Usually where I can't find them! They often turn up in a coat pocket or on the kitchen table under something else. They are supposed to go in the deadbolt lock or in my purse. I have one of those things called a Tile on my key ring. I can make it ring by an app on my phone.

Oh, and praying to St Anthony does seem to work. I lost some jewelry and could not find it for months. I was so upset. Finally I sent up a fervent prayer to St Anthony and lo and behold they jewelry turned up in an odd spot. I am neither religious nor Catholic (which goes with not being religious!) but St Anthony is my friend now.

In my pocket most the time, at home in a clear container on my counter.

dedtired - I remember a few years ago when KSWL mentioned the Tile and she ordered them for everyone in her family. I often wondered how well they worked - have you used it to find you keys?

Maire

Tell me more about praying to St Anthony. I am a believer but not Catholic.

Imstillchoecat wrote: "In my purse, which resides in the safe when I'm home"

Why? Have you been robbed?

1. Jkayd_, you don't have to be Catholic...I'm not. I say " Dear St. Anthony, please come around. My (in my case, keys) are lost and can't be found. Every so often during the day I would repeat this prayer. Mine showed up right near the bathroom sink!

Have a very heavy Christmas stocking hanger with a star on it on the side of my desk. Hang my keys on it, and a few rubberbands, too. Backside of it holds little magnets for pinning up notes to myself.

I don't have a car key, but I have a car key fob that I keep in my purse and never remove it from there. So my car can't be started without my purse.

I guess I have a housekey on my keyring with my work keys on it, but in the five years we've lived in this house I've never used the housekey. We come and go through the garage with the garage remote or the keypad outside the garage door.

Yes, our house has been burgled, and the keys that were hanging on the hooks in the kitchen were all stolen. Spare car keys, house keys, office keys, etc. That was a pain in the ass to change them all.

My purses aren't cheap, and everything of any sort of monetary or sentimental value is locked away unless we're using whatever it is at any given moment.

You go right on being flabbergasted Angelaid.

We always enter through garage. Keys hang on a rack just below the security alarm keypad. For those who misplace their keys often, gift them a key finder device.

BTW - at work, I don't leave my purse "out" on my desk or on a chair. It's put away in a locked cabinet. I work in an office with many frequent visitors and multiple unlocked entry/exit doors.

Even this post is controversial. Lol. Mine are hooked to my purse. And the purse is usually on top of the pool table. Hubby keeps a set in a little dish on the entry way table, even though he can't drive anymore.

Vehicle and house keys are in a little metal box on my nightstand. In use they are in pocket or purse. I have never understood keys or purses in the entry, near doors on hooks or in full sight anywhere. Too easily accessible by anyone who comes to the door or into the house. Seems like an invitation to crime of opportunity. Like leaving your vehicle unlocked or your purse in a shopping cart.

Keys in a safe seems a bit overboard to me and even somewhat dangerous. If there is a fire or disaster hits I want my keys readily available, not spend precious moments having to go unlock a safe to get them.

There has to be a balance between security, safety and emergency readiness.

Well, this thread is making me re-think where I leave my purse every day. We live on the golf course and often go out to play golf while leaving the house unlocked and golf cart garage door open. Typically I hang my purse on the back of a chair.

I wonder where can I put my purse that is close to our entry/exit, accessible yet not in plain sight?

The Tile is only marginally useful. If the keys are lost in the house, I can use the app to make it ring, but the jingle it plays is not very loud so I can only hear it if it's no farther than the next room. When I look at the app on my phone it will tell me that they are nearby. If I lose the keys and someone else finds them, and if they know what the Tile is for and where to push the button (it is not obvious at all), it will make my phone ring. I'm not sure I would buy another, but maybe. They run out of power after awhile and then you must buy another.

As for St Anthony, I believe I squinched my eyes shut, put my hands in a praying position and said something along the line of "St Anthony, please, please, please help me find the jewelry" and within two days I found it This was after six months of turning the house upside down looking for it and many sleepless nights. Now it can't just have been a coincidence!

@watchmelol - some of our safes have biometrics as our "combinations" - others have the traditional dials. I can have my purse in my hands (along with everything we need in a bug-out situation, such as passports, birth certificates, computer backup, cash, precious metals/stones, and a week's supply of food/drink/weather-appropriate clothing) within 15 seconds.

We may never need that, but even as recently as the California fires, I've read of people who lost literally everything because they had no plans in place for an emergency evacuation.

As for "hiding" your purse from thieves - you can't. They're professionals and know every.single.place you can think of.

I have a special pocket inside my purse. I am quite anal about where my keys are. I've only misplaced them a few times in 60 years :-)

Purse, which is out of sight when I'm not in the house or with me when I'm out. My Mom always said St Anthony was amazing and he has worked for me a couple times.

My car and house keys are attached to my cell phone. I just phone my phone if I can't find it. I find my phone/keys quickly that way when in a hurry. I used to leave my phone at home occasionally and since I use it for work it was a real pain.

PK, what happens when you forget where you placed your purse?

Maybe she puts her purse in the exact same place every time...ummm..like maybe I do that too? :)

With my purse on hooks in my "remember spot", that's what I call it, right by the front door. These days, it's covered in things to remember. I'd like to clear it off, but who has time?

I leave them in the car in the garage. We do not have a service door and it is an electric garage door. If hubby drives mine, he will sometimes bring them inside, drives me nuts since I get in the car and then they are not there. :)

Brushworks, my purse goes on a certain table in my office. Easy to reach if I do some online shopping :-)

Yes, it does. You gotta have that plastic within easy reach. I'm with you PK!

The car key stays in the car. The spare and other keys go in my purse, and purse goes into office cabinet.

