Imagine this: You're in your bathroom at night, nothing on but a towel. Your kids are sleeping, your wife is in the kitchen. You notice a shadow moving outside the window.

You walk over and investigate. You see a guy with a baseball bat creeping in through your bedroom window. You rush over there -- in a near panic -- to head him off.

Too late.

When you get in your bedroom, he's already inside. He's either high on drugs or crazy. He has spittle running down his chin and he's twitching every half a second.

You're in your towel. Your mobility is limited. Your kids are still asleep in the next room. Your wife is still in the kitchen.

What do you do?

Well, in this situation, and especially if my mobility was limited by a towel or whatever, the first thing I'd do is pick up something -- anything -- as a weapon.

If I didn't have something to use as a weapon (it never hurts to have a baseball bat under your bed, btw), then I would use what's sometimes called a "makeshift" weapon.

What's a makeshift weapon?

It's a weapon you make on the fly by modifying ordinary objects in your immediate surroundings.

For example, you can grab a metal coat hanger and bend it into an edged weapon.

You can grab a belt, and use the metal buckle as a sort of crude "morning star" like the ancient medieval knights used.

You can grab the bar in our closet you hang your clothes on, and use it as a bo staff.

You can even do something as basic and simple as taking an ordinary padlock in your palm, with your forefinger through the arch, and use it as a sort of brass knuckle.

Whatever the case, with a little bit of thought, you can make a weapon out of thin air, with just the regular objects around you. And when you start thinking about it and practicing doing it, you will give yourself that much more of an advantage if you are unexpectedly attacked.