Does YOUR American Apartment Have a Secret Key? | #shorts

After 14 years of renting American apartments, I've only just discovered this key myself.

[doublepiedavid]

It’s not just for emergencies, it’s also for when the kids get to the stage in life where they feel so smart that they can lock the door from the inside, leave the bathroom, and shut the door.

[dstinnettmusic]

I learned this as a kid because, having siblings and cousins around my age, locking eachother out of rooms was just a fun/spiteful way to torment eachother.

You can use any firm object small enough and flat enough to manipulate these locks, or pop open the “push button” style of household privacy locks.

[kenbrown]

not just apartments, and not just bathrooms. it's called a "passage lock" and they are quite common. the builder sets it up there when the home is built and there it remains until the heat death of the universe.

[BaldingClamydia]

A little screwdriver works as well. It's not a complicated lock. Sometimes you can even twist the handle as far as possible Anna jiggle it enough to pull the door open

[Sam_on_YouTube]

Any thin stick will work. A coathanger is an effective option. The locks are designed for privacy, not security. It is supposed to remind people not to come in, not to prevent it, as children can lock themselves in and you can lock the door and then close it locking yourself out.

[OtakuUnitedStudio]

I had one of those types of locks on my bedroom door starting at age 8. All of the rooms in the house had them. If the door was unlocked it was assumed that it was okay to come in, and if it was locked you really didn't want to.

[rhov-anion]

That key actually saved my grandfather's life. He lived with us, and one day we heard a noise like muffled moans in the bathroom. My mom knocked, Grandpa didn't reply, so she unlocked the door with that key above the door and found he had a stroke. We got him to the hospital, and he made a partial recovery.

[jamzee_]

Its these videos that have taught me how weird and intricate our culture really is. And a reminder for foreigners, every state and even areas within states are completely different from one another.
Each one having their own little quirks.

Like here in the New Orleans and Gulf Coast area, we have certain societal rules for how to get rid of garbage, like placing the metal and any stuff that might still be useful at the right edge of your driveway. That way, your local metal worker or any person (or as we call them Scrappers), can come and recycle them before trash day. Dont even need to pay or have them pay.

You put out a broken washing machine in the morning, and by noon the scrapper will be by to pick it up and take it away.

[possumverde]

Bobby pin or similar will also work... for those who accidentally lock themselves out of their bathroom or bedroom. Most inner doors these days just have a groove in the outer center of the knob that you can turn with a nickel or quarter to unlock them.

[michaelhenderson]

When I was a kid, I learned you could do the same thing with a butter knife or anything flat and small enough.

My parents were not happy that I walked in on their private time, and quite frankly neither am I 23 years later. That’s a memory I wish I could purge from my mind…

[joermnyc]

Some more modern doors will have just a small hole in the knob, an unbent paper clip can “pop” the locking mechanism open when you’ve pushed it in hard enough.

[carrieburns]

Or for when toddlers accidentally lock themselves in a bathroom. But if you don’t have one of these doo-dads, you can also use a little eyeglasses screwdriver.

[kimberlycantler]

Growing up in the 1970s those keys came attached to cans of spam for opening it. My toddler sister used to lock herself in the bathroom all the time- almost 30 years later I was finding those things all over when we emptied and sold their house.

[gelidgenteel]

its also useful for when children lock it shut. or if you need to keep them out of a room, so you intentionally lock it before leaving

[thepokekid]

They actually come with many doorknobs when you buy them.

[nelswolf]

As an American... I had no idea this was only an American thing

[Fisheee]

Not just for bathrooms, at least in our house. We have 3 or four on various door frames in the house since all the doorknobs are identical. You can also use a bobby pin or a very small flathead screwdriver to open them too

[Ihchkciyiyhgifuofyr]

You can also use a screw driver or butterknife depending on the type of lock & if you dont have a key. Older American homes have skeleton keys for their bathrooms and "secret rooms." Several old homes here in Alabama have rooms in the walls or secret doors to adjacent rooms that aren't visible to the naked eye. Usually the skeleton keys that open all of these locks are above the bathrooms doors.

[Ojisan]

It’s not really a secret, but you can also use a screwdriver to open those type of interior door locks that have a twist lock. The push button locks can be similarly opened with a paper clip or other small pointy object.

[uncurled]

I found the key above the bathroom door frame and spent way too long trying to Google what it was until I realized it was for the bathroom door. In my defense the door doesn't fully latch correctly so you can just push on the door without turning the handle to open it so if the handle is useless, the lock is doubly so.