I must be a bigger shopaholic (not really, I have one card that I pay off every month) than you two Elizabeth and PK. I have the numbers memorized. Hi, I'm Robin and I'm a shopaholic?

A small drawer in the kitchen.

When I carried keys, they all went in a bowl on a table where I sat my handbag when I came into the basement from the garage. I had a outlet installed over that table when I got my first mobile phone and I always take my phone out of my handbag and plug it into the charger.

I no longer carry keys, except for car key which "lives" in my handbag - car has keyless entry and start. I use the HomeLink remote in the car to open and close the garage door. My alarm control pad is also at that same door, so it's easy to set and turn on/off the alarm when I go out.

I do keep a single house key near the front door if someone is picking me up.

Dedtired - thanks for your comments about the Tile. My DS is forever misplacing his keys - but then he also misplaces his phone too so the Tile won't help that much.

I think St. Anthony might provide a better return on the investment. lol (and I was raised Catholic.)

My keys stay pretty much in my purse, occasionally in my pocket, but there is only my key fob and a house key on it. House key is in case the power is out and the garage door won’t work. I keep my small purse on the desk by the kitchen unless we have guests and I need to clear the decks.

We keep spare keys hung on a key holder in the utility room which isn’t too far from the door to the garage.

My everyday keys stay in a drawer in a chest in my entry hall- spare keys are on hooks in a kitchen cupboard. My husband's keys stay in his pocket until he goes to bed and then they go into a valet tray on our dresser. Some of my friends no longer have keys for their houses- we are not that advanced yet. I actually like old fashioned keys- haven't had a regular car key in ages.

Keys live in the drawer in the kitchen. Door from the house to the garage is always locked. I came home once and the garage door was open. Ever since the door to the house gets locked.

I've never felt comfortable putting them on hooks, where they are obvious and easily grabbed within a few seconds. But I like convenience. We use this tissue box container. Key are easily dropped through the opening, and the lid opens for easy access.

You know, at first glance I was wondering why anyone would have a cat litter box that looks like a torture device... :p

it also kind of resembles the box in ‘he//raiser’. ;)

@gyrfalcon - just FYI: every tissue box in our house was emptied by our burglar.

My friend's house was burglarized too and her tissue boxes were torn apart as were her freezers. ( cold cash ? ) picture frames and a few ceiling panels.

Currently mine are clipped to my purse. We normally had a special little metal container that sat on the desk we would drop the keys in. We still have the container it is stored in a cabinet and it still contains various keys.

I keep mine hanging next to the sharp kitchen knives and duct tape in plain view. Sometimes I put an extra one under the exterior 'Welcome' mat.

I used to keep mine on a hook behind the door in the pantry. Here I keep them in my purse. Locking stuff up makes sense. Someone let my in-laws dog out of the back yard several years ago. While they were chasing the dog, someone came inside and stole a purse.

I try to be mindful of where I hide things. I don't trust the repair guys. It's also not unknown for 'friends' to steal these laying around in open view. Why give anyone the chance?

imstillchloecat my box is in no way expected to thwart burglars. But it alleviates the urge to count my keys on the open hooks after every casual visitor/service call. I also don't really like the visual of open hooks and keys, but that is just a personal preference.

My friends are out of town for months or even years at a time and I'm enlisted to go check on their place. One winter someone broke in. I had never seen a burglarized house before. I was shocked by how completely they ransacked, tore into, emptied, shook-out, turned inside out, spilled out, split open, yanked apart every thing they could. You could not move in the house without trampling on top of the household contents that were all over the floor, beds, chairs, tables, etc. It was a disaster.

My neighbors really did not have anything of money value and most of their formerly valuable possessions are now old and undesirable. Nobody steals a tube TV anymore. Nobody steals a 20 year old computer. Nobody even steals a radio. Radio, what ancient thing is that?

So when it comes to hiding your keys, I'd say their is really no completely hiding them from a determined thief. I wonder if some decoy keys set out in a somewhat obvious place, plus some sacrifice-able valuables left in equally obvious places could spare your better stuff, your well hidden better stuff. What do you think?

In the kitchen. For it to be seen, the person would have already broken into our backyard and peered through our windows. There's nothing valuable in my purse as my cards are protected.

Imstillchloecat, you also go everywhere armed with a gun, right? I seem to remember that from the gun threads. I guess you take safety and security pretty seriously.

Exactly matthias_lang - our house was totally ransacked. The floors were knee-deep in paperwork, furniture cushions, clothing, books from bookshelves, linens from the linen closet, the contents of kitchen drawers/desk drawers/dresser drawers, the contents of the bathroom vanities/medicine cabinets, etc. It was overwhelming. Furniture (sofa, chairs, tables, dressers) was flipped upside-down, beds were completely dismantled and the box springs were turned over (apparently people hide stuff in box springs?), closets were emptied completely.

It took DAYS to put the house back together and only THEN could we really start the inventory of what was missing. Thousands and thousands of dollars-worth of electronics, clothing, jewelry (limited - most was in the safe), furniture, luggage, food, etc.

Nothing that was in our safes left the house, although the burglar pried on them for over an hour (he said it was about 90 minutes of prying).

And yeah, Chi - I do take safety and security seriously. I didn't, though, until this happened. So. Take that as you will.

People steal clothing? If they stole the couple pairs of Levi 526 (skinny bootleg midrise) that I got at costco I'd be mad, but only because those are all but impossible to find now and it's only been a few years since I bought them! My clothing has to fit and suit my figure, both are qualities I can find without spending a ton.

I can understand that, imstillchloecat. That's a huge invasion. They found the thief, then?

Yes. His sister turned him in. Heroin junkie. Waste of oxygen.