Blog about crap you can buy for $5

I try not to buy cheap junk that clutters my house, because my kids already take care of that job. But I enjoy looking at the stuff that Cliff finds on his website, Five $ Finds.

This Hide-a-Key Fake Sprinker Head looks pretty useful, actually!

Five $ Finds

• [TWX]

  So, keys are usually brass or aluminum, right?  Why use a fake sprinkler head?  If a real sprinkler head has room inside, just put them downstream of the screen so that they can’t fall into the pipe, and then there’s not even a fake sprinkler head that might be seen.

  The fake one might also be detected because no water is flowing from that head.  Even a real sprinkler head with no water supply could have that problem.

  • [Conspirator]

    Interesting idea.  I think that could work considering some of the sprinkler heads I have.  However the downside to this idea is the trouble you have to go to in order to get the keys.  Unless the sprinkler head is in a part of the yard where you can’t be observed, people will notice you monkeying with it, then going in your house. Having unscrewed a couple of those recently I can tell you it takes a few minutes, especially when it is partially buried.  

    Personally I think the rocks made for hiding keys are probably better.  Putting them in an out of sight location is easy enough, and they can be quickly retrieved.  

    For myself I find the keypad with the garage door opener works great.  Only a problem if the power goes out.  And I think it’s unlikely I’ll be locked out at the same time there is a power outage.  

    • [novium]

      The thing to do would be to mix this sprinkler head in with a bunch of other yard junk-you-can’t-throw-away in a box or something. A real sprinkler head, a broken hose attachment, a small dead plant, an old dirty key to some forgotten car, one gardening glove, a PVC pipe connector thingy, etc etc.

      • [mccrum]

        Because I’m the type of person who can’t keep track of my own house keys I’ll be able to find my other keys hidden inside all the junk I’m keeping?  Your idea is more clever than putting the head in the yard but could lead to more keys scattered throughout the garage.  :)

      • [TWX]

         I don’t really have any junk on the front side of my house.  My wife restricts me to the area behind and beside the detached garage and a little bit on the other side yard.  All of the yard stuff is in a locked shed.  The front of the house is entirely “finished”, in that essentially it just gets mowed and the plants cut back occasionally.

    • [TWX]

       The keypad I have, for Genie, seems to like to occasionally go wonko and not work.  I have two doors that it’s supposed to control and it’ll randomly stop working.  It’s happened twice now.  Granted, the doors are both Series I Intellicode (actually one’s pre-Intellicode with a Series I Intellicode receiver) and I suppose that since these openers are more meant for Series II Intellicode that I’ll just have to bite the bullet and purchase the Series II receivers and program the doors.  Then I’ll have to change remotes in the cars too, as suddenly those will be wrong.

      It’s only money.  Which explains why I haven’t done it yet.

    • [penguinchris]

      My parents have a keypad lock on the front door (replacing the regular deadbolt lock). It runs on batteries (and presumably has a warning for when the batteries are low), avoiding the power outage problem. 

      • [GTMoogle]

        The ones I’ve seen have terminals for touching a 9v battery to to power them in case of dead batteries.

• [Stefan Jones]

  There’s a chain — mostly East Coast — called “Five Below” that sells a fascinating variety of stuff for . . . $5 and below. Some of it is really useful; I got a no-name-brand iPad sleeve there.

• [wrwetzel]

  Your kids clutter your house? Such an unkind thing to say.

  • [lesmanalim]

    Perhaps more of a Catholic thing to say.

• [tylerkaraszewski]

  There are like 9,000 places around your front yard that you could hide a key that a potential burglar would never look, I don’t see why anyone would pay money for a dedicated hide-a-key box.

  These don’t need to be sophisticated hiding places. Put your key under the law mower gas in the toolshed. Nobody will ever try looking for it there.

  • [PeterHL]

     But where do I put the key to the tool shed ?

  • [Andrew Song]

    a burglar wouldn’t bother with a key, they would just smash down your door.

• [Blake St. John]

  These probably aren’t all that great for keys, but what they do make is a very good geocache container. Drives ‘em crazy (please do not place geocaches on private property, look for a park with similar heads, or outside an apartment building.)

  • [SaintDepravicus Epicurious]

     I’m thinking of using one of these for a geocache out in the Mojave. A totally out of place thing in the middle of the desert invisible to the average muggle, but would stick out to a geocacher.

    • [Blake St. John]

       That makes me think of that Louis Vuitton or Gucchi or whatever storefront art piece that was opened in the desert.

• [terrycarroll]

  I keep an extra key on a hook right next to my front door. But it isn’t for my lock; it opens my next door neighbor’s house. I keep my key in his sock drawer, in the spare change cup, next to his pot stash. He also usually has some I.P.A. in the fridge. I would keep it in a fake lawn sprinkler, but I don’t have a lawn.

  • [mccrum]

     This sounds like you just talked to your neighbor and had them stash a spare key somewhere.  Infinitely more social than secreting one in your yard from everyone so you can run inside faster and avoid talking about the weather…

• [terrycarroll]

  I used “stash” as a noun, you used it as a verb.