[HN Gopher] Order and orient the keys on your keychain
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Order and orient the keys on your keychain
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 18 points
Date : 2024-10-22 16:29 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (practicalbetterments.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (practicalbetterments.com)
| sqeaky wrote:
| The website is interesting. Lots of little hacks for things that
| range from useless to "I've never thought about this and it can
| actually improve things". A lot of stuff about locks and keys
|
| I really like their simple point that some seconds are more
| valuable than others but that is in a different article.
|
| I don't eternal utility with their ordering of keys, but I think
| it makes sense for a lot o them. And some people may never
| considered not having you their keys with the teeth all face in
| the same direction it just saves so much time and effort. I
| figure out how to hold one key and then I can just rotate till I
| get the one I need. I only have like five keys so I don't need
| any more organization
| Amorymeltzer wrote:
| >1. Orient your keys so they all face in the direction of entry
|
| Yes, always
|
| >2. Order your keys clockwise based on the direction of entry.
|
| Eh, I guess. Depends how many you have and what they're like. I
| have two nearly identical keys, and the rest (car, mail) require
| no time to find due to their size. In this scenario, I generally
| find that sorting keys by physical size makes the ring/carabiner
| feel more comfortable. That being said, I find the related
| suggestion to "Drill holes in your keys"
| <https://practicalbetterments.com/drill-holes-in-your-keys/> a
| more worthwhile solution to item 2.
| jen729w wrote:
| Mine are ordered by direction of entry secondarily, after order
| of physical key size. You can't be having a humpy keyring: it
| must be a smooth curve, if possible.
|
| All facing the same direction is just ... I mean ... if anyone
| here doesn't do that ... I don't even ... I gotta wash my hands
| ...
| nickdothutton wrote:
| I thought I was the only one.
| grahamj wrote:
| I remember carrying keys, but I don't miss it.
| mxuribe wrote:
| At the risk of prying - which i don't mean to - how does your
| home, vehicle (if you have one), and other physical closed
| locations in your life not have a physical lock that requires a
| key? I'm fascinated to learn! :-)
| cyberax wrote:
| Vehicle: keyless wireless fobs are pretty common these days.
| Teslas also can just use your phone to unlock/start.
|
| Home: biometric and/or combination locks.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| I nearly always enter my house through the attached garage,
| that door has no lock. I keep a single key (with no ring) for
| my front door in my wallet and it's not inconvenient being
| buried in there because I don't use it often.
| whirlwin wrote:
| I haven't owned a keychain for many years now. After renovating
| our house, we installed a Yale Doorman. It's the best $300
| investment I've done that I can think of: - Don't have to carry a
| keychain at all anymore - I can give strangers (think AirBnb, or
| cleaners) time-bound access codes - I can remotely unlock/lock
| the door for someone if they need immediate access - Kids can get
| home without a key - Kids losing their key not a worry anymore -
| Work office is keyless too (xlock) - We always keep a small 9V
| battery outside in case the battery goes flat
|
| It was after a painful deadlock situation that we initially
| retro-fitted an electronic lock into the old front door which we
| carried over to the new door once we renovated the entire floor.
| mxuribe wrote:
| I've always been tempted/curious to adopt a sort keyless of
| approach. I dislike carrying keys...and have had to carry (what
| to me feels like too many) keys always throughout my life. But
| without really researching the option you referenced, i have
| fears about failure modes for this type of keyless kock. For
| example...
|
| * If/When the battery dies, does the lock default to locked
| setting? I assume so, but how annoying would this be?
|
| * Being a privacy nut, does the lock come with a pre-determined
| code, or can you generate your own? I assume you should be able
| to create your own, but figuried I'd ask.
|
| Instead of answering my questions, if you have an online
| reference that you might have used to decide going this route,
| would be great if you could share. Thanks!
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| I bought a house with an electronic front door lock. One day
| a few months later I used the wrong code (a few times I
| guess) and I got fully locked out. I don't subscribe to the
| $60/month service that could have remotely reset the system
| so I had to get a locksmith to break me in.
|
| After that I replaced it with a plain old mechanical lock.
| Never again touching any smart home crap.
|
| I'm sure I didn't use the wrong code three times, something
| must have happened the 2nd/3rd times like a key didn't get
| pressed hard enough to register. But regardless, the lesson
| is there's a bunch of possible failure scenarios you won't
| think of.
| cyberax wrote:
| > * If/When the battery dies, does the lock default to locked
| setting? I assume so, but how annoying would this be?
|
| Typically, the home locks are just actuated mechanical locks.
| So the lock will stay in whatever state it was when the
| battery died. If you want to get into commercial-grade locks,
| there are magnetic locks that can be configured to fail open
| or close on power loss.
|
| Anyway, the battery is not a big deal. I have a Kwikset lock
| with a ZigBee module, it runs on 4 AAA batteries. I switched
| to Li-ion rechargables several years ago, and they last for
| about 6 months between recharges with moderate door use. It's
| even longer if the lock is not used often.
|
| And the lock starts beeping annoyingly after opening/closing
| when the batteries get down to 30%, giving you plenty of time
| to replace them.
|
| > * Being a privacy nut, does the lock come with a pre-
| determined code, or can you generate your own?
|
| You always can set your own combinations. And there are
| biometric locks.
| qup wrote:
| I don't have the key to my house (it's rural), but I still
| manage to have a keychain.
|
| I have a car, a father, and an office.
| gorgoiler wrote:
| Key your locks alike, then you only need one key! I actually had
| to find something to put on my house-keyring because it felt so
| empty being a single key.
