Like every kid who never grew up, I love magnets. The magnet kings, of course, are “rare-earth” magnets. Their proper name is neodymium, or NdFeB magnets. No idea what that stuff is. Probably because it’s rare.

But boy are they useful. They hold tools, jigs, bits and just about anything else solidly to any ferrous surface. I even use small ones for detail clamping — one magnet on each side — in hard-to-reach spots.

The only problem with these things is their very asset: They are so strong that they’re not only difficult to get apart when stuck together, but fumble while prying them apart and you’ll get a painful pinch when they snap back together.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a shop tip blog, so take a look at that photo above. While using these magnets, after having pried some apart I needed to set them somewhere they wouldn’t immediately go flying to the nearest steel surface. So, on a whim I stuck one to the front of a hardware bin.

It was so simple I was dumbfounded. They stick solidly despite thick plastic, but that thickness does diminish their pull a bit and they’re easy to peel right off when you need them. Don’t know why I never thought of this before. You can only do one magnet per bin (they’d be close enough to each other that they immediately snap together), but I have a lot of bins.

As a bonus, they pull the bin contents to the front. That can be handy when the bin gets low – you don’t have to fish around to grab a screw or whatever, as they’re stuck to the inside front of the bin. Fun and useful; a great combination.