I’ve decided that my goal is to have as few keys on my keychain as possible. To me, the less keys on your keychain, the less responsibility you have—and the more freedom!
Interested in joining me? Here are five ways to pare down your keychain:
1. Go car-free. My husband and I have gone from two cars to one (he drives it), and our ultimate goal is to be car-free. I’d love to simply use a carshare program whenever the need for wheels arises.
2. Don’t own multiple houses. Well, duh. But seriously, a beach home or downtown pied-a-terre can be pretty tempting. Avoid the second home, and you’ll avoid a truckload of headaches and expenses. I’d rather stay in a hotel or condo than have to deal with the upkeep of a vacation home.
3. Don’t have a storage unit. If you pare down your possessions to what fits in your house, you won’t have to pay rent on a second home for your stuff. (Okay, most of you know my dirty secret, but I wouldn’t have one if I were in the same country as my stuff!)
4. Don’t own high maintenance toys. I’m talking about boats, motorcycles, and recreational vehicles—unless of course, they serve as your home or main source of transportation.
5. Don’t own valuables. Anything that needs to be locked away is just too much hassle, in my opinion.
So, right now I have three keys, but they’re all related to my one home: my building key, apartment key, and mailbox key. (My husband keeps the car key, and a relative in the States has the storage unit key!) How about you?
I have 4 keys:
– 1 for building
– 2 for the apartment
– 1 for mailbox
Hi mums! Apartments seem to come with a lot of keys, don’t they? ;-) My former house had one key; however, it also had a basement full of home and yard maintenance items. I’ll gladly carry around a few extra keys to eliminate all the other stuff!
Hmm, too many! Actually, not as many as I thought now I come to look. I have five
1. Front door key
2. Back door key
3. Shed key (where bike lives)
4. Bike lock key
5. My Dad’s house key
But I also have a whole bunch for our rental property, and a couple of sets of car keys floating around, plus ones for my MIL’s houses. These are just the ones I have on me daily.
Thanks for sharing your key count, Jo-less!
I carry 2 keys (house and car) on a tiny button LED flashlight.
Nice and simple, Kim!
1) Front door.
;-)
But then again the mailbox is broken so I can pull mail out through the hole and don’t need a key.
Very minimalist, Jesse. :-)
Our car is toast after an accident and we’ve yet to replace it. I’d like to think we can go without long-term, but we’ll see. To be closer to DH while he recovers from the accident, I’m moving in with in-laws (2keys for their place) and liberating our old apartment (-1key) but renting out a storage unit for our stuff (+1 key). 3 keys total until further notice.
For a while this year I had just one key, but that made me nervous. . .I felt like I needed a key chain to keep that one key from getting lost. So, maybe 3 keys and no key chain is a good compromise.
Simple in France, at least you won’t have to carry the storage unit key with you! On a more serious note, I’m very sorry to hear about the accident and wish your husband a full and speedy recovery.
Ah, I like this. A good simple post regarding something that often isn’t even considered. :) I carry three keys: house, car, mailbox. And the car is just the VW button-like cartridge thing, so that doubles as a keychain just fine.
A thought on this, as just something that’s worked for me–I wonder why people need to carry around so many keys. Sure, we might all have true *need* of more, but do they really need to be with you all day every day? I do have a few others I use on at least a weekly basis (usually more), but those just live in the glove compartment of my car and are pulled out as needed. Much nicer than having bulky pockets. :)
meagan, that’s a great point to just carry the keys we use regularly, and leave the others in a safe place until needed.
I used to be very bad about misplacing my keys, so I’ve been keeping my keychain light for a long time (lose fewer keys at a time that way). Right now I only have my two house keys and my car key (have to have a car in Houston). I do have to carry around a lot of keys for work (building, office, sub-masters for different floors, file cabinet, desk), but those are on their own chain that I only use for work and don’t carry with me at all times. I think I’m doing pretty good on the key front.
LOL, Ang., great benefit of a light keychain — less to lose when we misplace it! :-)
I have four…maybe five if you count the thing I use to get in the door at work.
House key, mailbox key, key to the bathroom at work, and bike lock.
Sounds like just the essentials, Working Rachel!
