Fun/educational/useful magnet sets for a family noticeboard.
June 26, 2017 7:34 AM   Subscribe

We have a new,large (4 x 3ft) magnetic whiteboard in our kitchen. I have found poetry, tetris, butterfly themed magnet sets online. What magnets/sets are on your whiteboard/fridge that are fun, useful, educational or beautiful?
posted by therubettes to Home & Garden (7 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Albert Einstein magnetic dress up doll.
posted by fourpotatoes at 7:39 AM on June 26, 2017


I made magnets out of old foreign coins that I collected over the years. Ordered a bunch of small magnets on eBay (careful with them around kids). That was like $3. And then I used super-strong glue to glue them to the backs of the coins. (Took me a while to find the right glue — for the first batch, we got used to the sound of coins falling off their magnets onto the floor.)

It's all sorted now, though, and they look awesome. So much better than having the coins sit in a drawer or a jar.
posted by veggieboy at 7:51 AM on June 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I have a magnetic bottle opener, several magnetic bag clips, and a magnet with a baking conversion table on it (how many teaspoons in a tablespoon, how many tablespoons in 1/4 cup, etc).
posted by Autumnheart at 8:16 AM on June 26, 2017


We buy magnets as souvenirs and they prompt a lot of "remember when" conversations. My kids love this.

Also, I use magnetic clips to keep important but trivial papers. Like handy person contact info, coupons, pictures etc. Stuff I don't need on hand but easy to find when needed.


The Lee valley super magnets are the best
posted by Ftsqg at 8:41 AM on June 26, 2017


My nephew took a bunch of the magnet business cards from the fridge and cut out words. Let it evolve over time. A few word sets, and let people find cool stuff to add. You can print pictures, glue to magnetic backing, and make family paper dolls. Then use whiteboard to add bubbles of text.
posted by theora55 at 8:43 AM on June 26, 2017


A lot of museums are now selling magnets with some of their major art works depicted on them. Pomegranate Press has a bunch also.

I like to emphasize things that have zero words on them (in fact, the front of my refrigerator is a word-free zone - photos, art, and little sculptural magnets only). There are already so many words in the world, having a respite from them, however small, is relaxing.

I also just discovered the world of making my own magnets with Sugru and random objects. First magnet: a smooth stone from a beach. I like it a lot.
posted by amtho at 8:47 AM on June 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


THE BEST:
The most useful magnet in a kitchen full of them is probably the one on the back of the small pad of paper that I got free in a swagbag. When I come home from the farmers' market, I write everything I bought on the paper. Also when I put leftovers away or take something out of the freezer to defrost. The list keeps it clear what went into the fridge when and what we need to eat first. This has saved much food from being forgotten and going bad.

THE REST:
Somebody got me a magnet set of a cat that you can dress up like a martial artist, a businessperson, or royalty. Another friend made me Carmen Miranda and Tupac magnets. Sometimes I put the crown or the fedora magnets from the dress-up cat on Carmen Miranda or Tupac, and sometimes I put them on my friends' heads in photographs. I have a small button with a space-alien head drawn by a local artisan that I use in congress with a magnet to cover the face of somebody I despise who is unfortunately sharing a fridge photo with my brother. The same friend who gave me the cat set also gave me some Shakespeare poetry magnets. I lost all of them except for the sentence, "Compare women to Romans; we make much better stuff." I have magnetic teaspoons and tablespoons. I ran out of space in the knife block for my nineteenthousand paring knives and my kitchen is idiotic, with no room for a knife magnet (hence the knife block, which I hate), so I threw a bunch of hefty harbor freight magnets on the fridge and stuck the paring knives to them. I use magnetized hooks to hang up plastic grocery bags full of other plastic grocery bags. All this looks as messy as you're imagining, but my kitchen is hopeless anyway because it has cheesy eighties everything everywhere, so I figure save beauty and elegance for other rooms and go for practicality in the kitchen.
posted by Don Pepino at 11:00 AM on June 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


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