10 Tips on How to Not Lose Your Keys
You’ve checked all the usual spots, but you can’t find your car keys anywhere. You’re running late, you’re stressed, and you don’t know what to do next.
We’ve all been there! To help you avoid getting in that jam again soon, we’ve put together some tips on how to not lose your keys.
From making a designated spot for your keys to getting a digital tracker, painting your keys, and more, these tips should help you find your keys quickly—and make sure that you never lose them again.
1. Designate a Spot for Your Keys
One of the easiest ways to prevent yourself from losing your keys is to put your keys in the same spot when you get home—and then stick with that spot every time. You could install a key hook next to the door or maybe attach a key holder in a prominent location in your house.
Whatever you choose, the simple act of making a set place for your keys to go—and creating a routine for storing them—can help reduce your chances of misplacing them. Make sure that if any of your keys are communal, everyone else in your home knows and uses the key spot, too!
2. Get spare keys made
This tip is less a way to avoid losing your keys and more a way to add an extra layer of redundancy, but it still counts! The important thing is to know where you keep your spare key and make sure it’s accessible. Since you won’t be using your spare key often, it’s important to keep it somewhere you’ll remember and can easily access.
3. Use a Lanyard
Out of all the tips on how to not lose keys, this one might be one of the most effective. Invest in a large, brightly-colored lanyard and attach your keys to it. This works especially well for company employees who already need to use an ID card to get into work, as you can simply add the ID and office key to a lanyard.
Wide and flat lanyards work best, and you should be sure to keep the lanyard somewhere safe when not wearing it on your person.
4. Get a Digital Tracker
One of the most high-tech tips for how to not lose your keys lies in buying a digital tracker. A remote control key finder allows you to log in to a page on either your computer or smartphone and see exactly where your keys are. This is especially useful in cases where you’ve either had your keys stolen or lost them while out and about.
While this tip involves an extra upfront expense, the added layer of security and ease of use evens out the expense.
5. Use a Big Keychain
One of the most creative tips for how to not lose your car keys is to attach them to a large and colorful keychain. Feel free to get creative with this option. You can use big pom poms, action figures, stuffed animals, or even create your own attachment.
You have no limits with this one, and the bonus here is that it can also make for a good ice breaker at parties.
6. Lock Them in Your Car (If Your Car Has a Keypad)
This one sounds counter-intuitive, but hear us out first. If your car model has a numerical keypad that allows you to punch a code to get in, locking your keys in your car is the best way for you to not lose your keys.
If you go with this option, be sure to keep your keys in an inconspicuous place to discourage theft. The glove compartment tends to be a reliable place. You could also tuck them above the driver’s sun visor.
7. Retrace Your Steps
Of all of our tips on how to not lose keys, this one sounds the most basic, but it really works. If you’ve lost your keys, try to remember exactly what you were doing last. Start at the first location and then take the same route you took the first time, looking out for any places they might have fallen or spots where you could have set them down.
8. Repeat What You’re Looking For
This one sounds a bit strange, but research suggests that repeating the name of the item you’re looking for while searching for it can increase your chances of finding the object. You might feel a little weird walking around your house repeating “car keys” over and over, but you’ll likely find them sooner that way. If you can, try to recruit other family members in the house and ask them to do the same.
9. Give a Spare Set to a Trusted Friend
This is another tip that doesn’t focus on preventing the loss of keys so much as making their loss redundant, but giving a trusted friend a spare set of keys remains one of the most effective ways to avoid getting locked out.
It probably goes without saying, but make sure that the person to whom you give your keys is trustworthy and that they won’t also lose your keys. Ask them to keep the keys in a safe place that they won’t often access, like a junk drawer or dresser drawer. This will reduce the chances of them also losing your set of keys.
10. Paint Your Keys
Out of all of our tips on how to not lose keys, this one has to be the most creative. Most craft stores carry a wide variety of paints, including paint that will glow in the dark. Simply cover your key in a coat or two of glow paint, and you should be able to find it even in the dark. Just make sure not to put too much paint on, as this may make it hard for the key to fit into a lock.
Need a Locksmith? Call Us at Action Lock Doc in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area
Do you need help with getting a new key made? Or do you need to get into your house or car but don’t know where you left your keys? Here at Action Lock Doc in Richardson, TX, we can help. Give us a call today at (972) 690-4431 and tell us what you need.
Joe, a former CIO and tech industry professional, has made it his mission to secure Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) through the Action Lock Doc, Dallas Safe and Vault, and Summa Security brands. When he’s not running the show at the office, you’ll find him writing about commercial and residential locksmithing, access control, and safes.