I admit I’m no where near minimalist with my keys, but I do have a good system for carrying them. I keep whatever keys I don’t explicitly need, but are beneficial in a pinch (car key and remote on a single ring; keys (plural) to my grandmother’s house and a couple membership mini-cards on another key ring) in my bookbag, which is always with me; whenever I need one or the other, I just remove them from the bag and then replace when no longer needed.
As for the keys I carry on my person, I use a Victorinox belt hanger to dangle the keys (and a couple other items) in my rear pocket; not only are the items now void of bulge, but my pocket isn’t eaten up, and I don’t feel the keys whatsoever. With that said, I carry two key rings on the hanger: one with just my suite and room key, so I can take the set with me whenever I get ready for the day, locking the door behind me; and another key ring with my house and studio keys, plus a Photon II Microlight, Victorinox Rambler, and a pair of Bill’s Sliver Grippers. Also carried on the hanger is a money stash can with a bit of extra money, an Inka Pen, and a County Comm Micro Widgy Bar. It may seem like a random selection of items, but I’ve used each and every one of those items at some point in time since getting them – some more frequently than others, such as the Sliver Grippers, Rambler, Photon, and especially the Inka Pen. All of those items may seem like a lot, but with those few items dangling into my pocket, I can do 90% of my daily requirements. :)
Rex, thanks for sharing your system. I think you have the most interesting (and MacGyver-ish) keychain! :-)
building key, two apartment door keys, mail key, bike lock key, key for my sisters car, office key, key to my parents house, two keys to my parents beach house. may seem like a lot but i’m afraid if i store any of them away i’ll end up stranded someday when i go to the beach house and can’t get in because i forgot the keys.
Hi Julia! Hmm, access to a beach house (without the burden of ownership) sounds like it may be worth carrying an extra key. ;-)
I had thought my keys were minimal compared with others. Need to rethink that. Car key is kept separate. Currently, have two house keys (one for knob, second for dead bolt), two for work (back door & front door), bank deposit box, house crawl space padlock (it’s really tiny), plus two non-working mini flashlights & a pocket knife. Looks like the flashlights can be tossed and the bank key can stay home from now on. The home locks could be re-done to use same key.
Wow, my load is lighter already. Thanks for making me think about this.
Glad to hear you lightened your keychain, Marie!
I have one key without a keychain to the house that I live in.
Aah, Kai, minimalist perfection. :-)
I have 3…2 vehicles and the front door. I have another set that is neighbors and the box on the truck that I never use. My problem is all them darn store cards that save you money. I have dozens of them but I use them all the time.
Are any of those cards a part of the OneClubCard, letting you get rid of the numerous cards, or at least many of them?
Never heard of the Oneclubcard, but I will check it out. Thank you!!! : )
Hi Heather and Rex! Here’s the link to JustOneClubCard:
http://www.justoneclubcard.com/
just 2. house and car.
Very simple, janet. :-)
Three keys, one name tag, two photon lights (red and white), and a small multitool.
Hi ERE! Until reading these comments, it’s never occurred to me to carry a light or multitool. I hope in an emergency I am near someone like you or Rex (above) and your keychains. ;-)
When I was on hols last year I noticed that one of the guys was never without a massive number of keys clanking from his belt (about 15 or 20). In the end curiosity got the better of me and I asked him what they all were. He reeled them all off: one lot was for church, another was house, another was work related, another lot were for something else but the point was he didnt need any of them on him the whole time! All he needed on holiday was his minibus key! I felt in the end that it was probably a sort of security blanket, either that or some form of male jewellery! (I carry two keys, house and car.)
That’s too funny, Frances! I think in some cases, a massive keychain *is* a sort of male accessory. :-)
Frances, that great clanking bunch of keys suspended from a beltloop is very common in Australia, and I’ve heard it’s a way to 1. show how important you are because you have so many keys and thus so many responsibilities; and 2. (cough) it all happens to hang right in the general area of somewhere you’d like to draw attention to. Very interesting bit of pyschology/anthropology going on there.
I have way too many keys to qualify as a minimalist (shame!):
* 4 house keys (front security gate to flats, front door of my flat, back door (I’m on the ground floor) and back screen door. And another security gate key because the gate lock can be unreliable.
* key to my parent’s house
* mail box key
* 2 work keys (my shared office, the boss’s single office)
* 1 I have no idea (so that’s coming off right now!)
* small bunch (3) from a suitcase I don’t think I even own any more (hmm – off!)
