# Where did you leave your keys? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 3, 2000, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322 "2000-06-03T21:45:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Water\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Water\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Water_Boy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2000, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/1 "2000-06-03T21:45:09Z")
Mine are always in the ignition. Fortuanately I have push-number door locks, but anybody could bust a window and drive off before people around pulled out a cell phone. Where are your keys when you lose them? ---
**Author:** ![Spolvy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Spolvy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spolvy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2000, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/2 "2000-06-03T21:58:51Z")
If I knew that… ---
**Author:** ![Jo3sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@Jo3sh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jo3sh)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/3 "2000-06-04T00:04:16Z")
Mine are usually on the table by the door, right where I put them when I come in. The problem arises and the keys become lost when my wife puts her purse on top of them. ---
**Author:** ![soulsling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@soulsling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulsling)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/4 "2000-06-04T00:14:27Z")
i’m not telling you that, then you’ll know! :rolleyes: doesn’t matter usually i just take your keys 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/5 "2000-06-04T01:55:10Z")
If they’re not in the ignition or in my hand, they’re in my pocket. ---
**Author:** ![mega\_the\_roo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mega\_the\_roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mega_the_roo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/6 "2000-06-04T05:04:48Z")
I’m always in my car **driving** when I think that I forgot my keys. Brillant, I know. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/7 "2000-06-04T09:11:14Z")
Like Homer Simpson, I’ve left them in the front door of my apartment about a dozen times. ---
**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/8 "2000-06-04T11:44:52Z")
In my car, after locking it. At least three times. Once, with the engine running! :eek: 😕 :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Dumbguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dumbguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dumbguy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/9 "2000-06-05T17:59:35Z")
I once looked around the house for my wallet for about 15 minutes before I found it in my hand. I was also holding a book, and the wallet was underneath it. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/10 "2000-06-05T19:10:14Z")
I don’t usually lose my keys, but once when I was in high school I’d set them on my Burger King tray and when I went to dump my trash I heard a _jingle-sploosh._ I’d forgotten to take them off the tray and had to dig through the trash until I’d found them in the bottom of someone’s Mountain Dew cup, blech! ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2000, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/11 "2000-06-11T02:48:17Z")
I used to have a 24/7 live-in job that required me to carry around some pretty serious keys (by serious I mean that the rekey was in the 5-digit range if I lost them) So I’d keep my keys on one of those cords you find in mountain-climbing/backpacking stores, and would loop the cord through my belt loop. That way, if I ever lost my keys, it meant I also would be pantless (unfortunately, my social life back then precluded this as even remotely likely to happen) I no longer have the job, but the habit’s still there. When I drive (which isn’t too often at the moment), I unloop the keys, but always loop them back when I leave the car (it’s second nature by now; I don’t have to _remember_ to do this). And the cord is long enough that I can open doors easily (even with relatively high locks) Man, looking back, this post is pretty pathetic. Oh well, gotta lift that count somehow _pressing Submit_ ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2000, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/12 "2000-06-11T14:13:18Z")
One Saturday morning a few years back I was about to leave my apartment to run some errands. But I couldn’t find my keys. I checked my coat. No keys. I checked the pants I had been wearing the night before. No keys. I checked every room in the apartment. No keys. I searched in, on, and under every surface. No keys. Then I checked everything a second time. Still no keys. Eventually I remembered the words of Sherlock Holmes: “Eliminate all the possibilities. Then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” There was only one place I hadn’t looked, ergo the keys _must_ be there. And sure enough, I found my keys sitting in the wastebasket. When I got in the night before (after _cough_ hoisting a few), I had picked up my mail. I had then sorted it into Real Mail and Junk Mail, and thrown away the Junk Mail. Evidentally, I didn’t notice that the hand with the Junk Mail was also the hand holding my keys. Having solved the mystery I was now ready to run my errands. Unfortunately, it was now 6:00 at night and time for dinner… ---
**Author:** ![sorrel554](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@sorrel554](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sorrel554)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2000, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/13 "2000-06-11T23:49:11Z")
Mine are usually right by the door, but that’s just because I put them down where I put down everything else I’m carrying when I come in (mail, bookbag, etc.) I’ve been known to leave them in the door, but when I do that, I’m always aware that they’re there and I remove them when I’m ready to shut the door. However, I have lost them three times in the last two days. Once they were between the sofa cushions. Once they were in the pocket of the shorts I’d been wearing earlier in the day. Once they were on top of the TV under the TV listings from the newspaper ?! I’m going right now to drive a nail by the door so I can hang them up 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/14 "2001-06-26T04:23:49Z")
I usually hang them on the key hook behind the back door. But sometimes they end up in the pantry if I am carrying in groceries. Mine are missing right now. Well part of them anyway. It’s one of the kind that clips apart and your house key and mail box on one half and your vehicle key on the other half. I’ve lost the vehicle half. (Yes, I already checked the pantry!) Anyone seen it? Abby ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/15 "2001-06-26T04:37:50Z")
I wear glasses. I am basically non-functional without them, my eye-sight is so bad. It has been this bad since I was in the 1st grade. For at least two decades, my eyeglasses have been my most important possesion, literally the one item I could not live without. So two days ago, I spend half an hour stumbling through my house, trying to feel where I left my glasses the night before. Where did I find them? The bathroom sink. I can’t begin to imagine why or how. ---
**Author:** ![Grok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Grok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grok)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/16 "2001-06-26T18:26:30Z")
Once they were locked in my car. When the car was on a ferry. **First** on line on the ferry. Which meant my car had to move before anyone else could get their car off. Turned out the guy behind me had a slim jim in his car. I alwasy figured he was a car thief on his way home from work. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/17 "2001-06-26T18:52:13Z")
My keys are always in my pocket or the ignition of my car. After a fiasco almost ten years ago, whenever I stand up (and periodically when I’m walking) I’ll tap my thigh to make sure my keys are still there. Often I’ll tap my butt, too, to make sure my wallet is still there. If it’s not, my heart skips a beat, and then I realize that it’s in my other hand … One of my girlfriends commented that when she would see me on the street (before she got to know me), she referred to me as “that guy who’s always grabbing his ass”. Hopefully I’ve become more subtle about it by now - when my hand swings back as I walk, I’ll quickly tap my pocket to see if my keys and wallet are still there. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/18 "2001-06-26T18:57:12Z")
We’ve got a key hook in the laundry room at home - I try to remember to hang them up. When I’m getting out of the car coming to the office, I put them in my purse. When I’m shopping, I usually just shove them in my pocket… unless my daughter is driving - then I’m constantly saying “You’ve got the keys, right?” I am such a mom… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/19 "2001-06-26T19:21:54Z")
I leave my keys everywhere. A few times I’ve put them in the fridge. Really. I was going for a drink when I got home, and I put them down… ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322/20 "2001-06-26T19:41:39Z")
My SO calls to say he’s driving with his spare key and his front door is unlocked. Since I was going to meet him at his house after work, could I go have a look around? No luck searching in all the usual and unusual places. He’s got a sinkful of dishes—this is not unusual. I figure as long as I’m here…clear one sink per my personal dishwashing preference and discover keys. Under a saucepan. **?** [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-you-leave-your-keys/21322.md?page=2)