-emergency situation.

But there are some instances in which you should consider calling the police when you lock yourself out of your house.

For example, you should consider calling the police if you’ve locked an infant inside a house and have no way of getting to them. They can help you determine if you might need to break into your home through a window to prevent putting your baby into harm’s way.

You should also consider calling the police if you’ve locked yourself out of your house with the oven or stove on. You could end up starting a fire in your home if you allow the oven or stove to stay on while you’re locked outside for a long period of time.

If being locked outside is hindering your ability to get access to a necessary medication or medical equipment, that is also a good enough reason to call the police. They’ll help you avoid a medical emergency by figuring out a way to get you back into your house.

Again, you shouldn’t call the cops just because you’re locked out of your house.

They’re going to tell you to go ahead and call a locksmith. But you can lean on the police for help if you feel as though you have a real emergency going on.

These Techniques Can Help You Get Back Into a Locked House

Being stuck on the outside of a locked house is not ideal.

A million worries will go through your mind when you notice that you’ve locked yourself out of your home.

But locking yourself out of your house isn’t the end of the world. As you’ve seen here, there are lots of things you can do to get back in.

Ideally, you’ll run around to the back of your home and discover that someone forgot to lock your back door. You’ll be able to walk right into your home without a problem.

But even if it’s not quite that simple, you shouldn’t have too tough a time gaining access to your home again. If all else fails, you can always call on a local locksmith for help.

We would be more than happy to send a locksmith to your locked house to get you back inside of it. We have extensive experience with home lockouts and can make getting into your home a breeze.

Contact us today to arrange to have a locksmith come to your home right away.