The Compact Secure 2x4 Bar Holder

How big is the lost key problem? Just search on google for “keep from losing keys” and google will tell you that phrase has 62,000,000 results.

In case you are wondering, 62,000,000 is a really big number. It tells me that the lost key is a big problem. I’m betting that every day all the time consumed by finding lost keys would be millions of hours. Every day.

The “ad space” on google is crowded with people buying the “lost key” keyword. Most of these advertisements are for the electronic key tiles or a retractable keychain.

The Big Takeaway for Lost Keys – Put them in the same place

One of the top blog articles on the interwebs says as their number one suggestion to prevent a lost key is to “Put Them In the Same Spot“. MOST people have incredibly cluttered countertops making this very hard for many people. But truly, this is the BEST suggestion. The simple product discussed later in this article will aim to follow this suggestion. Suggestion #6 by A-1 Locksmith does say to “get your crap together” .

Bob Vila over at BobVila.com waits until slide #4 to tell you to “Have a Place for Everything“. I think that is great advice to help you avoid a lost key. Even if you don’t have a place for everything, everything WILL eventually find a place – a hidden dark out of site place.

Over at Raven Gadgets, their #2 and #3 suggestions are to “Stay Organized” and “Put Things Back To Where They Belong”. I couldn’t agree more.

So, the number 1 issue at my house has ALWAYS been “counterspace”. Even the act of buying an organizer of any type consumes counter space and creates its own organizational issues.

If you are going to leave your keys in the same spot every day, you will be battling the counter space problem.

Unless there is a better way. A great way would be to hang your keys on a peg on a wall. You can hang keys on a wall mounted rack. There are countless wall mounted key organizers on Amazon. These are great, but they take of wall space. WORSE they require you to put tape, nails. screws, or holes into your wall. What if you change your mind?

Solving the Lost Key problem with special Light Switch Cover

This is where the clever slip-under light switch cover keychain holder solves most of these problems. Using the space directly under your light switches lets you have a very unique place for your keys.

These light switch cover organization hooks have a number of great advantages:

• No drilled holes
• It is located right by your light switches – which is the very place most convenient when leaving/arriving at your house
• It does not require any counter space

Light Switch Cover Keychain Holders Are Easy to Install

The beauty of the the Light Switch Cover Keychain Holder is that it is very easy to install.

Here are the steps:

• (before ordering – make sure you know the width/size of your current light switch cover)
• Remove the light switch cover
• place the light switch cover keychain holder where the light switch cover was.
• press the light switch cover gently again the keychain holder so that the ridge keeps the two pieces together.
• put the screws back in – don’t over tighten or you will break your cover
• There may be a slight gap at the light switch. That won’t hurt a thing.
• Now the best step – hang your keys on the hooks!

One user wrote me and 100% “gets” the idea that the SINGLE best place to have a flashlight is right at your lightswitch that is by every single door in the United States. I’d bet that most all other countries where electric power is common have lightswitches at the doors to their houses. Even most businesses do this too.

It makes 100% sense. First thing you do when entering a house in all but the brightest daylight is to turn on a light switch so you can see what you are doing. Last thing you do when leaving a house is to turn off the lights.

Now if you hear something outside and its dark – you generally go to a window with the lights out to investigate *OR* you go to your door and look outside. When its dark you want a really good flashlight.

Therefore, the BEST place to have a flashlight is ON THE LIGHTSWITCH.

That is why I invented the Gearlight S1000 (my flashlight choice) Tactical Flashlight Holder Lightswitch Plate.

Gearlight S1000 Mini Review: This flashlight is small and mighty. It has a very bright LED with a telescoping barrel which allows you to focus the light like a laser or to make the light broad to flood an area. It is small and lightweight so good for children all the way to elderly. It has several different settings, which I find a bit tiresome. I would prefer a simple on/off. It takes three AAA batteries and it isn’t too difficult to change batteries. You can fit a specialty rechargeable battery, but I’ve never done that. It is a good flashlight and not very expensive. One more thing it is made of aluminum (I think) which is one more positive attribute. (As of this writing Amazon has 40,356 ratings at 4.7 stars with only 20% 1-star ratings. Anything less than 5% on 1-star is a very good product once there are over 100-200 ratings)

So the user asked me… “Can you make this in off-white – almond to be exact?” I said all I had was bright white and all my plastics I order from a person in Houston. So I said – here is my friend in Houston’s web site of color choices – If you find some plastic color that you like, I’ll order a roll. Of course I didn’t tell her I’d lose my shirt on this deal, but I often don’t care because I just want to be a positive force for good. Silly. I know.

