Thursday, January 6, 2011

Three problems / One Solution

Problem #1:  Brian regularly loses his car keys.

Problem #2:  Now that we have four adults living in the house -- sometimes 5 when Barclay shows up -- the driveway is one of those sliding puzzles where you always need to move one car out of the way to get another car out.  We priced the cost of hiring a fulltime valet but decided we couldn't afford it.  So in the morning, whoever was leaving first, had to tiptoe into other people's rooms to find keys, or wake them up and ask for them to move blocking cars...

Problem #3:  Problem number 2 would often become more time consuming due to Problem # 1.

SOLUTION!!!!   

The Kitchen Car Key Bowl!!

It took awhile and a lot of mutual reminding for all of us to remember, but the idea is that when you first come in the house, you drop your keys into the bowl.  That way, all of us have access to any car at any time. 

By the way,  I just noticed in the background that I've captured the decoratve antique bean jars that I mentioned a few days ago in a discussion of Hoppin' John.  Notice the the jar on the right is empty?  Proof that I don't make things up.

BUTLER :  Not actually proof, Mark.  You could have easily emptied the beans for the photograph and put them back.  But it was a nice try.  By the way, the bowl looks more like a "bar code" bowl than a "car key" bowl."


So it does!  And how did it come about over the last decade that every supermarket, drugstore, department store now gives you a piece of plastic?   Marketing.  Phooey.

BAGMAN: "Hey!!  I just got my membership in the Food Lion Club!!!   Look at this cool membership card!"

Did you get the secret decoder ring as well?  When do they have their meetings?

I'm guessing that all the miniature key cards on the keyring above are Melody's.  Brian would have lost the card before he found his keyring.  And Karen keeps her cards in her purse.  In fact, she has a whole separate wallet like thing to keep them in.  

And I have refused to keep any card in my wallet that is not absolutely necessary -- and it is still to fat with plastic.  License, credit card (just one), ATM card, library card, and Sams Club Card (because this is one shopping chain that actually makes you show your card before they let you in the door!).  

BUTLER:  (Continuing to be his eagle-eyed self):  "Wait a minute. I just blew up the picture and look very carefully and..."

What?

BUTLER:  "Brian's keys aren't in the bowl."

11 comments:

  1. And I thought I had it tough because I have to back around my husband's car when I pull my car out of the garage....love the jars, Mark.

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  2. Karen and I are of the same mind...all my discount cards are kept in a separate card carrier!

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  3. How easy life is for me in comparison - I do not have a driving license, let alone have a car! And by the way, I do believe you. The empty jar looks genuinely empty, not made-up empty.

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  4. Why I can tell that jar had black-eyed beans in it. Better get it refilled before next year you know how time flies. We have a car problem too, but a little different. We have a two car garage and there is plenty of room for two cars, but HH is so afraid I will hit his new car he will not keep it in the garage. LOL I just let him go on thinking that. I offered to let him put his new car in there but no he insists it will stay in the drive along with an old truck. I would love to hit the truck so he would get rid of it. Just saying.
    QMM

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  5. That's funny!! We used to have the same problem when my sons were teenagers. I would suggest color coding them as we did. Love the bean jars!

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  6. How creative.....

    I find those little cards on my key ring to be a major pain. It takes me forever to find the right one, plus they add to my already shocked and confused mind as I watch the total on the register get steeper and steeper.

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  7. My most-favored grocery store has those little keyring things, but I don't have a key ring. They also keep phone numbers on file as an alternative. . . except that somehow my phone number was purged from their database the last two times I was there. I need to be restored (in many ways).

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  8. Wonderful post as always! I have the store keyring-thingy on my key ring, but no car keys as I walk to most places or ride along with my husband. :D

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  9. One thing that drove my father nuts was to hear, "Has anyone seen my keys?" So, even if you were just popping in for a 10 minute visit, we had to hang our carkeys on his Keyhook. When I visited my parents for the first time afer they moved into a retirement village and asked "Where's the Keyhook?" he said, "Surely you are old enough to look after yourself now." I was 60!
    I must see if I can find out what all those barcode things are - we don't have them here!

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