* a tag from the real estate agent I bought my flat from, with his contact details, so if I lose my keys I can ask there (why don’t I put my cellphone?)
* (cough) a Hello Kitty key tag… (um, that’s so I can find the keys easily in the Black Hole of my bag. :D
Ok, it’s a lot but I know ALL my keys are in one place. In fact, when I leave home for any reason I check two things: keys and wallet. If I have those, I can deal with anything else. Oh, and I also have spare front (x2) and back (x2) keys in my wallet…. And there’s a set hidden behind a broken brick in the wall. In case. :D
But I have none of the things Miss M mentions in her post, so I figure I’m ok. Heh.
LOL, thanks for the anthropology tidbit, Michelle! :-) Kudos for eliminating 4 keys from your keychain!
I have 3:
My car key
Boyfriend’s house key
My house key
And I could actually take my house key off since it doesn’t work. (I had a custom design put on it, and it didn’t fit in the lock right).
By the time I arrive home, someone has already unlocked the doors, so I guess the key is useless for me.
Great minimalist reasoning, HK! :-)
I agree with everything but 5. What about family heirlooms? Do you just pass those off to other family members? I know that the end goal of minimalism, according to Leo Babauta, is not to own a thing, but honestly, what do you do with stuff that’s been in your family for hundreds of years?
Hi Mneiae! Speaking for myself, I’d prefer that other family members be the caretakers of such heirlooms. :-) Of course, others will feel differently; and I certainly think there’s room in a minimalist lifestyle for a few special family pieces.
4: car, house, office, mailbox. I also used to have a small, cute, red knife on my keyring, but I had to surrender it when I went to an Obama rally. I miss that little knife!
Odette, I know how you feel; I had to surrender my beloved spork at airport security.
usually none. don’t often lock my house. if i do 3 keys: house, car, safety deposit box
Wow, et, “none”–I like that!
Only one!
My wife and I have two cars, we both have one car key with remote. When in the garage at home we leave the keys in the car so we never have to find them (don’t tell my insurance agent). Our house has a digital lock so neither of us carries a house key (our garage keypad acts as a backup). I have my work keys in each car so I never need to remember them.
As a side note, I downsized my wallet to a few items. Personal debit, business debit, Sam’s club card, medical card, license, and a few business cards. Check out these minimalist wallets http://all-ett.com
Hi jDeppen — that’s a very interesting strategy to minimize your keychain! :-)
Thanks for the link to the minimalist wallets!
Francine, as usual, I’m finding all of these interesting posts just now, lol.
I have just our house key, my car key, the remote and a simple wooden pendant of a seahorse I picked up at a flea market. Really, that’s all I need. I also like the fact that there is no need for a separate trunk key.
Sounds nice, lightweight, and simple, Gil!
I have 5 keys
1 Main door of apartment
1 My unit
1 Mailbox key
1 key to parents house (I could keep it separate but then I’d be afraid I’d forget it when I go home and my parents are normally at work when I get their)
1 key fob for HourCar (Carsharing service)
I also have a key for my desk and a filing cabinet at work which I keep on my badge
Jennifer
Thanks for sharing this, Jenny!
Hi there,
I carry 4 keys–apt door, apt gates, mailbox, car. I also have a key for the apt fitness room but I don’t carry it with me all the time. I started carrying less cards (getting rid of credit cards)and any cash and necessary cards like license and insurance card in a metal clip that fit in a pants pocket. I love the idea of car sharing! My car is 4 years old. I would love to eventually sell this one never have to buy another one. I am getting addicted to this website!
Hi beth — so glad you’re enjoying the blog! I can’t wait to be car-free, too. :-)
Three keys, house, car, mailbox.
Nice and simple, touroxin!
Now that we’re in a house, I have just 3 keys (the house key, my car key, his car key) hooked to the secureID key fob for remotely logging into my work.
When we were in the apartment, instead of the 1 house key, there were 6 apartment keys! The building key, our apartment key, the storage room key, the storage locker key, the laundry room key, AND the mailbox key!
Hi Celia — apartments come with way too many keys! (Makes me miss my one house key!)
Unfortunately, my job requires me to have a half dozen keys to different classrooms. I keep a separate key ring with these keys in my work bag.
My other set of keys is down to 2: house and car.
