How to Secure a Door Without a Lock

• Lock Your Door with a Fork

Yes, this versatile household tool is for more than eating with.

To use a fork as a lock, you will need to do a little bit of DIY. Start by finding a fork that has prongs that will fit into the latch hole (the fork will need to be metal from end to end. Plastic handled forks won’t work). Measure how deep the fork prong tips fit into the hole and bend the tips of the fork so that they are at a 90 degrees angle.

Cut off the handle of the fork and make sure it can slide between the prongs.

To make this fork work as a lock, place the bent tips of the fork into the latch. Close the door. Slide the handle of the fork between the middle prongs. Voila! You have locked your door.

• Secure your Door with a Wedge

A wedge is so simple it can be easily underestimated. Yet, a good wedge can effectively lock a door. In fact, you’ve probably been faced with a wedge problem before. If something gets stuck underneath your door, wedging it in place it becomes really hard to open the door. It can be infuriating.

That simple fact proves that a door wedge works.

Your wedge can be anything. A shaped piece of wood. A bit of folded cardboard. A triangular piece of plastic. You can buy ready-made wedges online or create one from bits and pieces in your home.

Simply slot your wedge into the gap between the door and the floor, (or the door and the doorframe) and you will have locked your door.

• Chair Under the Door Handle

You have probably seen this method lots of times in various movies. Someone is trying to escape a bad guy and they run through a door. In an attempt to slow down the bad guy they place a chair under the door handle.

Does it work?

Yes, as a temporary lock it does work.

By jamming the back of your chair under the door handle you can prevent the door from opening. However, the strength of this lock is also dependent on the strength of the chair. If someone is trying to force your door, an older chair may break (as featured in many YouTube videos).

If you are simply trying to keep the kids out of the bedroom so you and your other half can half 5 minutes, this is a good option.

• Secure your Door with a Belt

If you have a lever-handled door with a hook on it (for hanging coats or dressing gowns, or even towels) then this method is a quick and easy fix.

By looping the belt around the hook and the handle, then tightening it, you prevent people from using the handle. Thus, you are preventing them from opening the door.

• Security Bars 

A security bar is an adjustable bar. The purpose behind it is to place one end under the handle and the other on the floor.

It follows the same rules as jamming a chair underneath a handle. But purchasing an adjustable bar means that you always have one that fits any door, whereas with a chair you may have trouble finding one that is the right height to lock the door successfully.

• Portable Door Lock

Addalock and similar portable locks are built on the same theory and mechanism as the fork technique we mentioned earlier. The difference between these versions and the DIY one is that it has been tested and designed specifically to secure a door.

Carrying a portable lock around will allow you to quickly lock any door.