My collection of fridge magnets

Several years ago, I started collecting fridge magnets. From all the places I visited.

The rules

I decided to have some rules to not buy just any random magnet:

The story

In 2011, I was in Orlando, Florida, USA, and had no idea what to buy as a souvenir for my wife. She got a fridge magnet with “Someone went to Florida and all I got was this lousy magnet” written on it.

Some time later, I started buying fridge magnets for myself.

Soon there were tens of them. I was arranging them chronologically — by the time I visited each place. But one day, space was gone, so I reordered them and gained two empty rows.

In the meantime I got a few magnets from places I have not visited yet. They all ended up on the side of the fridge, as the freezer door was already occupied by my daughter and her collection of miscellaneous magnets.

Then I passed one hundred. And the space ended. Several magnets landed on a side of the fridge.

Magnetic board

That’s when I started looking at buying a magnetic board. This is how it looks today (a bit organised at the top, chaotic at the bottom):

magnetic board with magnets
magnetic board with magnets

It was not the best option as such boards are made from thin metal, so heavier magnets required adding neodymium magnets to prevent them from falling apart.


The map

Below is the map that I use to keep track of my collection. Local names are used. For names in non-Latin alphabets also Latin version is provided.

Short legend: