Here's a quick way to have a little white light always available. For cheap!

It's getting dark early and I've been having a lot of fun getting home and fumbling around for a minute while I try to get the house key in the lock. It's good stuff, but a little extra lighting would make it easier. So I figured that I could just put LED flashlights on everything and keep my bases covered, just like buying a box of pens and scattering them around the house which is an annual ritual of mine.

Step 1: Buy a Pack of Keychain Lights

With LEDs dropping in price all the time and easier connections to Chinese manufacturers we now see websites that are eager to sell you goods cheap and in quantity. I was able to pick up 10 LED keychains for less than $5, shipped. At 50 cents each I don't worry about which precious item gets to have a light stuck to it. Everything is illuminated!

Step 2: Take Off That Stupid Big Keychain Ring

I already have way too many keys eating up space on my keychain. There's one for my car, one for work, two for my house, two for my main bike (u-lock + hub lock), and one for my other bike. Putting the LED keychain on there is only the image of usefulness and not the reality. You try using the flashlight while trying to put the key on the same keychain into the lock. It's possible, but it sucks.

So, yeah, ditch that big ring.

Step 3: Attach the Tiny Ring to Your Zipper

Using the remaining tiny ring, attach the light to your zipper. You now have a light-up zipper pull that blends in because it's tiny and black.

Bam! Easy lighting.

Sure, this may be one of those uses that has been promoted with these kinds of lights since the beginning, but I was always more careful with these lights and would carefully put them on my keychain where they would just take up space. So if you didn't know, they're available for a lot less now. I used the site that I linked to earlier, but there are multiple sources.