How To Lock A Bedroom Door From The Outside?

  • By: Mike Hale
  • Date: July 17, 2022
  • Time to read: 5 min.

Bedroom doors often don’t have locks. Even if they do, they can only lock from the inside. But, there are many reasons why you might want to lock them from the other side and simply don’t know how to do it. So, how do you lock a bedroom door from the outside?

You can put a simple bolt lock on the outside of the door or install a door handle with an integrated key lock. If you’re looking to do it without a lock, you’ll need creativity. It will also depend on the type of door. You can use barricades, remove the handle from the outside, etc.

The reason why you’d want to lock a bedroom door from the outside will also play a role in choosing the best method. Whether it’s to keep the doors shut while you’re away, locking somebody in, or even locking yourself inside will determine the best way to do so. But first, let’s take a look at some of the most common reasons to lock a bedroom door from the outside.

A Bedroom door

Why Would You Lock A Bedroom From The Outside?

It sounds so silly to want to lock a bedroom from the outside. Instantly, it sounds like you want to lock yourself or somebody else inside the room. That’s necessary sometimes, but it’s not the main reason why people do it.

The most common reason for wanting to lock a bedroom door from the outside is to prevent burglary. If you live in a dorm or a shared house, you might want to keep your belongings safe. Even if you trust your roommates, you don’t know who’ll come visiting, so keeping your doors locked while you’re away might be very important.

Maybe you have some valuables in the room and want to prevent burglars from entering, even if they manage to break into your home. Sometimes, people want to lock themselves in a room to motivate themselves to work, study, or something else.

Finally, you might have a mentally challenged or senile family member that has to be supervised at all times. You might want to lock their doors to keep them safe overnight, whether that means keeping them from harming themselves or others. 

Maybe you want to lock yourself inside a room to focus on your work or studies. Keep in mind that you should never do it without having a doctor’s order, as it is a horrible felony to keep somebody locked against their will.

Can You Lock A Door From The Outside?

There are numerous ways to lock a door from the outside. Of course, if the door has a regular key lock, it’s as easy as using the key. But, if there’s no lock, things get a bit more tricky.

There are some remarkable gadgets to help you lock a bedroom door from the outside. For instance, The Door Bull is a great product that locks the door from the outside and prevents breaking in, even when using a lot of force. It distributes the impact around the door frame and the floor, making it very difficult to break the door open.

If you cannot get the specialized gadgets for any reason, you can use do-it-yourself methods, too! The most common way to do it is to put a chair underneath the door handle or to lock the door using a fork. While that can prevent somebody from opening the door with ease, it won’t really stop them from breaking in with force.

Using a lock is always the best way to lock a door. Put a simple lock on the outside of the door, be it an old-fashioned portable lock, a bolt lock, or something else. If you’re using a bolt lock, you can even lock the door from the outside while you’re still inside the room, using some nifty knot-and-loop techniques.

How To Lock A Bedroom Door From The Outside Without A Lock?

Even if you don’t have a lock of any kind, you can still find ways to lock your bedroom doors from the outside and prevent potential break-ins, burglaries, etc.

First and foremost, you can use a barricade of any kind to lock the doors. It can be quite effective to prevent inwards-facing doors from opening. You can use a chair, a bed, a dresser, or any other heavy object to work as a barricade. This method is useless on outwards-facing doors, though, as the person can pull the door open without any resistance.

One other simple way to lock the door from the outside is using a doorstop. We usually use these to keep the doors open, but they can serve quite well as a locking method for bedroom doors without a lock. 

Just wedge the doorstop underneath the doors (on the door handle side, not the hinges side). It won’t withstand high impact and forceful break-ins but can serve great as a make-shift locking method if you want to keep your bedroom shut.

If you have double doors (such as French doors), you can use a belt or a wire to keep the doors locked. Just tie the handles of each wing of the door tightly together. You can use this method on regular doors too, but you need to have something to tie the belt around. 

Doors with clothes hooks on them work great. Tie the belt around the handle and the hook tightly to prevent anybody from pressing down the door handle.

A simple yet effective solution is to remove the door handle on the outside of the door. Even if you don’t have a lock, you have to press the door handle to open the door. If the handle isn’t there, there is no way to open the door apart from breaking in.

As stated at the beginning, it all depends on why you want to lock the door from the outside. If it’s a simple, temporary solution, you can do something like the belt method or the fork method.

However, if you need a more permanent solution, you should always go for a safety lock. If that’s not an opinion, then barricades, lock gadgets, and handle removals are the way to go. 

Just note that it can be dangerous to lock bedroom doors from the outside, especially if somebody remains inside. It poses a huge safety risk in case of an emergency, such as a gas leak or a fire. These aren’t the only ways to do what you want, and you can always find more creative solutions if none of these work for you.