If you love the keychain you have, I’m not going to sway you. Keychains are like coffee mugs—if you’re fond of yours, especially if it has a backstory, no one else’s favorite will capture your heart.
But there will come a time when you need a new keychain. Maybe you lose yours, or the one that brought you a daily jangle of joy begins to subtly annoy you, growing heavy in your bag, lumpy in your pocket.
A good keychain should not be underestimated. I can’t think of another object that so elegantly encapsulates the freedom to venture out while bestowing the power to return. Since college, I’ve had a small parade of sentimental keychains, each with its own story and weird charm. I’ve loved them all, but I have gradually noticed their inevitable shortcomings, one by one—the heaviness they added to my coat pocket, the dent that their edges left in my palm when I held them on my walks, the way they sank to the bottom of my tote and eluded my attempts to fish them out, or the occasions when they took up precious real estate in a mini bag.
I’d been devoted to a nostalgic Original Jean Ring, which looped around my belt loop but was cumbersome to remove, when one day I came across the Nite Ize G-Series Size 3 Dual Chamber Carabiner at the checkout line at REI. I have always been a sucker for carabiners (their implicit capabilities, their deftness, their style, IYKYK), and this one had a pleasing symmetry, trim and oblong in proportion. It also had the added appeal of two hinged-off chambers for extra security, so you could clip and unclip the carabiner without risking a key slipping off.
The price was less than $5. I bought it on the spot.
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This stainless steel carabiner has a slim size that still holds plenty of keys, and it’s extra secure thanks to its double-gated design.
It may seem hyperbolic, but since switching my keys over to this carabiner, I have felt a weight lift whenever I leave my apartment. When I go out, my goal is to feel as unencumbered as I possibly can, while still safely securing the stuff I need. There is an inevitable tension in my desire to be both unencumbered and prepared, but the Nite Ize carabiner has slackened it.
Handsome, unassuming, functional, sleek—the Nite Ize carabiner is made from durable, rustproof stainless steel but adds hardly any heft to my keychain, feeling as if it weighed only as much as my keys.
It has all the hands-free appeal of any carabiner, easily hooking on and off my belt loops with a reassuringly stiff snap when I go on walks or around the straps of my tote or backpack when I’m out and about. But its small size and slim proportions give it a versatility that some carabiners lack: If I’m pocketless, the Nite Ize carabiner comfortably loops around a finger without catching. If I’m on a hike, it hooks securely inside my backpack without adding bulk or tumbling to the bottom. If I’m feeling femme, my keys hide easily inside a mini bag.
Nite Ize sells the G-Series style in a few compact sizes ranging from about 1.5 inches to 3 inches in length. The one I chose (#3, about 2.5 inches long) keeps my keys close to my body, but it still easily holds a lot—in my case, three house keys, a brass whistle, and a car fob. (I could add a friend’s set of spare keys and my parents’ if necessary, too.)
There’s also the price, around $5. This is certainly more than the cost of not replacing the keychain you currently have, which might be doing the job just fine (or so you’re telling yourself), or maybe the birthday-gift high-end keychain that isn’t really you, or maybe the free keychain your landlord gave you. But $5 is very little to spend for a two-year warranty and a small but meaningful life upgrade, one that literally holds the keys to your homecoming.
I still have my previous keychain, for the memories. But it will remain in retirement. I’ve gotten too used to feeling buoyant, ready, and frictionless. If you have a keychain that you think I’d prefer, sorry—I don’t think I want to hear about it.
This article was edited by Alexander Aciman and Hannah Rimm.
