To not let DH use my house keys again?

[meeroolla]

DH is useless at taking care of his house keys and is always mislaying them around the house, or locking them in his car.

So he thinks it's ok to just help himself to my keys all the time, and then mislays them too. Which really pisses me off as I always look after my keys and make sure I don't lose them.

He's done things such as gone off on a 5 day work trip 200 miles away and taken my keys with him by mistake as he'd been using them (they had my car keys on too so I was stranded in our village with no car). He also always grabs my keys if we're going out and strolls off to the car with them (we always go out in my car as a family rather than in his), leaving me to 'lock up' with no keys. So I end up having to walk to the car, get the keys and walk back again to lock up. Basically he's totally thoughtless about it all.

He used my keys again this afternoon, and has now put them somewhere in the house and I can't find them to lock up to go to bed. He's been in bed for 2 hours and I've been upstairs and asked him where my keys are but he says he doesn't know, and then went straight back to sleep. So now I can't go up to bed until I find them, as our door isn't a yale type door, it just has a handle so you can get in from outside unless it's locked.

I know its a minor thing really but AIBU to stop him using my keys in future?

Meeroolla,

I have many, many old keys, including some (very old) car keys.

I will happily send you a selection - Chubb, Yale, car - with which you can make up a set of pretend keys using a key fob exactly like your own. If you were to leave the false keys in a more obvious place, then he'll pick them up instead of your real keys, whenever he can't be bothered to look for his own. None of them will work of course, but that's his problem.

If he stops trusting your keys, then he may be less tempted by them.

Also, it would be quite funny.

Oh please do what Jux said!

(But make sure you know which ones are which!)

DP and I have our own set of keys. They have specific places for them, and I am thankful that he's never even tried to take my keys for anything. And I don't take his. It's about respecting each other's belongings.

I would separate the car keys from the house keys for a start and then at least you still have transport & maybe leave a spare set with a neighbour for emergencies.

Luckily I work in a public building (key coded office) and I have a spare set of house keys there. I wonder if you could leave a set at work if it has 24/7 access, or if not a close, trusted friend.

I'd be way more annoyed that DH rolled back over and went to sleep, I'd kick DH out of bed and keep my keys well hidden in the future.

Personally, I'd sort myself out a backup plan, I'd hide my keys away too and leave him to sort himself out. If he keeps losing his keys then he needs to find them. I'd also set up a bowl (we have a basket) near the door but not in sight of it, to put these things in, then he's got less of an excuse, he just needs to train himself to use it. But definitely sort yourself out with a backup plan so you're not inconvenienced so much.