Bah. I’m on my own today, supposedly getting on with some work and making stock and doing other such domestic pottering. But the sun has come out and while it’s still a bit cold it was perfect weather for a walk or a bike ride. Or it would have been if I could have found my keys* – three weeks of being on holiday plus a week of bank-holiday-style pottering around with the other half means I haven’t really needed them. And somehow that rural way of life hasn’t quite sunk in far enough that I’m comfortable actually leaving the front door unlocked, or at least not deliberately. Looks like my countrification is not yet entirely complete.
*Google was no help. And if autocomplete is anything go by, what people mostly are looking for are their kidneys. Now that really would have been a holiday too far…
Town Mouse 
We live up a little snicket with nosey neighbours so I’m forever leaving the door unlocked. One day it’ll come back to bite me on the bum. In the mean time I make a pretence of locking it, even if I haven’t, just in case people are watching when I leave the house.
That said, when I do need them I know where they are as they’re fastidiously stored on the key hook.
I used to have that problem, but I solved it by putting every key I own – house keys, car keys, bike lock keys, shed key, back gate key document box key, office key, suitcase keys – on one key ring that I always keep about my person. So nothing’s inaccessible, ever. Mind you, the temptation to go anywhere at all’s less than strong when you know you’ve got to lug all that weight around. So I still don’t get out much.
Dom – I’d have thought by the time you’ve pretended to lock up you might as well have actually locked up, no?
Nick – see, now if I did that it would just mean I could lose all my keys in one fell swoop. And I would, too.
When my partner is here we don’t lock the door at all, day or night. But when he is away and I am here on my own, I do lock it at night, but leave it unlocked when I am out. I always think if anyone makes the effort to pass by all the available houses in towns and villages and come all the way out to this tiny hamlet for some swag from my house, then it was probably meant, and therefore inevitable.
You might take a leaf from Dom’s book and get some kind of key rack or “staging table” to put by the door. (I have a small little dropfront writing desk in the entry way with a dish atop it. My purse goes inside the desk and the keys go in the dish. The desk is a “staging point” where things that I have to take places collect.) Another alternative would be to get a key fob like this: http://www.amazon.com/Key-Finder-Whistle-Ring-Totes/dp/B002U1XR5W/ref=pd_sim_misc_1 — (I would have suggested a remote key locator, but you’d misplace the remote, too.) Of course, if you do get one of these, and then misplace your lips, well — there’s no hope for you!
Lynda – it’s partly the thought of explaining to the other half how I left the door unlocked when we got burgled because I was only popping out for a minute that gives me pause.
WOL – I remember my Dad having one of those in the 80s. Actually, this is the first time I’ve actually lost my keys for a long time, mostly I just forget them…
[…] Notso Bigtown today with our week’s shopping, some ‘eco logs’*, two doughnuts and my keys. When I asked Twitter where my keys were, Twitter replied: where you left them and Twitter was […]