She picked off-white and I ordered a roll. She was OK with waiting an extra week.

After receiving the plastic, I manufactured a unit for her in off-white. I wasn’t over the moon with the off-white – it was more of a translucent white but I packaged it up and sent it to this very kind customer.

You can imagine my surprise when she sent me back a picture of her usage of the single gang keychain holder for her tactical flashlight holder. This was so nice that while I’m a grown man I almost came to tears. People are so mean on the internet and when you invent products, they are your baby. So when people are nice and say nice things it has an ultra powerful impact.

One Texas customer wrote me and asked “Could you drill a hole into the cubicle wall TV/Monitor mounts“.

I said sure. Of course I asked him “what are you doing?” And he told me he was making his own patio bar and my brackets were perfect except they lacked a hole he needed.

Here are his results which were amazing:

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First, the BonsenKitchen Handheld frother does fit my holder. Here is a picture of the frother in my holder:

Of all the frothers we’ve used so far (Zulay, Elementi, MilkPro) this one is the most powerful. We bought this one because the Elementi wore out. It seems like if you use these every day – which we do – they last about 6 months.

The button presses easy and the frother will “froth yo mamma”. Be prepared to spin the substance out of the cup. I have to keep from holding the button so it never gets too fast.

But so far, we like this frother the best.

Our Elementi Milk Frother gave up the ghost. So I thought I would take it apart and show you the internal construction.

Here are some key “noticings” (my new word) about the Elementi:

• Frother whisk is connected direct drive to the motor
• The top mounted button simply depresses some spring steel to make the electrical contact
• Only two screws hold it together
• It is an amazingly simple design, which is good – Occam’s razor, right?
• Not shown here is the table top stand which always has this handy unit in the way taking up counterspace.
• Consider instead, the amazing handheld frother mounting holder for cabinets from this site.

A reader wrote “I just can’t figure out how this things works. I’m pretty bad mechanically and need all the help I can get. If you can point me in the right direction I’d greatly appreciate it”.

Same with me fellow reader! I’m an electrical engineer not a mechanical!

I’m assuming you are talking about my locking kit more than anything. I think if I pass along a couple of really high level ideas in this post, you’ll have that aha-moment.

First, to really simplify the discussion, forget about locking at all.

If you put a CLOSED 2×4 bar holder on EACH side of your doors on the frame of the shed, you can slide a 2×4 into those bar holders and your doors will both stay shut nicely.

The only problem is that it is WAY TOO EASY to slide out the bar by bad actors.

So… all you have to do is keep the bar from sliding.

This is the trick…

Take ONE of the bar holders with the locking tab and from the back, fasten it to the BAR. You should do this so that you can slide the bar into the loops and the locking tab on the BAR matches up to the locking tab closed bar holder you put on the door frame.

Then on the OPEN bar holder included in the kit, you can decide if you want to use it or not. I use it to simply prop up the 2×4 bar so it doesn’t fall down when I open the shed door.

This question came in from the securebarholder mail bag.

The reader wrote “couldn’t the thieves just cut the 2 x 4, and they’re in?”.

Absolutely they could. Security is a funny thing. It is best thought of in terms of margin costs and marginal benefits.

https://overheadwatch.com/marginal-benefits-and-marginal-cost/

So, before I invented my bar holder kit for my own shed, all a bad person would have to do is to bring a crow-bar.

So for the cost of a crow-bar and maybe 10 seconds, they could get into my shed.

After my bar holder kit, they have to up their game and bring a saw. I use a hard cedar 2×4 so unless they bring an electric it is going to be hard going.

I’ve had some people say “use a steel 2×4”.

But my shed is made of wood. Bad guys can can bring a saws-all and go through my wall or door anyway. So no point in protecting the shed with a kit that goes beyond the shed’s capability anyway.

I would say the MAIN uses of the 2×4 secure bar holder kit – or the plan 2×4 bar holders are:

• Forgetting about the locking tabs, people use the open, closed, end caps, etc for:
• Bar Holder inside their houses for front door or bedroom. Many people call these door security bar brackets
• Trailer keepers – you use these to put 2×4 in to make your flatbed trailer have sides
• Removable stair hand rail holders
• I had one guy tell me his use was “secret”. 
  

Anyway, hope this helps. Great question!
Cheers,Marlan

You can use the 2×4 secure open top black bar holder as part of creating a rustic wooden door.

Check out what this customer did…