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Your keys

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13:25 / 13.06.06

When I was a boy, a bunch of keys was a badge of adulthood and responsibility, status and authority.
I am now in my 30s and I just came bottom in an office poll of who’s got the most keys. (I know. It’s a slow day.)
I have one key. It is to my front door.

So, how many keys have you got on you? What are they for?

I bet there are people here with keychains like school caretakers’!
Is there anyone trusted with fewer locks than me?

13:35 / 13.06.06

i'v got 2 keys for my house and a key to a padlock.
but the real item of interest is the keyring i found in a poundshop. It was hanging where the keyring with my name on it should have been and has a strangely crude watercolour of a tractor reproduced on it. finding it there, where my name should have been, i had to have it but now all my friends call me tractor-boy.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

13:40 / 13.06.06

Key to my car, key to my front door, key to my back door, key to my best friends' house.

On the keyring, we have a small rotund version of Hello Kitty as a watermelon, a Texas trinket depicting a coyote wearing a kerchief against a background of moon and cacti, and a teeny plastic license plate that says, "I Heart Montana."

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

13:53 / 13.06.06

A blue carbiner with a small LED flashlight built into it (NERD)
Apartment Key
Old Apartment Key (moved back in March or so...)
Office Key
Locker Key for a locker at a previous job from about 4 years ago...
Unknown Locker Key
Albertsons Preferred Shopper Card (Grocery Store)
Hasting Card (Video rental, now obsolete due to NetFlix)

Wow, I could trim that down to like, nothing.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

13:53 / 13.06.06

I have a keyring with a big fat silver fob that has flowers on. There are 3 keys on it. One for the front door of my building, two for the locks on the door to my flat. I also have a little Kogi-Pan dangle that Seth gave me years back.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

14:08 / 13.06.06

I forgot about those mini cards. I have one for PetsMart, Petco, CVS, and Borders.

And I use none of them so I am not entirely sure why I keep them on my keyring.

Essential Dazzler

14:09 / 13.06.06

Car key, key's for front and back door of my parent's house, and one for my uni Hall, which I'm extremely upset about having to hand in on Friday.

14:12 / 13.06.06

I havge a handy key ring that's also a concealed corkscrew, useful for holidays and emergencies. It holds two keys for work (office and front door), three keys for home, and one key that's either for a filing cabinet I no longer use at work or for one of the suitcases in our attic.

14:13 / 13.06.06

I’ve got my two front door keys, my mate’s two front door keys, my bike D-lock key, my parents house key, and my work key. The only keyring I have is a bottle opener which comes in handy on the tube at festivals etc.

lonely as a cloud...

14:38 / 13.06.06

I have...7 keys...two to my front door, two for the door to my flat, one for the office, one for my parents' home, and one for an old set of handcuffs.

Apart from that, there's two metal lozenge-shaped bits, one with "I want to be a millionaire!" written on it, the other with "KANGOL" on it, 'cos it came with a pair of shoes I bought ages ago.

Oh, and usually, there's also a very nice pen attached to my keyring, apart from when it falls off in my pocket.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

14:38 / 13.06.06

I havge a handy key ring that's also a concealed corkscrew,

I mis-read that as "...also a concealed crossbow..." - you ninja, you!

Office key, two house front door keys, and a mysterious small one which says "Master" on it and might be for a bike lock. I don't own a bicycle. Best of all, the keys dangle from a lovely enamelled Residents key fob, of the Eyeball in a top hat and bow tie.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:41 / 13.06.06

Hmmm.

Limited edition Lush keyring that I got at a 25th anniversary of 4AD records celebration gig...
1GB data drive
ID card and access card for work
Two filing cabinet keys.
Two door keys
Two deadlock keys

So, eight keys, if by keys you mean things that open doors...

14:51 / 13.06.06

You're all so much more grown-up than me.
I’m particular impressed by all these people trusted with keys to their workplace. I, by contrast, am given a card to wear around my neck like a condemned convict.

14:53 / 13.06.06

Do you wear it on the tube home to show how busy and important you are too like I see some folk do?