Re going car-free:
The more I ride my bike, the less I enjoy driving my car, but I have to own one because I am a jazz pianist and must lug a keyboard, amp, a couple of bags of cords, a stand, and a seat to most gigs. It would be prohibitively expensive to take a cab or rent a car as most of my gigs are over an hour’s drive. (Also I get paid so little for most of these gigs that if I paid to rent a Zipcar it would cut seriously into my profits.) Chores like grocery shopping do not make sense on a bicycle unless you have a couple of non-perishable items to stow in your backpack. We have only one car–BF was taking driving lessons last year but has not yet gotten his license, so he takes the T most places or I drive him. I only drive when I have to, relying on public transportation, my bike, and walking the rest of the time.
Three: car, home, office.
Interesting topic and something I’ve thought about quite a bit. Have you ever noticed how the people who have the most clutter “upstairs” (i.e. are disorganized) have the busiest keyrings?
3 keys that I wear around my neck so I dont lose them ( because I would lose a keychain or forget to take it with me in the morning and end up locked out of my room)
1. dorm-style room
2. post office box
3. my locker at work
we have two keys: 1 for the business, which is on one keyring with the “swipe card” to get into the building when the security system is locked (after hours); and 1 for the house.
before, when we lived in the US, i had one for the house, one for the car, and one for the mailbox.
i also had a lot of random keys in the US that we let go of (seriously, keys from our college years? no clue what they went to!), and when we inherited the business here (well, we bought it), they handed us a keyring full of keys (had to be 12 or so?). we asked waht they were for–they didn’t know. i asked the landlord, he had no clue. when some repair men came in to replace the doors (there was a flood), and the one guy kindly went through each lock in our offices and floor and each key and discovered that, in fact, NONE of the keys fit ANY lock in the offices, the floor, or any of the primary maintenance spots within the whole building.
some of them were cool shaped brass keys, so i made them into key rings and gave them as gifts to new friends! LOL
i have on my keyring the following keys..
1-front door key to the studio apt
2-mailbox key
3-my weekend cabin retreat front door key
that it i got rid of everything else on the key ring..with each key has a color code outer ring cover to tell me what it for .
I have 8 keys with me, 6 of which I use almost every day (2 are for my bike which needs 2 locks because of living in Amsterdam), and two I do not wish to have forgotten in case. The car key I have in a box with the satnav and car radio, because I don’t drive much.
I did however decide not to carry a bag/big purse with me anymore. Only some (debit) cards, mobile phone and my keys in my pockets.
I found you today through zen habits. I live in 495 square feet with 2 greyhounds, 2 floor looms (one is 4 feet long), 2 spinning wheels and cones of yarn everywhere.. and yet there is still room to play fetch with the youngest of the greyhounds! I want to simplify even more.
This article really spoke to me–when I lived in Portland, Maine I went by the name of Suzy Two-Keys. One front door key, one car key, that was it. I had 600 square feet and only one greyhound, the space was bliss.
Now, I have five keys that I cannot seem to live without.
Condo Key
Gate Key
Laundry room Key
Car Key
Mailbox Key
ARGGGHHHH!
I’m looking forward to spending time on your site.
Sincerely,
Formerly known as Suzy Two-Keys
I have way too many keys!
Car
Car alarm remote
Car alarm siren key
House
Work lights key
Work door swipe card
Work carpark swipe card
Flash Drive
This is very high on my list to remedy. It’s unfortunate that I actually need most of these!
I have 3: my truck, my house, my post office box key. My hubby, well that’s a different story all together. He has a pocket full & some of them I doubt he knows what they’re for but he has his truck key, house key, barn key, at least 3 for the horse trailer, and who knows what else. Thankfully we don’t keep keys to each others trucks so I only need my own. LOL I was going to get my own copy of the key to the horse trailer dressing room, but apparently they don’t make that type of key any more. Oh well, less bulk for me.
Hello Mrs. Francine,
I’m really enjoying your site. I’m currently reading every single post and comment here. I’d like to share what I have on my current keychain. I’d also like to share what I plan to do to my keychain with ideas I’ve gotten from your site.
Current Keychain:
-House Key
-Car Key
-Bicycle Lock Key
-LED Flashlight (the size of a Hersey’s Mini Chocolate :)
-Average Split Key Ring
Future Keychain:
-Replace House Key with a Keybrid (key and keyring hybrid. see it here–> http://www.keybrid.com/
-Car Key
-Remove the Bicycle Lock Key and secure it to its U-Lock. I’ll remove the Bicycle Lock Key and put it on my keychain when I lock up my bicycle.
