keys on a keychain

I have too many keys that look alike on my keychain. In particular, the key that opens my front door and the key that opens my building's front door. When I got the keys, there was a little sticker on one and I used this to distinguish the two keys from each other. Inevitably, though, I would spend perhaps half a second each time using the key trying to figure out which was which.

This last weekend I went and got some extra keys made. The key maker, in the process, took the sticker off the building key, thus rendering both keys identical. Damn! Now it would take even longer to figure out which key was which, and I would have to resort to getting another sticker, or painting the key, or something like that.

But, I'm lazy. I didn't do it for a few days. The first time I arrived home, I tried both keys... taking maybe 10 seconds instead of half a second. The second time, furious, I examined the keys for any trace of a sticker, and found I could do that but that it made me upset. The last two times, however, I realized that the door that opens my front door is next to the green key. Finding the green key is really easy. Therefore, finding my front door key is really easy plus a millisecond. And now I'm able to find the key even faster than when I looked for the sticker... even though it had always been next to the green key! It made me realize, in my own dumb way, how sometimes removing useful things leads to discovering even more useful things that had also been there all along.

Just like buying soup at QFC, even though it doesn't have a place to sit, leads me to finding a nice public chair outside, that's conveniently close to the weekly stand so I can have something to read and eat soup to. And a billion other things.

Comments

[Joe]

at hardware stores, you can buy a thin rubber condom thing that goes over the round part of your key, ostensibly to protect it from wear. the side-effect of that it hapticly differentiates any given key, so you'll know which key you've got even before you finish pulling your keychain out of your pocket.

[Chuq]

That is pretty much how I remember which key is which. Although, the key that looks like my house key....I have no idea what it goes to. Both are KW1 (KwikSet) keys. Maybe it goes to the door at my parents' house? I carry around 2 keychains, one with house keys and one with car keys. I always drive to my office, so my office keys are on the car key chain. Recently, I've discovered that I really only need two keys though since nothing at my desk locks anymore.