14:57 / 13.06.06

Do people do that? Ahhhh. How blessful.
I'm way too busy and important to use the tube.

Whisky Priestess

15:27 / 13.06.06

I, on the other hand, carry my most important keys on a lanyard round my neck like a special child, so that I don't lose them. Now that's pathetic. These keys are:

- House in Norwich
- 128MB USB memory key with most of my life on it (Don't worry, it's backed up on the PCs ...)

I also have 2 keys to the old flat and 2 keys to the new flat but I never use any of them because there's always someone to let me in.

ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!

15:29 / 13.06.06

I have one solitary key on a keyring which is a bottle opener, which says something like "party hard, party safe" (the exact words, and the location of my key, escape me at this time).
These are attached to a two-foot length of that weird ball-chain stuff, which is looped, for no better reason than that I found a two-foot length of it and decided to put it on my keyring (which was a different one entirely at the time - the chain has survived more keyrings than any single key, despite being useless).
Until yesterday there was, I guess, a cigarette butt container, a little black cylinder with a metal lining, which had a lid which snapped open and closed with a very satisfying sound.
Yesterday my housemate borrowed my key, dropped the whole lot on the ground and snapped the little thing which kept the lid closed. It's much less interesting now, but I have made it into a tiny vase for tiny flowers and put it on the windowsil in our outside landing.

ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!

15:30 / 13.06.06

erm, the solitary key is to my front (and only) door.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

15:36 / 13.06.06

I have three keys: Car, apartment and Post Office box. Also on my keyring are my library card and a Boston Red Sox 2004 Championship keychain. And the library card is useless because I've moved, so it'll go soon. I like to keep it light. Unsightly pocket bulges are teh suck.

15:47 / 13.06.06

I have two Keyrings.

The first carries the key to the back gate, the shed, the front door deadlock, the kitchen door deadlock, the front door yale, my parents front door, a pair of bike keys (one for my trusty steed, one for a partners bike and a Yellowstone Park 'Wolf' keyring made from some sort of dull coppery metal with some blurb about the reintroduction of the Gray Wolf into the park.

The second is businesslike, it carries keys to the file cabinets in my home office, miscellanious keys which most probably bleong to like cabinets in three other offices which may or may not still exist, an outdated swipe card for the back entrance of a building in london my employers no longer own and a Proximity ID card with a horrible photo for the days they drag me back into the office on.

In theory I have a third keyring somewhere, a Cambridge Building Society promotional doodad with my Radar key hanging on it, but I can't find the bloody thing.

*Edit* Struck by sudden inspiration after making this post, I found it with about thirty seconds searching, thank you Stevely.

15:58 / 13.06.06

Semilah wins! (probably)

16:20 / 13.06.06

Four keys to my flat, plus pretend key which is actually a bottle-opener (very cool).

Six work keys: my office; two dept offices; two dept Xerox/post rooms; staff toilet; pigeonhole thingy where students post essays (known as 'the Trojan Horse', I don't know why). On the other hand, I don't have keys to the drawers in my desk, which are locked. Anyone got any tips on how to pick them? It would be great to have desk drawers.

I used to have a keyring with a Dalek on, but the Dalek has fallen off.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

16:41 / 13.06.06

And here I was thinking: "I would really like to have either a Dalek or TARDIS keychain."

16:52 / 13.06.06

I have one [1] key which alternates between going solo and two keyrings, a Designers Republic Pho-Ku kanji on bright yellow. The other one comes from a Charlatans gig sponsored by XFM. A bucket of keyrings came home with me - shh. The key is for my front door.

At the moment it's got no keyring because my mum decided to put a keycap on it while I was out. It's like the ones in the picture only even less wanted. Very annoying as I told her the day before that, no, I didn't want a tacky piece of plastic on my key. Hands off my key!

I'm with Jake on minimising unslightly when it can be helped. Rocking a purse is so much better.

