Giving a Cleaner a Key: Safe Handling of Keys and Codes
The access methods ranked from safest to worst, what to ask about how keys are stored, and the hide-a-key habit that is riskier than any of them.
At some point recurring cleaning means someone gets in while you are out. How that access is handled is one of the few parts of hiring a cleaner that has a clearly correct answer.
The methods, ranked
1. A smart lock with its own code per crew. Best available option. You can create a code, restrict it to a window, see in the log exactly when it was used, and delete it in four seconds if anything changes. Nothing physical exists to lose.
2. A keypad deadbolt with a dedicated code. Nearly as good, minus the log. Give the cleaning code its own slot, never a code you use for anything else, and change it when the crew changes.
3. A lockbox on the hose bib or gas meter. Fine, with one rule: the code changes on a schedule, not never. A lockbox code set in 2022 and shared with a plumber, a dog walker and two former cleaners is a key under the mat with extra steps.
4. A physical key held by the company. Perfectly workable if the company has a real policy — see below. This is how a large share of recurring cleaning still runs.
5. A key hidden outside. The worst of all of them, and the most common. Under the mat, in the fake rock, on the door frame. Burglars know all of these, and it grants access to everyone rather than to your cleaner.
Note the order there. Giving a key to an insured, bonded company with a written key policy is meaningfully safer than the hide-a-key you were using instead.
If they hold a physical key, ask five things
Is the key tagged with my address? It must not be. A lost keyring with an address tag is a break-in kit. Keys should carry a code that means nothing to anyone outside the office.
Where is it stored between visits? A locked cabinet at the office, signed in and out. Not in a van overnight, not on a personal keyring, not in a glovebox.
Who has access to the cabinet? A small number of named people.
What happens when an employee leaves? Keys returned before the final paycheck is standard practice and worth hearing said aloud.
What if it is lost? The honest answer is: we tell you immediately and we pay to rekey the affected locks. Get this in writing.
Get a one-page key agreement
It does not need a lawyer. One page, signed, saying: which key, issued on what date, how it is stored, that it will not be duplicated, that loss is reported immediately and rekeying is at the company’s cost, and that it is returned within a set number of days if service ends.
That last clause is the one people forget until they cancel. Ask for the key back in writing and get confirmation.
Codes specifically
Do not reuse. The cleaning code should not be your alarm code, your garage code, your gate code or the code you gave a contractor.
Rotate on change. New crew, staff departure, end of service — new code. This is the entire advantage of codes over keys and it goes unused if you never rotate.
Read the log. If you have a smart lock, look at it occasionally. Entry at 9:12 and exit at 12:40 on the day you expected is quietly reassuring, and it also settles disputes.
Split the information. Do not send a full address and a door code in the same message. Access details belong in whatever the company uses for job notes, not in a text thread that lives on a phone at a bar.
Gates, garages and Austin specifics
Plenty of homes here add a second layer. Gated communities like Sun City in Georgetown need the crew on a resident guest list, or a gate code, or both, and the guest list often has to be updated when personnel change. Downtown high-rises want the company on file with building management, usually with a certificate of insurance naming the building, and sometimes a loading-dock booking.
Handle these before the first visit, not on the morning of it. A crew stuck at a gate for twenty minutes loses that time from your clean, and building approvals take days rather than hours.
Garage keypads are convenient and usually the weakest link: many are the original installer code, shared widely, and rarely changed. If the garage is the access route, change the code first.
What to do when service ends
- Delete the code or get the key back, in writing
- Rekey if a physical key is unaccounted for — it is inexpensive and it closes the question
- Rotate the lockbox code
- Remove the company from the gate guest list and building access list
- Check the smart-lock log once, a week later
Most of the anxiety about giving out access comes from having no mechanism to take it back. Choose a method where revoking takes seconds, and the question stops being stressful.
Our crews are W-2 employees who are named to you before they arrive and badged when they get there, and we would rather have a rotating code than a key — for your sake and ours.
