Garbage can lid holder

I built a shelter for our garbage cans, so snow can't pile up on them in the winter, which makes them hard to open.

Often, you arrive at the garbage cans with both hands full of garbage bags and it's hard to keep the cans open to throw the bags in.

Under the beam of the shelter I attached an old metal strip as counterpart for the magnets. Now, you can just lift the lid and the magnet snaps onto the metal and keeps it open.

The magnet attaches pretty well to the metal strip, but since the garbage can comes in and out of the shelter often, a flattened steel bar might work even better. This way, the can wouldn't have to be placed exactly under the thin metal strip.

The whole thing is really practical and I am happy about it every time I take out the trash.

Note: That's what the magnets look like after a year of outdoor use. It would be better to seal them with a shock-resistant varnish before you screw them on.

Note from the supermagnete team: Officially, we discourage using neodymium magnets outdoors, because it damages them. See Oxidation, corrosion, rust. You'll have to replace the pot magnets periodically.

As an alternative you will find some pot magnets made of ferrite linked below, which are completely waterproof, but have a lower holding force.