What do you do with old keys?

[gaijintendo]

Just gone through an old box to throw things out. Instead I categorised it. I did throw out most rubber earphone earpiece size variants I found.

I discovered i have loads of keys. Some I know what they are for, some I have no idea... but I find it hard to throw either category out.

Is there any reason to keep them if there is pretty much no chance of needing them?

There's a couple that look like they are for file drawers, one looks like it might open a vending machine, a clock, loads of luggage keys...

Sling them?

 

[Profpointy]

Weeeellll.... I slung a load of keys out only to remember afterwards what a particular bunch is for. That said, my dad is an appalling hoarder of broken useless crap and out and out rubbish, creating (us) loads of hassle I could do without so "if in doubt, sling it out is a pretty good adage" Or at least put all the old forgotten and likely useless keys in a labelled tobacco tin rather than randomly in drawers or (worse) mixed in with live keys is at least a start

 

[gaijintendo]

"if in doubt, sling it out is a pretty good adage"

It sure is.

 

[Profpointy]

It sure is.

There's a lovely anecdote about an academic inthe natural history museum having a box labelled "pieces of string too short to be of use"

 

[Drago]

I drop them randomly in the street, so people pick them up and waste time taking them 10 miles to the police station.

 

[Profpointy]

I drop them randomly in the street, so people pick them up and waste time taking them 10 miles to then police station.

You're a bad man Drago

 

[snorri]

I put old keys in a cigar box.
The same cigar box my parents put their old keys in, it seems a shame to break the tradition.
It's quite a big cigar box.

 

[flake99please]

Did it belong to Jimmy Saville?

Now then, now then....

 

[gaijintendo]

Weeeellll.... I slung a load of keys out only to remember afterwards what a particular bunch is for. That said, my dad is an appalling hoarder of broken useless crap and out and out rubbish, creating (us) loads of hassle I could do without so "if in doubt, sling it out is a pretty good adage" Or at least put all the old forgotten and likely useless keys in a labelled tobacco tin rather than randomly in drawers or (worse) mixed in with live keys is at least a start

Now I think about it, that's part of the reason I'm trying to ditch things: My gran just went into a home, and my mum missed the first few years of my kid's lives caring for her, then clearing the place

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Rose bed. Bury them in your rose bed.

 

[gaijintendo]

Rose bed. Bury them in your rose bed.

That's an idea: Leave one key under every stone in the garden to slow burglars down.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

That's an idea: Leave one key under every stone in the garden to slow burglars down.

It’s an old wives’ tale that the extra iron in the soil benefits the roses. Actually the keys don’t break down enough to make a difference. I still find keys and old nails in very old rose beds.

 

[accountantpete]

Keep 'em.

This is from my own personal stash

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Or the amount needed to make a difference is tiny.

Exactly. I have also found a bicycle buried and entwined into the roots of a privet hedge I was removing. The weirdest was a hole in a border I was making, filled with 52 (yes 52) stove top irons from the 1950s. Apparently a previous owner had worked for the council and was tasked with handing out irons to the poor. Ahem...Because in those days it was less important to have food and heating. A neatly ironed blouse was MUCH more important.

 

[furball]

Sling them?

Donate them to accountantpete