|
| The downside to this is if your locks are cheapo pin tumbler
| locks then if an attacker steals the lock itself it is trivial
| for them to take your lock apart and reverse engineer a key that
| works in all your other locks (think crazy ex or wacko, rather
| than burglar.)
|
| If you key your mailbox padlock and your front door alike and the
| wacko steals the padlock, they can take it home and figure out
| the code to your house.
|
| My home has three entry points, one with a porch, and all four
| doors have keyed alike locks. It's great!
| robobro wrote:
| Why would they need to steal the lock? I don't think it's
| uncommon knowledge that most locks are pretty easy to pick
| quickly :/
| tzs wrote:
| > Key your locks alike, then you only need one key!
|
| Seconded!
|
| If you aren't up to rekeying locks yourself it is an easy job
| for a locksmith and shouldn't be too expensive.
|
| If rekeying isn't sufficient because your locks use different
| shaped keys and so you'll have to get at least some new locks
| to put everything on a common key, and you are up to doing lock
| replacements yourself (which unless you've got unusual locks is
| usually one of the easiest DIY projects), I'd consider using
| Kwikset SmartKey for the new locks.
|
| Despite what the name suggests these are _not_ electronic
| locks. They are entirely mechanical, using a normal key. They
| came out in 2007 before "Smart" had become associated with
| shoving microprocessors into places they don't belong.
|
| If you want to rekey a SmartKey lock you simply take the
| current key, insert it, rotate 90deg clockwise, insert a tool
| Kwikset provides through a little hole in the front to press a
| button, and that releases the key so you can remove it without
| having to rotate the cylinder back to 0deg. Then you can put in
| a different key, rotate the cylinder 180deg counter-clockwise,
| then back to 0deg and remove that key.
|
| The lock is now rekeyed to that second key.
|
| So, just buy your news locks from Home Depot or Lowe's without
| having to worry about getting locks that are keyed to the same
| key, install them, look at all the keys they came with and pick
| which one you want to be the common key, and then go around and
| rekey them all to that using the procedure described above.
|
| Keep the other keys. They can be useful if you have a guest
| stay over (assuming you have more than one door to your house).
| Rekey one of the doors to one of those other keys and give that
| to the guest. When they leave you can rekey back to your common
| key.
|
| Kwikset also makes SmartKey padlocks if you want to go all in
| on the one key thing.
| globular-toast wrote:
| What kind of monster doesn't orient their keys the same way?
| Personally I just put them biggest to smallest, though. I think
| it's more important to have some order than a particular order.
| thefz wrote:
| Especially for pocket fit, they can be compacted faster this
| way
| stackghost wrote:
| I like to live dangerously so I have my keys slapped on in
| whatever orientation and order they happened to be at the time.
| nrnrjrjrj wrote:
| Key orientation is the new dishwasher loading pattern.
| tennisflyi wrote:
| My order is frequency based
| tzs wrote:
| If you keys are on a keyring like those in the illustrations in
| the article where the keys can easily jangle and that gets
| annoying I found a good way to address that.
|
| * Get some small magnets. I used these 8 mm diameter 1mm thick
| disk magnets [1].
|
| * Attach one to each key near the hole for the keyring. Orient
| the magnets so the each is attracted to the magnets on the
| neighboring keys.
|
| When hanging on your keyring your keys will then form one unit
| which won't jangle.
|
| You want magnets that are strong enough to attract through the
| keys. If yours need a little help you could try putting a magnet
| on each side of the key.
|
| I held them on by wrapping some tape around the key.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071XNRF2D
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| There's alternatives to keyrings as well, holders so your keys
| become their own swiss army knife.
| alanbernstein wrote:
| I don't carry keys anymore, except for my bike lock, parents
| house, car, and work bike lock. Hmm I guess I still carry a lot
| of keys. But I'm still happy I replaced my house key with a code.
| aappleby wrote:
| ...what kind of savage _doesn't_ already do this?
| nrnrjrjrj wrote:
| My trick:
|
| Car key is obvious.
|
| Other keys are house front, house side, someone elses house
| (family).
|
| Get some nail polish and paint the top of the house key, the one
| thay gets used 90% of the time.
|
| Or you can get the coloured covers from key cutter shops but they
| do seem to break up eventually.
| johnchristopher wrote:
| Here's a trick of mine: choose a key hat with a colour matching
| the door. It's easier to tell them apart, especially when you
| hand the key-chain to a friend.
| wuuza wrote:
| I have always had a bottle opener keychain [1]. When grabbing it
| from my pocket it is easy to tell by feel which way is "up" (flat
| side for me) so they keys are always oriented correctly. The keys
| can't "loop" around, either, so the order is guaranteed. It's
| also a useful tool.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D8MM4FQT/
| colanderman wrote:
| Ha, I do all of this already. (My "trinket" is a Yubikey, though
| I just added a 3D printed MIT Flea tag an enterprising child was
| handing out at the last Flea.)
|
| I propose that the reason for clockwise ordering is: door locks
| are on the right, and also most people are right-handed. So
| looking at the keychain as you would hold it to insert the key
| into a lock, the first visible key is the first in clockwise
| order. The others are "stacked" beneath it.
| matrss wrote:
| > Locks typically open clockwise [...]
|
| Is that so? My intuition is that it should depend on the side of
| the door the lock is mounted on. Most locks I have seen open by
| turning them away from the side where the latch is on, to move
| the bolt in the direction it is being turned, and that feels
| pretty natural to me. Isn't that the norm?
|
| My apartment key opens 5 different locks, 1 of which opens
| clockwise, 3 counterclockwise, and 1 I don't know right now
| because it isn't actually mounted on a door and doesn't move a
| bolt.
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(page generated 2024-10-26 23:00 UTC)