Quick Minimalist Exercise: Keys

To live successfully in 600 sq. ft. we are embracing minimalism.  To me, minimalism is a continuum, there are some people who are only comfortable if all surfaces and walls are clear.  Personally, this is too spartan for my taste.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, I get irritable when I look around and see stuff on every single surface.  When I reach that point, cleaning needs to happen immediately.

Most often, in everyday life, we just accumulate possessions gradually and it's much later when we look and realize that we have a big mess that needs addressing.  Case in point- my keychain.  This is what it looked like this morning.

I have keys to both cars, one of which I never drive, several keycards for the library, grocery stores, etc, my apartment key, mail key, key fob for the building, old house key, one decorative keychain from a trip years ago and the wristlet.  It's big, bulky, and difficult to find the things I really need.  In my mind keys have always been an indication of responsibility- the more keys you have, the more you're responsible for.  When I looked at these keys and thought about my daily life, I realized that I needed to have a big clean out.

Here's what remains:

Basically, I have my car key, apartment keys, the most essential keycards that I use all the time and the wristlet.  Any parent of a toddler will confirm how nice it is to be able to wear your keys around your wrist and free up your hand for something else.  It's much smaller, feels lighter, and is more indicative of my everyday responsibilities now.  It took less than 2 minutes to do and feels much better.

TIP: Years ago my mom began putting all those discount keycards on a separate keychain she keeps in her purse.  When she goes to the store, she pulls out that keychain and flips through.  This keeps her from not having to deal with a massive keychain and they're all in the same place.  I have a similar keychain, but I keep it in my wallet.

Any tips you have?  As for the extra keys, I consolidated them onto another keychain and have it hanging separately on our key tree.  While I like knowing where all my keys are, it looks a bit cluttered on the wall.  How would you address this?