Too many of us are too busy to be bothered by life’s trivialities. When the world is moving at a breakneck speed, you don’t really have time to worry about things like paying bills, washing yourself or finding your keys (but seriously, you should take care of those bills). They gobble up those precious minutes you could be dismantling something or designing your next project.
Jan Van Look, the self-taught craftsman behind Belgian design and maker studio Kabinet Van Look, had the same problem: finding his keys every morning. Instead of investing in a good key hanger, Jan did what any craftsman would do: he made one himself.
Traktor is as simple a design as it gets. 1) a block of wood with 2) a magnet and 3) attached to any surface. It, of course, holds magnetic objects and could likely be modded any number of ways – it is a block of wood after all. Here are some things it can hold:
It holds your keys – so you can stop complaining about losing them to their housemates (thereby saving relationships).
It holds clothes hangers upright – if you use hangers with a metal hook and you only have one shirt.
It even holds knives! Which actually looks a bit cool although I would think twice before have knife rack throughout the house. However, a wall block where you can just throw your magnetic junk seems like a fun way to stay organized.
The design is so simple that even a child could make this with a hammer drill and large wood-boring bit (and perhaps a bit of adult supervision). In fact, there are a ton of projects on instrucatables.com which do the exact same things the Traktor can.
There is this do-it-yourself knife block which is made from old computer hard drives. There are these wooden modular magnetic organizers which hold all kinds of knickknacks in upright blocks. The difference between these projects and the Traktor is that you can make these with materials you find at home at a fraction of the cost. Considering the Traktor’s retail price, which is about $70 per block (?), you might want to invest a little time to just make one yourself.
Be that as it may, Traktor has accumulated nearly all of its €25,000 ($29,000) Kickstarter goal. So two lessons. 1) Maybe that Kickstarter project you’re scheming doesn’t need to be as complicated as you’re thinking and 2) people like the novelty of magnetic wood blocks. For those who don’t have the time to make their own magnetic wall fixture, you can see more of the ins and outs on the Traktor Kickstarter page.
