SWMBO has what might best be termed as a gift for losing things -- cell phone, keys, you name it. I've tried to do a little research on those little wireless key locators -- you press the transmitter button and the attachment on your keyring goes beep beep beep - and mostly what I've discovered is that the majority of them aren't very good. (The one that Sharper Image used to sell was apparently so bad that every review I read was a "one star" review.)

Does anyone have any personal experience with a key locator they would recommend? Preferably one that is still commercially available.

At this juncture, price is not too much of an issue. If SWMBO can't find her car keys, she will end up paying a $300 lost key fine from where she works, not to mention the hassles of having to get duplicates for all the other missing ones. This time at least we know there are only three possibilities where they could be, and one of those has been pretty much eliminated.

Advice?

tanstaafl.

These work really well and are less than $10!

Maybe this will help.

Try this. Tell her you know a memory trick. It's important that you tell her this. Tell her that this memory trick has a 95% success rate. Then instruct her to say "I can remember" aloud three times. Then tell her to stop trying to remember, and then change the subject, be quiet, or start doing something else.

She'll then remember.

Would it be wrong of me to ask:

If someone is prone to losing keys, wouldn't that make someone also prone to losing a key locator device?

Get a new SWMBO ?

Ah, but the locator device can be held by someone else.

You could attached a key fob made of a highly radioactive element, then use a geiger counter to find it.

If you want to go all out, you could get one of these. Not sure if it has a key ring attachment, though, and it's pretty bulky for a keychain.

I'm going a little crazy because I'm sure I saw an article on Engadget once about a product in its early stages. Basically, you put these little tabs on stuff you didn't want to lose, like keys, remote controls, wallets, purses, etc. Then there was a main unit that had a small, almost radar-like display on it that you could walk around with and it would guide you to the missing object. I remember it being very expensive but that's clearly not an issue for you.

Unfortunately I need something that will locate the story for me

LMAO!

I bought an older model of one of these....

http://www.findonefindall.com/

...it literally broke in seconds.

I wish it would have worked because we are always losing the remote.

http://safetyandsecuritycenter.stores.yahoo.net/rftagalsy.html

this will set off an alarm when you get out of range of the tagged item.

Was this it? (google search results)

No. The locator device is attached semi-permanently to the item you want to find, and the transmitter that triggers the device is put somewhere it can't get lost -- maybe screwed to the refrigerator with four inch stainless steel lag bolts or something. Not even SWMBO has managed to lose the refrigerator! Yet.

We did locate her keys, BTW. They are on a window sill 25 miles from here. We'll have to go get them.

I ordered one of these. Got it on eBay for $17.50 plus shipping (about $25 total). And no, the locator won't reach out 25 miles. Even if it would, imagine how loud the paging signal would have to be! Hmmm, does anybody have the math to figure that out? How many decibels would it take to reach 25 miles, given a pure tone of about 12,000 Hz?

tanstaafl.

That's it exactly! I must not have used the right key words. Usually I can find anything through Google Reader.

Fun anecdote: one of my wife's college roommates was horribly prone to losing her keys as well. One of her friends bought her a device to solve the problem. It worked by whistling. I don't know what kind of evil device it was, but you didn't have to whistle to set it off, all you had to do was turn on the faucet, pour cereal, talk at normal volumes, or stand still, and the horrible little thing would beep incessantly. To make matters worse, it did not have a removeable battery or even a screw to allow you to take it apart (when removed from the packaging, one of those little plastic pull-tabs would start the device).

The only solution was to bury it deep within the freezer. If you walked closely to the fridge you could hear it. It took a week to die.

Hammer?

My wife hates purses, and managed to leave her wallet on the roof of the car, drove off, and was thenceforth unable to recover her wallet despite much searching. We found her a relatively small purse-like thing that slings across the neck and is light enough to have around all the time, yet fashionable enough not to stick out like a sore thumb.

The trick is to come up with a carrying device or whatever else that enables the process of making sure you've got all your stuff with you to become something you do without particularly thinking about it. This is possible with wallets and keys. I'm not convinced it's possible for occasional things like umbrellas.

Heh.. we've left umbrellas behind by accident twice now; once in Australia, and again in England.

Pesky little things are tricky to hang onto at times!

Sometime ago someone invented this thing called a pocket, I find it works tolerably well at holding the things I don't want to lose. I understand that the idea hasn't caught on in the female half of the population.

Ever since I purchased a Renault with keyless ignition, this problem has gone away: Every morning, when I get dressed, I hang the electronic key card on a cord, along with the front door key, round my neck - problem solved!

At some point in the future someone will need to add your name and address some people know where to send you when you get lost

Would you want to live in a world where women had jeans loose enough to fit something in their back pockets?

Point VERY well taken!