Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Virtually every tip lists or must pack lists I’ve read for cruising says to bring magnets. In case you didn’t know the walls of cruise ship cabins are made of steel and therefore are magnetic. Bringing magnet clips and hooks allows you to greatly expand storage options in your state room.

Before I get into the meat of this post I have to share pictures of the beautiful space I’m working in today.

This is the upper level of the two deck explorers lounge located at the very front of the ship. The room has floor to ceiling windows offering an incredible view of the open ocean. This is an amazing place to watch for ocean wild life and to enjoy scenic cruising; this is where we spent most of the day when we transited the Panama Canal.

Back to magnets. Magnets are an absolute must on a cruise ship. They really allow you to organize more efficiently. All of the magnets I’m about to show you were purchased on Amazon. To find them try searching for “magnetic hooks”, “magnetic clips”, or “magnetic hangers”. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. We use five different types of magnets.

We have two different light weight magnetic hooks. The darker hook on the left is rated for 100lbs and the silver hook below is rated for 25 lbs. Not sure I believe either of the ratings. However, both are strong magnets and are great for hanging hats, jackets and other small articles of clothing. The other thing we like about both of these magnets is the hooks are removable, so they can also be used to hang signs, schedules etc.

Here are examples of how we are using these small hooks in our state room:

We also have two different “clip” type magnets that you can see above. The large clip holding the calendar is rated to hold 130 sheets of paper while the smaller clip that has the white fabric bag attached to it is rated for 25 sheets of paper. I have no idea what either of those ratings translate to in weight. The sunglasses are hanging from a small silver hook.

In addition to these we have a large, heavy weight magnet rated for 65 pounds. I haven’t tested the capacity, but I think it may actually hold that much weight. We will use these magnets to hang jackets when we get into a climate where we will need them. For now, we use them to hang or day packs and other heavy items.

If you’ve been following our list of “Pro-Hacks and Lessons Learned” you’ll see that we recommend using ladder hangers. We have two types of ladder hangers that we use. The first are like the one shown here with clamps. This type is great for shorts and skirts. The other type is with straight horizontal pieces without clamps used to hang trousers. Using these types of hangers allows us to store four items in the same place that a single hanger would normally take.