Travel with Angela Lansbury: Lost Key Solutions - how to find and replace lost keys

Last night I had a nightmare that I travelled from one country to another and arrived to find I had no front door key.

What are the solutions if this really happens?

1 Neighbour's Key

Leave a key with a neighbour. Alert the neighbour or relative who has the key as to when you are coming home and arrive at a sentible hour of day or evening so they can be there to greet you, have the key ready, or provide fresh milk.

Chair

Have an all weather chair outside so you can wait outside if the neighbours are out, or a key to your car and garage so you can sleep in your car. But ensure that the chair is not one which could be used to break a window, nor to climb up.

2 Hidden Key

Hide a spare key. Not in an obvius place such as under the door mat. Thieves know to look there.

3 Key at your office.

This works if you have 24 hour access to the office and if you do not know or trust the neighbours or the house alongisde is empty.

4 Locksmith

This is the quickest and sometimes costliest solution. Check out the local locksmiths (some are 24 hour locksmiths) and their prices on moving in to a new address and keep the number in your phone.

5 Landlady or Landlord Or Agent

If the agent or landady keeps a spare key, this could be your solution.

6 Taxi or courier the key.

Your spouse or keyholder is at work? Send the key across in a parcel or courier.

7 Second door's key

Keep with you another smaller key such as the key to the back door.

Replace Locks

If you lose your key or your handbag or jacket is stolen you might consider changing the locks. One solution which does not involve a new door or removing the old lock is to add a new lock. If you already have one or two locks, it might be cheaper to add a new one which comes with two keys, then duplicate these keys later when needed, rather than changing all the locks.

Story of Our Son's Lost Keys

We did this years ago when our schoolboy son lost the house keys. We added an extra lock. two weeks later the missing keys turned up under the sofa of a friend when they hoovered (vacuum cleaned). The boys had been sitting on the floor watching TV and the keys had fallen out of our son's pocket.

I was forever hunting for my door keys in the bottom of my voluminous bag. I knew the answer. I once had a handbag with a swen in long ribbon with a key ring attached.

When the handbag got old and frayed, I cut out the ribbon and attached it to the lining of my new bag, at first temporarily with a safety pin, then with a few stitches to make it secure.

Where to find a long enough ribbon in a hurry? Buy a reel of ribbon for wrapping parcels, from a bargain shop such as Japanese Daeso which is in the USA, Japan, Singapore and online.

Or use a lanyard saved from a conference or given away as advertising for a company.

Alternatively cut the inside hem off a dress you rarely wear. Or a strip off the inside hem of an old pillow case.

Or use any piece of string. Or knitting wool, if necessary plaited for strength.

The Story of My Mother's Lost Keys

My mother came home from holiday and had lost her front door keys. She and my father hunted everywhere. No luck.

A week later my mother died. My father asked me to go over to his home and collect her clothes. In a laundry box were half a dozen handbags. My father wanted me to take them away or give them to the Cancer Research shop.

First I wanted to check inside the bags. the first bag we unzipped had nothing in it. Nothing in number two. Same for three, four and five.

"Don't bother with the last one, They're all empty," said my father, tired of this fruitless exercise. I n ignored his comment and opened the inside zips of the last straw bag, and the outside pocket. There were the door keys!

My mother had taken a straw summer bag to a warm destination for the winter, and forgotten that her home doorkeys were inside.

Lost doorkeys? A few places to check:

1 Still in the lock of the front door, whilst you are inside, hunting to leave. You will find them when you leave, or come back in again, or when a neighbour or passer-by knocks to say, "Did you know that your keys are in your outside lock?"

2 In the pocket of a handbag.

3 In the pocket of a rucksack.

4 In the pocket of the last item you wore outdoors or on your last trip, in the jacket, pants (trousers) or coat.

5 On the bedside table or fallen down between the bedside table (USA night stand) and the bed.

6 In the car. Under the driver's seat. In the glove box. Under the car.

7 In the desk drawer, kitchen drawer, bedside table drawer.

8 In the key box on the wall.

Key holder box from IKEA

9 Picked up by another member of the family, a visitor or a visting workman. (Our back door keys were taken by the man who checked the boiler. He brought them back a year later on the next annual check. Since then I have never left keys lying around on a table or work surface when I had visitors in the house.

Key Finders

You can buy key rings which respond when you call or whistle. the only trouble is, every time the phone rings or the doorbell rings, your keyfinder starts singing to you.

Hotel Room Keys

To keep hold of hotel keys, I have a lanyard for a regular trip to the Fishguard Bay hotel for Writers' Holiday in Wales. I attach the hotel room door keys.

What about hotels with key cards? I have a pouch which goes around my neck. The key card goes in the pocket.

Postbox keys

We lost a postbox key. We phoned a local locksmith and the man who answered asked, "What's the number of the key?"

I replied, "I don't know. We had one key and we've lost it."

He answered, "The key number is inside the box at the back. Is the box open?"

The box was shut. We pulled out the junk mail and leaflets one by one through the opening. We shone a torch through the opening and took a photo and emailed it to the locksmith. He did not have that type of key in stock and would take a week to get a new one posted from the brand manufacturer.

He said,"I am happy to help, and if you are prepared to wait, and pay in advance, I will order the key and then deliver it. But if you want it faster, you can get it from them direct."

We looked up the number online and the brand manufacturer could post it to us, slow mail or quick service. Problem solved.

Finally, for emergency service access in a hurry, there's a special box.