And where will your renters hang their clothes. My advice it take all the stuff with you or rent a storage space. I would not want to rent a space with your stuff in my closet.

It's for Airbnb and only a few days at a time. thanks for your unhelpful advice.

It depends on how much you care about looks. Probably the simplest and most practical keyed lock would be a hasp and padlock. Obviously it has to be screwed to the wood part of the doors.

If the mirrors cover the entire outside, I guess you could screw countersunk mending plates to the point where the doors meet, drill them, and put a padlock through them. Again, that's not very pretty.

It's not that practical to lock bifold doors anyway. They're too easy to lift right out of their mounting, and they can be easily put back without any indication they've been removed. So if your guests are nosy about what might behind those locked doors, and just a little determined, all bets are off.

Your simplest and safest fix is to remove anything valuable from the closet and store it somewhere else that's easier to secure -- preferably in another house.

You're not alone and google is your friend. However, DavidR is ciorrect that it depends on how much you care about looks. google search-security lock for bifold doors

A thought I had: assuming the door hinge pivots out towards the room, one could install a bolt in the floor outboard of the door that projects out from the floor enough to prevent the door from opening. If you use the type of tamper-proof screws/botls commonly found in public spaces that require a special tool turn the bolt it mght be secure enough to keep explorers from accessing the closet. Howveer, I still wouldn't leave any valuables there.

You could switch the door to a hinged version with or without the mirror that could be easily locked.

I would not be happy, if I were staying there, and couldnt get into a closet to hang something up. If I am paying to use a place, then I would want to use the closet that is available to that room.

Hi Laurel, Did you ever find a solution in locking your bifold mirror doors? I have the same problem and can’t find anything to lock it. Please let me know if you found a way.

Thanks.

We rent in Florida for 4 months a year. We have stayed at a place where they just put stuff in totes in a closet with no lock and in a place where they have one closet with a lock on it (not in the master). Never touched their stuff at all, not mine. We are renting now from someone whose Mom passed away and there is lots of "stuff" in all the closets! Wish I could toss some things, but not mine, will not mess with! We respect other peoples things. Wish all people were like that.

Hope you figure out your locking.

Thank you Kathy for your advice but I‘ve done the locked totes in the closet and I want to make it easy for myself and not to unpack the totes since I have 2 large walk in closets in

the master room. If I can only find a way to lock one of the closets with the mirror bifold doors it would be great. I know there has to be a lock out there that would work. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Thanks

I have never seen an effective solution for locking a bifold closet door.

I have never seen an effective solution for locking a bifold closet door.

And you probably won't, because locks for bifold doors are pointless. All you have to do to get in is lift the locked doors at the jambs, pull them out of their pivots, and set them aside.

I would believe it’s just to keep the Airbnb guest from opening and using the closet. Not because they are going to break in and steal something.

Wacokid, It’s not for an Airbnb, I want to rent my furnished condo for 3 to 5 months to one person or a family and don’t want anyone to go thru my personal items.

I’m talking about the OP situation.

Bifold Interior Closet Doors cannot be locked realistically.

I...don’t want anyone to go thru my personal items.

I don't blame you! The best way to prevent that is to remove them and put them in storage.

No way would I ever store anything of my own in one of my rentals. It's just too tempting. The security is zero, and the curiosity (especially for kids in the renters' family) approaches infinity. That's not a good combination. Count on it, if you leave your stuff there, someone will snoop through it.

There's no effective way to lock a bi-fold door (as David said, you can just lift a bifold door and take it off the tracks).

So if you just want a deterrent, you could use a baby-proof bifold door "lock". It's just a little plastic thing that slips over the top of the door at the hinge part so that the hinge can't bend.

It's just designed so that if you're tall enough, you can reach it and slid it off. So it isn't really a 'lock'. But you could tape it in place.

Yes ... tape will not deter someone who wants to get in there. But it will keep the honest people honest. An honest person might succumb to curiosity and open a closet that they've been told not to. But if they have to remove something that is preventing them from opening the closet (even if it's just tape and a little plastic slidy thing), they won't.

A dishonest person will get in no matter what you do.

What about a long dead bolt top and bottom? passing into the floor as well as the header? Do it on all four corners if you want. How are they going to lift the door out of the frame then? Then partition wall dividing the closet in half? Your renter should still be able to slide the other half.

Did you ever find a solution for your mirrior bifold door lock? My mother is currently looking for a solution with the same concerns you had. Thanks

Locking 1 closet is a common practice among people who own vacation rentals, of which I’m one.

If you clearly state in the description the number of closets available to the renters, state that one is reserved for owner’s use, and choose one to lock thats not “prime real estate” (like the master closet or the only closet in the bedroom), it’s not a problem.

We have a bi-fold (mirrored) hall closet where we keep a few totes with personal items. Nothing valuable, just a few things we want to have easy access to when we use the home ourselves. We also have an identically sized hall closet for renters to use.

I think greg_2015 brings up a really good point. A top-mounted childproof lock is an easily installed deterrent, which will keep the honest people honest, as they say.

If someone is determined to break into a closet, I guess they will, but I think a simple childproof top-mounted lock will be enough to keep respectful renters out of that particular closet.

"Install one end to each side of the door, close & lock."

"Why in the world do she have to explain herself to anyone, she asked a question. Why she feels she wants or needs to lock her closet is her business. She's asking for answers, not smart azz comments about how she runs her business."

ann alexander, ok, since your wanted to hop on a soap box, how would you attached that to a glass mirror bifold door????????? I'll wait......................

You think Laurel is going to be courteous enough to help anyone based on her snark above? lol

https://www.hangingdoorhardware.com/pocketdoors/keyed_push_lock.htm

The last one in this page.