A Minimalist Keychain – How Many Keys are on your Keychain?

Francine Jay at Miss Minimalist runs a neat little weekly segment called “A year ago on miss minimalist.”  I love the idea of recapping some old but good posts.  It’s great for me too, because I wasn’t following her blog last year, and now I get a peek at all the gems that I may have missed.  This week’s recap included a post about keys on your keychain.

It is interesting, because I minimalized my keychain long ago.  It wasn’t until this post that I realized this as a little piece of practical minimalism.  About 5 or 6 years ago, I had a big honkin’ key ring.  On this key ring I had keys to my house, mailbox, the office, my truck, my Jeep, wife’s car, and the spare tire lock.  I also had a key fob for the truck, a key fob for my wife’s car, a decorative keychain, and a mini leatherman tool.  I can’t really remember now, but I may have even had some old random keys on there.  It was ridiculous.  This conglomeration of keys and fobs barely fit in my pocket and was very uncomfortable.

The first thing I did was to get rid of the decorative key chain; it was pointless.

Next I removed the key and key fob to my wife’s car and put in a drawer in the house.  There was no sense carrying these keys with me all the time since I rarely drove her car.  When I did drive her car, I’d simply grab her keys instead of my own.  For a short time I had one worry.  What happens if she gets locked out of her car? How could I help her if I didn’t have a set of keys on me?  The simple answer was I would have to go home and get the second set.  As rare as a lock out situation was, it made sense to simply swing by the house to pick up the extra keys.  Sure it would take a little more time, but it meant less junk to tote around and take up pocket space every single day.

I also removed the key and fob for my truck. (This keyring also has a key for the spare tire lock.)  When I drive my truck I still typically take both sets of keys with me, but since they aren’t joined to the same keychain they fit in my pocket better.  And when I ‘m not driving the truck, which is most of the time, I simply leave them at home.

The work key went away when I changed jobs, and I now have a swipe card instead of a key.

My primary keychain has been reduced to my Jeep key, house key, mailbox key, and my mini leatherman.  The mini leatherman isn’t necessary, but I like to keep it on there because it’s such a handy little tool.

It’s funny now that I think about it.  I really don’t need the mailbox key on my keychain.  I always walk to the mailbox, so I could simply keep that key in the house.  I also don’t need to keep the spare tire key on my truck keychain.  I could just keep in in the glove box or center console instead.  I already keep a set of keys for my hitch and trailer locks in there.  Looks like I have a little more minimalizing to do.

Your turn.  What does your keychain look like?  Are you carrying around old keys, extra keys, or bulky key chains?

Tagged as: Keys, Minimalism