And now I’m off to read the rest of the site.
:)
I have two keys, one for the house and one for the car. It is lovely to not flip through a ring looking for the correct key!
Haha, I just had to reply!
– car
– front door of apartment building
– two for my own door
– storage unit
– mailbox
– friend’s house (I often take care of her dogs)
– storage area of barn where horse lives (I guess that’s under “High Maintenance Toys” :-) )
– bicycle lock
I guess my kind of minimalism is the kind where you don’t necessarily have nothing at all :-), but just the things you really use.
(But I’m paring down the contents of my house like a tornado!)
1 house key
1 office key
1 personal office door key
1 car key (mine – which is bulky)
1 car key (spouse – this key is so big it really is a complete nuisance)
1 car key (adult child who insists I have his spare)
6 keys. The mailbox key remains in the jockey box of my car. The spare car key for another adult child was recently entrusted to someone who lives closer.
This doesn’t seem like a lot, but because of the car keys, my keychain is bulky and heavy. The bright side of this story is that I walk a lot and when I do, I carry another keychain that has only my house key on it. Cheers!
1 car key (does the electronic fob to lock and unlock the doors count as a key?)
1 office desk key
1 office computer key
1 office computer docking station key
4 house keys (none of our doors have the exact same lock – need to fix this)
1 home file drawer key
I am not including the keys that I don’t carry – my husbands car, the motorhome keys (3), my mom’s house and car, my elderly neighbors house and car (in case she loses hers).
Wow – this is a wake-up call isn’t it?
3 – front door key, car key and garage remote. We do own another house which is rented, the key for that is kept in our house. So simple.
First, I love your book, “The Joy of Less” and have read it twice since receiving it as a Christmas gift from my amazon.com wishlist! Although I consider myself a minimalist having been a Peace Corp volunteer, I learned a lot through your book and have decluttered my place even more than I imagined! It feels so freeing getting rid of things. Thanks so much!
Anyway, I have three keys-mailbox, townhouse, and Prius.
Michael, I’m so happy you enjoyed my book — thank you very much for your kind words!
I carry 3 keys: House, car, and my music store (there, I have like 15 different keys to our teachers studios). Sometimes I carry a 4th key when I’m pet-sitting. :)
WAY too many keys… I won’t count the small ones that I rarely carry (like luggage locks, gun locks, etc), just the ones I may be found to be carrying on a regular basis.
1 for the parent’s house.
6 for my house (yes, 6. 4 outside doors with deadbolts mostly keyed different, it’s especially ridiculous since it’s a relatively small house, it just has an excess of exterior doors.)
4 for the cars (3 cars, 1 of which has a separate key for the trunk)
3 for work (1 for the door and 1 for my desk at job #1, 1 for the door at job #2)
4 for the airplanes I fly (1 for each in the club I’m in, I don’t own any of them)
I have tried to minimalize my carried keys, but my current apartment condominium is a disaster. Before I moved here all of this was covered by “home key”. But now, I have the following to be able to live here.
1. My personal front Door/Storage Locker Key
2. Back door complex key for taking out trash to the dumpster
3. Dumpster key for opening it to put trash in
4. Key fob for elevator use/front door complex access
5. Gate fob for parking garage gate (when leaving/returning via vehicle)
6. Mailbox Key
AND, I actually have one key fewer than most, the previous owner keyed alike the front door and storage unit in the parking garage. Overall, it’s a very poorly designed system, but I need to carry all of these to simply navigate my complex.
Other than that, I only have:
7. Car Key
8. Father’s House Key (over there frequently)
9. Father’s Elevator Key (elevator opens directly into his condominium so you need a key to get up the elevator)
A bit of a pain, but worth it to live in a big city :)
My mother’s keychain seriously weighs more than my cat. She seems to like the metaphorical heft of all the responsibilities the keys imply. I’m sure some of them open doors, cars, sheds, and toolboxes that are not in anyone’s possession any longer. Perhaps it’s her way of remembering, kind of a timeline of dwellings and passages.
I have 2 keys,one for the apartment and one for the shelter ,a whistle and a chip for the shopping cart :)