Super Secret Safes and Other Security Options and Ideas

Losing your keys or getting locked out can be frustrating, and searching for them can feel maddeningly. Luckily, there are things you can do besides searching. Relax, stop looking and try another strategy. Check out these five ideas:

1. Start cleaning.

Instead of searching, start cleaning. Start in one corner of a room, and work your way to the opposite side. Then, repeat the process in the next room. Eventually, after picking up clutter, vacuuming under couches and straightening toys, your keys may turn up.

2. Grab a metal detector.

If you have access to a metal detector, use that to find your keys. This method works extremely well outside if you've lost your keys in your yard or you worry that your toddler has buried them in the sandbox. Simply, walk over the area in question, waving the metal detector back and forth and hope to hear beeps.

Inside, metal detectors are not as effective to use, as they will beep at all the other metal (loose change, cutlery, appliances, etc.) in your house. However, they can help you narrow down your choices. For example, if you're getting a lot of beeps around your sofa, that's a sign that you may want to dig really deeply in or even cut through the fabric at the bottom to see if they've fallen in.

Even if the metal detector doesn't sense your keys, sometimes the slow and methodical walk through your home or yard can help. You may just spot them out of the corner of your eye.

3. Make it spiritual.

People throughout history and throughout the world have been losing things, and some of them have created spiritual approaches to help them find them. Catholics, for example, often pray to Saint Anthony when they lose something, using the prayer, "St Anthony, St Anthony, please come around. My keys are lost and need to be found". Similarly, some people of the Jewish faith use a Hebrew prayer to locate lost items. Still other people believe in the power of meditation, and they clear their minds in hopes that the lost object will appear.

4. Try science.

If you prefer not to take a spiritual approach, veer to the scientific side, and look at psychology. Many psychologists believe that mindfulness or context-dependent memories can help you find your keys. Simply, sit down and visualize what you were doing in the moments when you last saw your keys, feel the same emotions, recall your thoughts, and eventually, your brain may give you the answer of the lost keys.

Don't panic as the cortisol your brain produces will make it even harder for your memory to function correctly.

5. Contact a locksmith.

When all else fails, a locksmith can make you new keys. He or she can rekey the lock, and when you find your lost key, it will work in the lock as well. Alternatively, he or she can make a whole new lock. Unfortunately, your old keys won't fit, but luckily, if someone else find your old keys, they won't be able to use them either.