by Adam Dachis

Keychains: they’re great for keeping your keys collected and organized but often become a bulky, enormous mess.  This isn’t a problem you have to live with.  A few clever tools and tricks can get your keychain in order so it’s not only easy to carry but functional as well.

Stop Stressing When You Need to Swap Your Keys

Changing up the keys on your keychain is often one of the most frustrating task you’ll encounter, but there are a few tools that don’t cost much and can remove a lot of the frustration.  One clever option is Keybrid, which is a key and ring in one.  You can use the actual ring integrated into Keybrid to hold other keys, or you can more easily hook your keys onto a separate ring because Keybrid provides so much more space.

To remove the stress of getting your keys on and off the ring, just get a FREEKey.  It looks like a standard key ring, but when you push on a certain part of the ring it lifts it open so you can easily add a new key or remove an existing one.  Alternatively, you can forego the split keyring style entirely and get a key cable instead.

Minimize the Number of Keys You Have to Carry

Bulk is the other main problem most keychain owners face.  It isn’t fun carrying around a lot of keys, so you want to remove as much as you possibly can.  If you do need to carry a lot of keys, consider a modular keychain that allows you to easily remove items when you don’t need them.  You also may have a lot of keys you don’t need to carry around with you.  Mail keys, for example, can be kept by the door so you can just grab them on your way out to check the mail.  Alternatively, they’re small so they’ll fit well inside your wallet, too.  Several keys may be better off in your wallet if they’ll fit without bothering you.  This way you don’t have to remember a keychain and a wallet—just one.

Make Your Keychain Actually Useful

Most keychains hold keys and stop there, but so many useful items fit on the ring as well. You don’t want to remove all your keys just to add more bloat to your keychain with other items, but one or two useful tools are nice to have near by when you need them.  For example, you can hook on a flash drive, multi-purpose tool, money holder, miniature iPod sync cable, pen, or bottle opener.  If it’s reasonably small, someone likely makes a version for your keychain.  Pick one or two of the most useful items and hook ‘em on.

Got a weekend project you want us to cover?  Let us know at [email=tips+weekendhacker@lifehacker.com]tips+weekendhacker@lifehacker.com[/email].  Happy Friday!



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