But I know a guy who can trump this thread. My mate's brother has so many keys and doo-dads he's fashioned a kind of metallic Hydra. I imagine his pants are bulgetastic. If I can I'll post it here. It is mighty.

17:05 / 13.06.06

1 iron snake beastie hand forged by an ex and made for me post relationship during a moment of 'fuck St. Patrick' shared annoyance. Yay!

2 work keys
2 house keys
1 safe deposit box key
1 Halloween PO Box key
1 family shack on a lake key
1 BDSM studio key

...on my leather jacket hangs my 1 motorcycle key because I'll lose it if it doesn't stay with my gear.
...on a hook at home is my 1 car key for the same reason and because I hate having a big mass of keys on my vehicles.

..and my swipe card & key for the server room and rack is in my messanger bag living with my emergency serial cable with usb adapter. This bag is usually glued to me by a film of sweat and on call paranoia. Don't even ask me what's in the bag, it gets pretty scary in there.

17:54 / 13.06.06

Two keys for the front door, on a key ring in the shape of what looks suspiciously like a flying pig, which I was sent by the company that handles the household insurance. I wonder what they were trying to tell me.

the credible hulk

18:16 / 13.06.06

I've got a little swiss army knife, my housekey, and a key to my video store.

That's it. Really minimal keychain.

Goodness Gracious Meme

20:17 / 13.06.06

Gawd, lots of tosh on mine.

Hanging from a 'I'm an idiot' length of chain which I try to attach to myself whenever I leave house are:

Two flat keys, one key to parental house, two types of padlock key, one adorable little shiny chrome padlock, waiter's friend (newly attached for beach season) and a keyring with a genuine piece of the (now collapsed)West Pier in Brighton, given to me by Quantum.

20:25 / 13.06.06

Bike lock key, house keys, a great big key to the shed where I keep my bike which looks like the sort of key St Peter would own, and a catbus!

That is, a My Neighbour Totoro keyring with a model catbus and a small clump of mushrooms. I love my catbus.

XK: is "BDSM studio" as interesting as it sounds, or is it just a workplace thing that actually stands for something like - er - "broadly distributed spanner management"?

Keith, like a scientist

21:01 / 13.06.06

I have...sigh, too many.
1. Car key
2. Apt. building key
3. Apt. door key
4. Apt. laundry room key (no idea why, i should take that off)
5. mail key (likewise)
6. parent's house key
7. office door key

other
8. car remote unlocker thing
9. tDR keyring
10. library card
11. giant eagle card
12. tops card

ugh.

21:04 / 13.06.06

I heart list-threads

Three keys for my flat, and one for my mother's house.

My keyring is one of those metal Freepost "finder please deposit in any postbox - no stamp needed" things with an etched serial number. I got it with credit card insurance, now expired. I wonder if it still works...?

Kiltartan Cross

21:05 / 13.06.06

An enormous bunch of work keys, including one general-purpose key which opens about half of all the doors in the place. To which are also attached my car key and house key, and a couple of the little tiny things you use to reset padlocks.

As an aide-memoire, I'd set those padlocks to sensible things, like 2997 or 3141 and suchlike, but at least one has been reset to whichever year the Mackems last won a major trophy. I forget when precisely that is, but I'm a little surprised, as I'm sure there wasn't space for a "BCE" on the dial.

21:06 / 13.06.06

Attached to my very plain keyring:

3x keys to my flat
1x key to my mother's house (I'm 30. Am I weird?)
1x 250mb memory stick

Spyder Todd 2008

21:09 / 13.06.06

2 car keys, apartment key, mail box key, key to the old apartment that I never returned, 5 keys for various doors and vaults at work, a magical metal ticket thing that lets me get into any theatre production at all at my old high school, library card, grocery store card thing, and gym membership card.

I used to have a little stuffed turtle on there. He went every where I did for probably 4 and a half years. Last month he fell off somewhere and I never found him. It made me sad. Bon voyage, TJ. May you find green pastures filled with small insects to munch on.

21:20 / 13.06.06

Lots of people with USB memory sticks, I notice. What have you got on 'em?

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