5 Tools And Gadgets You'll Want For Your Keychain

When you leave the house and are on the move, you usually can only take the most essential items with you. Some things are quite obvious, such as your wallet (with cash, credit cards, and identification, ideally), your mobile phone, and your keys. However, what happens when you run into a situation that requires the use of a tool?

While those with their own vehicle can certainly keep a portable toolbox handy for emergencies, having smaller useful gadgets that can fit in your bag or even your pocket may be more beneficial for the everyday individual. This is especially true for those who are easily overwhelmed with complicated gizmos or people who prefer to travel light. The good news is keychain tools exist, and a lot of them offer more than one function.

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Amazon has a wide range of multi-use tools that you can bring with you wherever you go and can be helpful in a number of scenarios. For instance, having the right mutitool for hiking or camping can assist in important tasks, such as cutting ropes, opening cans, or making simple repairs or adjustments to your equipment. It's also great to have access to one around the house for times you need to open packages, consolidate boxes for recycling, tighten screws on furniture, or simply pop a bottle cap open.

To help you get started on arming your keychain with must-have tools and tiny gadgetry, below are a couple of products we've tried out and loved.

What better way to start a keychain roundup with a tool that's literally key-shaped? Apart from making it unobtrusive and ensuring that it fits your pocket along with the rest of your keys, it's a simple enough gadget for almost anyone to use. It's a bit bigger and thicker than a standard key and upon first glance it doesn't look like much, but there's actually 16 separate functions built into it.

The Geekey Multi-tool — which is priced at $20 on Amazon to date — is easily a box cutter, bottle opener, lid pryer, bit driver, and ruler, for starters. It has serrated edges that make it easy to cut through thin rope or plastic. You can also use it as an open or closed wrench, or as a wire bender or stripper if needed.

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Unlike other Swiss Army knife-type tools, the Geekey Multi-tool is TSA-approved and can be brought on an airplane in your carry-on luggage. You can basically forget that you even have it, but when you need it, you'll be thankful that you have it at your disposal. If you've never had a tool keychain before, this would be a good pick to start your collection off with.

If you're more of the outdoorsy type, you might like the carabiner style of the Nite Ize DoohicKey. Compared to the Geekey Multi-tool, this keychain is thinner and lighter and, quite frankly, easier to attach to a set of keys. It's got a groove to open bottles, a ruler side, and two pointed edges that can cut up boxes or be utilized as a flathead screwdriver — the latter function in particular makes it the perfect handy tool for any sport or activity that requires some gear tightening, such as cycling, camping, or even simple home maintenance. The carabiner opening acts as a wrench that comes in three sizes.

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While it has fewer listed functionalities, there's a lot to love about the Nite Ize DoohicKey. Apart from its apparent lightness, its easy-push locking mechanism makes it easy to attach and reattach the keychain to your keys, your bag, or your belt loop. The best thing about it? It'll currently only cost you $7 on Amazon.

The BeTIM Snowflake as a basic keychain is decorative, fun to look at, and easy to use and attach to things, thanks to the keyring it comes with. As an everyday carry tool, however, it certainly packs in a lot. At the center is a 14 millimeter wrench, and if you need other sizes, there are other wrenches ranging between 5 and 13 millimeters as well.

There are also two sizes of Allen wrenches, as well as two Phillips-head screwdrivers. To round up the collection, you can also use the steel snowflake to open a bottle or cut up a box.

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Given the majority of its functionality, this multitool would be ideal for someone who has a potential need for different sizes of wrenches, such as a cyclist, handyman, mechanic, or car enthusiast, to name a few. Although it's bigger than the previously mentioned gadgets, it's the cheapest option on this list at only $6 on Amazon at the time of writing. In addition, it should also be TSA compliant, in case you need to hop on a plane to get to your next outdoor adventure.

Although a flashlight is a single-function tool and may seem not as cool as the other contenders on this list, it's undoubtedly one of the most useful things you ought to have with you at all times. Granted, you already have a built-in flashlight on your mobile phone, but you can get a keychain flashlight that's not only brighter but easier to wield.

The Blukar Flashlight gives you the option of cycling through four light modes — high beam, low beam, strobe light, and SOS — as well as adjusting the zoom of the beam for spot or floodlighting. It's also rechargeable via a USB-C cable and supposedly consumes minimal power, considering that it's armed with LED lights that can get as bright as 2,000 lumens.

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It's worth noting that compared to the other items mentioned in this piece, the Blukar Flashlight is probably the biggest keychain we've recommended in terms of size, but it's still small enough to fit in a purse or bag. It's also pretty lightweight and is made of durable aluminum alloy, making it the perfect tool to bring for outdoor excursions. It's currently popular and well-rated on Amazon, where you can purchase it for only $11.

We'd be remiss not to include the Gerber Dime as a must-have item for your keychain, as it frequently tops not only Amazon's Best Sellers list for the multitool category. It is also mentioned in best-of lists published by the likes of Popular Mechanics, HiConsumption, and GearMoose, among others.

The Gerber Dime comes with several distinct functions. Everyday users can take advantage of its bottle opener, package opener, fine and coarse files, tweezers, and scissors for daily tasks around the house and outside as well. In terms of tools, you have small and medium flat head drivers, a wire cutter, and pliers that are spring-loaded. It's also nice and compact and can easily fit in your pocket. It has a lanyard ring that lets you attach it to a keychain and other items easily.

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Given the nature of some of its tool attachments, the Gerber Dime is reportedly not TSA approved, so you'll have to leave it behind or place it in a checked bag. Having said that, it's a useful gadget for outdoor enthusiasts to have. It's quite pricey compared to our other recommendations — it's between $24-29 on Amazon, depending on which color you pick — but based on experience, it has the most well-rounded collection of features among the multitools we've tested for this article.