What do you do with old keys?

[Accy cyclist]

I still have a front door key from my mum and dad's old house,even though it's been owned by someone else for 5 years.

 

[Drago]

If they are on here, they will be straight down B&Q to get a new lock.

And while they're out Accy can burgle them!

 

[Accy cyclist]

Heck,after reading this thread i've been rooting for old keys and found one from the 1980's which was/is a key to my old girlfriend's flat. I wonder if she still lives there and if so will it still be the same lock?

Edit...Come to think of it,will she still be alive? She is/was 14 years older than me.

 

[Drago]

Keep 'em.

This is from my own personal stash

View attachment 392472

That's what Mrs D's handbag would look like if she tidied it up.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I keep mine in the fridge. You never know when the hiccups will visit.

 

[byegad]

[QUOTE 5123114, member: 259"]The minute after you throw a key away, you'll find out what you need it for.[/QUOTE]

We moved 2 years ago, and my younger son moved into our old house. There were a lot of old keys, which I insisted he keep, just in case!

Sure enough one turned out to be for the High Security padlock on the shed, another for a lock inside the shed which I used to secure bikes. You've guessed it he chucked them out. Luckily in the new house's garage we found, in a tin, replacement keys. So I always keep keys, you never know when you'll need them.

 

[postman]

You could sell them to stop nose bleeds,an old wives tale. Why cold keys can stop those nosebleeds. ... Cold hits the nerves in the neck, causing the blood vessels to constrict. You might notice your pulse slowing too.

 

[Paulus]

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.

Must be either a big box, or quite full by now.

 

[petek]

I had lots of old keys in a biscuit tin before we downsized. That went to the tip for recycling. I now have a new biscuit tin out in the garage , containing a small, but growing; collection of keys. No chance of us ever losing the main gate and front door keys for this place, they are massive.

 

[Mrs M]

Chuck them out if of no use
Mr M gave a joiner a key to our flat so he could get in and do some work for us.
Got home and phone was ringing, Mr M had handed over an old key that looked very much like the new one since we had the locks changed.
Had to race over, red faced and grovelling to let him in.
Mr M threw the old keys away then, (like I told him to months ago)

 

[Tim Hall]

I had lots of old keys in a biscuit tin before we downsized. That went to the tip for recycling. I now have a new biscuit tin out in the garage , containing a small, but growing; collection of keys. No chance of us ever losing the main gate and front door keys for this place, they are massive.

"Advance keys and be recognised"

 

[Randomnerd]

Along a hedge in the spring of 1991 we were planting young oak trees, and hedgerow mix. I was a young woodman, working with an older woodman. The boss was at home by the fire. We got back to the yard in the old Land Rover, and my colleague went about his usual routine of packing his snap and gathering gear for the bike ride home. He couldn't find his bunch of keys.
He detoured to the hedge the next morning, by his account, and walked up and down looking for the keys without success.
I moved into my cottage and took over as woodman on the place in 1995. We look out onto fields, and the first boundary we see is the Lost Keys hedge. We tended the growing hedge over the next five years, laid it in places and pruned the oaks when they got big enough. It's a fine hedge and a good row of new field oaks.
The old lad retired in 2002 and I moved on to new work but stayed in the house.
Occasionally i walked the Lost Keys hedge with the dogs, looking for rabbits or to get a few sloes.
The 2012 summer was pretty dry, and I was kicking along the hedge after the combine to get a few armfuls of straw for the fruit cage. Back in the garden, i wondered what could be jangling in the bottom of the barrow: under the straw, a set of keys, with the old lad's Ford tractor key, his work padlocks' key and the little Squire job for the bike, and all the others for house etc.
He's a sanguine old fellow. When I called by to say I had found his keys from that hedge, he told me to keep them somewhere in case he ever needed them. They're in a tin in the pantry with all the other duplicates and left-overs I will never need.

 

[biggs682]

Throw them in the middle of a room and see who picks them up !

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Along a hedge in the spring of 1991 we were planting young oak trees, and hedgerow mix. I was a young woodman, working with an older woodman. The boss was at home by the fire. We got back to the yard in the old Land Rover, and my colleague went about his usual routine of packing his snap and gathering gear for the bike ride home. He couldn't find his bunch of keys.
He detoured to the hedge the next morning, by his account, and walked up and down looking for the keys without success.
I moved into my cottage and took over as woodman on the place in 1995. We look out onto fields, and the first boundary we see is the Lost Keys hedge. We tended the growing hedge over the next five years, laid it in places and pruned the oaks when they got big enough. It's a fine hedge and a good row of new field oaks.
The old lad retired in 2002 and I moved on to new work but stayed in the house.
Occasionally i walked the Lost Keys hedge with the dogs, looking for rabbits or to get a few sloes.
The 2012 summer was pretty dry, and I was kicking along the hedge after the combine to get a few armfuls of straw for the fruit cage. Back in the garden, i wondered what could be jangling in the bottom of the barrow: under the straw, a set of keys, with the old lad's Ford tractor key, his work padlocks' key and the little Squire job for the bike, and all the others for house etc.
He's a sanguine old fellow. When I called by to say I had found his keys from that hedge, he told me to keep them somewhere in case he ever needed them. They're in a tin in the pantry with all the other duplicates and left-overs I will never need.

Lovely story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[gaijintendo]

Throw them in the middle of a room and see who picks them up !

I see... Bring a fish bowl of keys out when you have guests round? That's bound to get them to leave quickly!