Author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
I’m not overstating it when I say that this approximately $1 item could save your life or that of someone you love. It looks like a tiny, useless little thing, but I have been carrying a door wedge around for years.
Who says a little bit of added security has to cost a fortune?
How to use them for safety purposes
Imagine your son or daughter is at school, and they hear gunshots from a distance. Having one of these wedges in their backpack to jam under the door suddenly makes them a much harder target to reach.
Imagine you are at an Airbnb, and you feel a little uncomfortable with the owner you met. You know he has a key to where you’re sleeping. But you can make it a whole lot harder for them to get in with a door wedge.
Imagine being at the mall and realizing that a huge mob is fighting and breaking windows. If you can get to the bathroom, a place with no windows, you can secure the door with a wedge even if there isn’t a lock.
As an apartment dweller, I know that building management has a key to my place. I don’t love that idea, so I keep a wedge beside the door and shove it under as soon as I’m inside.
Of course, they can serve more boring purposes, such as keeping an interior door from slamming shut every time the outside door is opened.
Where do you take them?
I’ve had one of these exact door wedges in my purse for years now. I also keep one in my luggage for when I travel. It adds a layer of protection to my door in a hotel room, where anyone with a master key can enter.
My youngest daughter had one in her backpack at school and now keeps one in her purse. We both always have one with us, just in case.
The nice thing about a little rubber door wedge is that it can’t get you in trouble in any environment. It’s not a weapon. It’s not metal, so it won’t cause detectors to go off. TSA won’t take it away from you at the airport. You can seriously take them anywhere.
How to use them
If you’ve never used one of these before, it is so simple that a child could use it. All you do is close the door and slip the wedge underneath it, close to the side where it opens. They’re anti-slip and work on nearly all surfaces, including wood, carpeting, cement, and tile.
These will not completely stop a determined intruder but could slow them down. It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to open the door with the wedge in it. The only way they’ll get through is by breaking through the material of the door instead.
That buys you enough time to grab a weapon or to improvise one. You can call 911. You can hide or escape out a window. Those extra minutes may be all it takes for you to survive. Your teenager at school can secure a classroom or bathroom door if there is a shooter. If you’re out in public and all heck breaks loose, it can be deployed under any bathroom or office door.
There are all different kinds.
I personally prefer the simple rubber ones like this. They’re so unobtrusive that nobody will even notice them in your bag.
But there are other kinds you should note also.
A lot of people like these wedges that double as an alarm. The moment someone tries to push open the door, a shrieking, piercing alarm will go off. This alerts not only you but everyone around you. These babies are LOUD. When we had a house with a door we never used because it was inconvenient, we kept an alarmed door wedge under it for extra security.
I’ve never used one of these, but the Wedge-It is specifically designed with security in mind. It can be used to hold doors shut by putting it underneath, and it also works to go over a hinge and keep a door open. (Great if you have little ones – no fingers slammed in doors!) The reviews on the product are mixed, with some people finding that the Wedge-It broke quickly, and others praising it lavishly.
Finally, there’s this type of wedge with the little holes in the sides. You can use this by putting a length of cord or bead chain through the hole and leaving it hanging on your doorknob when it’s not in use.
Have you ever used door wedges?
I have sung the praises of these gadgets for years and absolutely love them. Have you ever used one? If so, which type was it? Do you have any suggestions for people using one?
Let’s talk about it in the comments section.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
I have the door wedges with the alarm. Man alive, they are LOUD even on medium.
I did have to leave a piece of paper on the floor by the alarm for when my husband would get up & out early to go to the lobby for coffee so he wouldn’t forget it was there!
I sent one for my daughter for when she travels in Europe.
Have used door wedges for years. Putting 2 under a door instead of 1 increases their effectiveness an order of magnitude. The one’s with the alarm are a handy way to have an alarm for a room with a door anywhere you go. Need to get out? Easy, just kick them sideways. Their value is vastly underestimated!
What a fabulous idea!!! I will be sharing this with everyone!
+1000 !! I have a young friend who is leaving to serve her Mormon Mission, and this will be a great gift for her. I have them in the house, but what a great idea to take them on vacay or carry everyday.
One word of caution on this; wedging your door shut will make it very difficult for a RESCUER to get through that door as well. Use your head here…
Hi Tom.
Normally when there is a fire and people need to be rescued, the fire department carries an axe or power saw. On top of that, most hotels etc. do have smoke detectors in every room. But I think the probability of becoming a victim of a robbery is higher than the probability of a fire.
While the Door Wedge seems ideal for a door that swings inward to protect you while you are there … is there a solution for non-locking doors that swing outward?
I had a buddy who was recovering from an injury by staying in an assisted living facility. The patient room doors all had non-locking outward swinging doors. Any patient there with any kind of stealable valuables learned quickly that such things were unprotectable from the staff. It was as bad as TSA thieves who would either keep those stolen goodies or resell them on eBay.
A long time ago when I was recovering from a hospital stay … I had to spend a few days in a somewhat similar recovery facility where again the patient doors were non-lockable and swung outward. I learned the hard way that whenever I was out of my room anything I left behind was vulnerable. In one really stupid case some of my clothes were vandalized. A belt buckle was broken and made useless so that when I left there I had to hold up my pants with one hand.
In one bizarre case where I learned the tenant doors swung outward … I asked the owner by phone if there was any way to lock those doors when I was out of the room. I explained the examples (discussed above) that had happened to both me and some friends. The owner seemed to take offense and said that since I had been through such bad experiences before … I would probably be expecting more of that at the owner’s bed and breakfast … so I was told I was not welcome to stay there. That cost me the opportunity to attend an otherwise wonderful relatives’ reunion that I had been looking forward to.
So that’s why I’m wondering iif there is a temporary locking solution for an outward swinging door such as some kind of modified Door Wedge or even something else.
–Lewis
Lewis, something like this might work for the outward doors. https://amzn.to/3Ao98d1
The video says it only works for doors that swing inward. I haven’t been able to find anything for an outward swinging door but I’ll keep looking.
oh whoops! I’m sorry!
Love this information! Thank you.
After the discussion so far I ran a search on locking systems for outward-swinging doors. While I found several (that all required some installation or modification of the door system) they seemed suitable only for the property owners to permanently install. None that I could find were conveniently portable in the same spirit as the Door Wedge designed for inward swinging doors.
–Lewis
Daisy, this works really well: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GZ3F4FK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
I just ordered 2 5-packs – thank you for the great idea! For a grandson at college, and a few more yet to come, I’d like them to keep one in a dorm room or their backpacks, and will talk to them about it. I’d pack one in any overnighters we may take – those dinky chains wouldn’t keep any determined bad guy out. I’d like one by all our house doors too. People can ignore locks and kick doors in and this would give me time to get my weapon and call 911.
Another implication of our discussion is in traveling. It’s clear that a door that opens inward is much easier to beef up its security (using either a Door Wedge or any of its several competitors) than a pretty much impossible to similarly protect outwardly hinging door. Now that you know and understand those differences you can better choose where you would want to stay.
–Lewis
My wife was awakened in her hotel bed one midnight by a drunken naked man standing in her room. He had wandered in from the adjacent joined room, and hotel staff had neglected to lock the door. No harm was done, the drunk was escorted back to his place, but I doubt she slept well after that.
Door wedges are great, When I taught High school, I would use 2 to secure my doors and no matter how hard the security team who pretended to be bad guys tried, they couldn’t get into my classroom and moved on. For a few bucks, in a real situation, it could save your life if a bad guy is just looking for easy opportunity. In the least, it will give you a few more moments to act.