Any tips or tricks on keeping my room safe from my housemates while I'm on holiday?

Question

Live in a shared house, I've got no lock on the door. Any tips or techniques I could use, also any sneaky tricks so I can tell if anyone has been in my room, come on, there must be some crafty people out there!

Answer 1

Hi

I have a partner who never locks her car door, and has never been burgled, even though we live in a pretty high risk area in the UK. I always lock my car door and have had the window smashed in quite a few times.

There is something about building up a karma of trust around your room, and yourself. Once you start mistrusting and suspecting your housemates of being dishonest, and taking pre-emptive action against them, then you are laying the ground for that very thing to happen. There will be an atmosphere of suspicion around your room, you and your friends. This will lead to further acts of mistrust in the future. That's the way Karma works it seems?

Isn't the development of human trust between you all worth more than a few possessions? I would suggest that you do absolutely nothing, but surround your room and yourself and your housemates with genuine trust - and see what happens.

I know most people reading this will go bananas and think this idea is nutz and quote all kinds of examples of it not working, but I use the word GENUINE - it must not be done as a game or an experiment. You have to develop genuine trust, and let your action come from there. If you find yourself full of mistrust and suspicion then it won't work - but you can learn from that understanding of yourself and do something about it?

Try inviting them to use your room, and use your possessions while you are away? It will change and purify the karma of mistrust and suspicion that is in you if you do that. You may be amazed at the results of doing that.

I am trying to take the advice I am giving you (which is basic buddhist understanding of karma) and learn from the example of trust my girlfriend genuinely has of our neighbours - which is awesome. Getting there slowly - but I have to work on my own karmic mistrust of others first!

best of luck,


achintya

Answer 2

The first thing that you want to do is take all of your valuables and give them to the people that you think would take them in your absence for safe keeping while you are away. You could close your drawers on a small object or small piece of paper that will fall when the drawer is opened. The same with the room door. A match stick or similar object can be closed in the door so when the door is opened you will know. You can also use an old 007 trick by placing a wet hair across the door frame or drawer opening as a seal that will indicate tampering. A small piece of invisible tape will work as well. A light coating of talc on surfaces may even show finger prints and only seem as though your room is dusty. A length of thread strung across areas will indicate someone was there also if it has been broken.

Use your imagination and I am sure you can come up with some tricks of your own. You know these people and may even come up with ways to figure out who was in your room.

Answer 3

yeah tie a piece of white cotton around the bed in the middle all the way round when you come back from holidays if that cotton is broken you know some else has been sleeping in youre bed.also i used to have a cuboard in my room i would put all my valuble stuff in it and secure with a bike lock. take other thing to a family member or freind till you get back.

Answer 4

get a big box, some sand and some cactus plants, plant a nice flower arrangement and position it behind your door so one has to step in it in order to get into your room
explain that you're doing it for good luck, as it is a Mexican tradition when traveling (or whatever other bullshit comes to mind)
it's somewhat discouraging if one has to move something pointy that might leak sand
if you need something stronger, drill a very slim hole through the side of your doorframe and into the door close to the floor and insert a long nail or pin if nobody sees it - they will assume your door is stuck through rare use

Answer 5

If you just want to find out if anyone has been in you could use something as simple as a cotton thread that would break if anyone came in, or you could install a low cost CCTV system (such as a web cam), My suggestion would be to just ask your friends to stay out, or let them in a lot, if you do there won't be any "Forbidden fruit" attraction to it. If there's something valuable you think they might damage or take then don't leave it there, or secure where it is.

Answer 6

two five meggawatt military lazers,one on the wardrobe, and teh other...swinging randomly from the ceiling. youll need a magic eye infra red lazer to scan teh floor, and may i suggest the amplivox voice recognition system...it cuts down on accidental discharges...and dead flatmates.

fit a lock, hasp and padlock.. its cheaper than the above, but less fun, and less likely to get you into grief. you could always take your valuable stuff to somewhere safe... that would be the easy option...

Answer 7

if you have carpet vacuum your rug so you can see any foot steps on it. Just make sure you don't walk on it after you vacuum it. Other wise www.spyusa.com to get a clock radio with a hidden camera

Answer 8

Try the pest sensors, you plug them on the wall and it annoys them. I've used them for about a year and they worked, I got them at Home Depot

Answer 9

Hey if you cannot trust your room mates , why the hell dont you get rid of them. put a security cam on your door.

Answer 10

a pad lock on the door and a small pice of tape on the door w/ youmark on it .