Toys and Gadgets on the Fridge

One of the occupational hazards of being a designer is that you're always on the lookout for new designs, everywhere. Which means you are more likely to run into cool things that you just need to have. You know, to remind you of how clever a design is. So I have one of these hanging on the fridge. As it turned out, I needed a bottle-opener anyway (yeah, it’s easier to justify if the nicely-designed piece serves a purpose that you so happened to need). Another occupational hazard .. is that designers tend to look at things and imagine ways that they could be better. Couldn’t the bottle-opener have had a magnet in the outer band so the thing would stay up on the fridge all on its own? [sigh] And, I just wish that the outer band was something softer, more grippy, instead of hard plastic. Then it would have the OXO thing going on, and that would be even better!
And, no, we’re not talking the ‘hugs and kisses’ variety of ‘OXO’, at least not in this case.


I found these little metal containers with clear inserts in their lids that have magnets on the bottom. So you can put stuff in ‘em and stick ‘em up. Seems like a good idea, huh? So, when I want to get some of the stuff in the container out, I pull the container off the fridge so I can hold it better to pry off the cap… and, Ooops, there go all the take-out menus! Maybe I should get more magnets that function just as magnets, so I can relieve the metal containers from having to do double-duty, huh?



The BusyBodies shop at Cafepress.com has all these little stick figure dudes, of all sorts of occupations, celebrations, emotions, printed on shirts, mugs, bags, mouse pads, buttons and, hey!, magnets. Me? I draw!







And of course, I could have the little kid alphabet magnets or Magnetic Poetry. Those are amusing, but they take up too much space, and take a little too much time to get to where it’s really entertaining. The longest I’ll stand gazing at the stuff on the fridge is about the length of time it takes to get ice and water from the in-door dispenser. If I had space to spare, though, the toy that I’d really like to have is/are Frigits. Now that’s fun! :)