We have had this elephant for over 20 years. It is a landmark in our house. I originally bought it at Hobby Lobby. It was intended to be a plant holder. It is very heavy and sits on the credenza by the backdoor.
The daily keys people use go in the elephant. Some are on lanyards, some on rings, they stay near the top.
Also in the depths of the elephant are the extra keys to all four of our cars, extra keys to our house, keys to our safe deposit box, plus a big collection of extra keys for my mother (including *multiple door keys, car key and safe deposit box key). Our Hondas came with three keys, two regular and one valet. So we are talking a lot of keys.
*A note on multiple door keys - locks can be rekeyed. When we bought our front security door, we had those two locks rekeyed to match the rest of the doors in our house. So one key unlocks every door, knob locks and dead bolts, at our house. This makes life a lot simpler.
The extra keys were all on assorted weird rings. We have one Toyota and three Hondas. My mother has a Honda. So most of the extra car keys look identical.
I bought personalized key rings, ordered on sale, from Etsy.
I got the color that was on sale. And I had each stamped (subtly) with our first name. I bought four of these, one for each of us, to organize the extra car keys.
I happened to have a similar leather key ring, which I am using for my mother. That original leather key ring is what prompted this whole little project.
From top to bottom -
Keys my husband uses on lanyard
Extra keys for Accord my husband drives to office (when he goes) (was originally oldest’s first/only car, they only took one vehicle with them).
Extra keys for middle’s civic (I am further dividing her keys, note at bottom)
Extra key for Youngest’s civic (when she is home, her regular keys on a lanyard, go in the elephant. Her valet key stays at college as her service/back up key.)
Extra key for my Toyota.
Safe deposit box keys
Extra keys for my mom’s house, car, safe deposit box
And off to the right at the bottom, all the extra house keys I found in a zip lock bag the chicken basket in this undertaking.
The keys middle uses daily are in her work bag. One key fob for the Toyota is deep in the phone case I wear around my neck/a tiny cross body, with my credit cards/ID, my car is keyless.
I dumped the whole elephant for this project. And yes, there were an assortment of weird keys at the bottom, but not many. And there was no extra accumulation of coins and buttons and paper clips, I had cleaned it out fairly recently.
I also found the hen basket we used at the old house, with odds and ends of very old keys and junk in it, in the bottom of the credenza.
So, all together, these (below) were the weird keys, I had no idea what they were. Top of picture is the shocking amount from the hen basket (plus a bag of house keys not in the picture) and bottom of picture shows the ones dumped from the elephant -
I did find important keys. I found the second/extra lock box key in the pile from the chicken basket. I put it on the ring with the one I use. Also in the chicken basket, I found a zip lock bag from the hardware store with “new” extra house keys for this house.
I usually cannot bring myself to pitch keys. But I identified four keys that were clearly cars from long ago and pitched them -
I was left with two categories of weird keys
- luggage/small locks (on ring, top of photo below)
- unidentified (on ring, middle of photo below)
and a lot of sturdy key rings (on carabiner, bottom of photo below)
Yes, it is unlikely anyone will ever need any of those keys, but you never know. And the sturdy rings may come in handy. All three of those rings are now all in the hen basket, back in the bottom of the credenza.
The day I wrote this post, I did two extra things -
I ordered a key ring for middle with the puppies picture on it. I am going to leave her valet key on the leather ring with her name on it in the elephant, for emergencies and service. I am going to put her extra key and a house key on the new puppy ring for her to take to the gym. I will add a picture when it arrives.
And I sent a couple of these pictures to Youngest’s and middle so they knew what I had done, what was in the elephant, and what was in the hen basket.
