Never thought much about it until my neighbour had a fall in her living room and couldn't get up. Nobody could get in because she had left the back and front door keys in the lock. Ended up having to get the emergency services involved to open up. Make sure my keys are removed now.
There's only one door into my house, with a Yale lock on it, so I couldn't leave a key in the lock (on the inside), even if I wanted to.
I do have a bad habit of leaving the chain on the door though (rather than only putting it on when answering the door), which means that (for example) emergency workers could be delayed in getting to me if I needed their help.
We remove the keys at night but they're nearby and out of sight. Both our back and front doors have to be locked with a key from inside (normal wooden doors, not UVPC).
keys out and out of sight but handy..too many break ins where keys are fished for through letter boxes..I know someone that this happened to..whilst he slept they cleared all downstairs..including his jacket with wallet , credit cards etc , which were well used on line ,and contactless bank card was used also..and escaped in his very nice BMW !! insurance will not pay out....
captive bolt locks I think..had them on internal doors so I could lock up kitchen at night from FIL ,who had alzheimers and wandered..too many dangerous items in there
Almost every set of keys i have been given when decorating houses (and that's literally hundreds) had mortice locks on them and could be locked from the inside. Because some of the areas we worked in were 'rough', we always kept the front door locked when working in the bedrooms so that the local 'tea-leaves' couldn't nip in and rob anything. My own front door has a mortice lock but, as it also has a glass pane, i take my key out at nights.
We lock up at night with the key and leave it in a little dish close by, but out of sight. Could you put a hook on the wall or on the side of a cupboard closeby Tinkerbell?