Repairing and Protecting Locks, Keys and Safes

Never Lose Your House Keys Again With These 4 Strategies

30 April 2015

Duane Ramirez

Keeping track of your house keys can be hard, but luckily, there are a number of things you can do to make it easier. The strategy you select will likely be based on when and where you tend to lose your keys.

The following strategies focus on keeping track of your house keys, and they are primarily designed for people who use public transit or bicycles. However, if you are a driver, you can also use many of these strategies on your car keys as well.

1. Losing keys in the house

If you constantly unlock your front door, walk in your home at the end of the day and promptly lose your keys, you need a key routine—and you need to follow it every day. After a while, that routine will become cemented in your brain, and you will do it automatically without thinking.

To get started, set up a spot to put your keys immediately next to your door. Your keyholder could be a set of hooks on the wall next to the door, a table next to the door or a basket in the foyer closet. When you are ready to leave the house, your keys should be right there waiting for you.

2. Leaving keys behind while out

If you frequently leave your keys at friends' houses, restaurants or work, consider investing in an alarm system that beeps every time you are too far from your keys. These systems feature two elements: a sensor that connects to your belt or the waistband of your pants and a second sensor that attaches to your keys.

If the two sensors get too far apart (you can control the settings to create the distance that works for you) an alarm sounds. You are immediately alerted that you have left your keys behind and need to grab them.

3. Dropping keys while running or biking

If you are running or biking for exercise and you don't have pockets in your clothes, you risk dropping your keys. Losing your house keys out on a biking trail can be frustrating, and if you are worried about someone else picking up the keys, you may even need to change your locks.

To minimise keys lost in this manner, buy a shoelace and string your key around your neck or lace your key into your shoe. Alternatively, leave the key at home and hide it under a doormat or a planter.

If you are not comfortable leaving the key out, just ditch the keys altogether and have a locksmith install electronic locks with codes on your door. Then, you only need to remember a string of numbers but don't have to worry about keys.

4. Losing keys everywhere

If all of the above scenarios seem to apply to you and if your house keys seem to be perpetually lost, consider installing a tracking device on them. Currently, there are a range of tracking products on the market.

Much like the sensor described above, some of these tracking devices have two elements. However, unlike the device above, tracking devices do not trigger themselves. Instead, when you notice your keys are gone, you hit a button on a fob, and the tracking device attached to the keys begins to beep.

In other cases, you do not use a special device or fob to trigger the alarm on the keys. Instead, you use an app on your phone which is attached to a sensor on the house key. Some apps cause the device connected to the keys to start beeping, but other apps have a GPS locator that guides you to your keys.

For more creative ideas on getting rid of your house keys or creating strategies to help you avoid losing them, contact a locksmith.

 

Share