Magnetic Mini Blinds … Not As Handy As I Thought!
May 26 2011
Magnetic mini blinds was my easy answer last year … until I learned an expensive lesson.
I own a furniture outlet store, and due to what can only be described as a “lousy” economy, business has slowed down. I have not sold near the furniture I ordered last year, so I have a lot of overstock. So much, in fact, that I had to rent a warehouse near my shop to store it in. I would invite the public to come browse and make purchases at an incredible discount.
I found the perfect building, just the right size, and the location I needed. It was an all-metal building; nothing fancy, but certainly adequate for storage. There was, however, one small setback. The building had twenty-two windows, and no window coverings. I had to have something, as I was trying to keep the place cool, and I wasn’t really thrilled with potential “bad guys” looking into the shop at night.
Because this was a rental, and I really didn’t want to put much effort into the installation of curtains or shutters, I decided to go with magnetic custom window blinds. The concept seemed so simple; you just purchase them, stick them up to the metal surface and there you have it … instant window coverings. I thought this was a stroke of genius, but man, was I wrong!
The night before the opening arrived. The building was cleaned and the blinds were installed. I might mention that I have a cat, which I allow to roam the warehouse in search for any vermin that may want to make a home there. As I arrived the next morning, I saw that all twenty-two of my blinds, which were so easy to install, were lying on the ground, some of them with bent slats. I was baffled as to how they came to rest on the floor throughout the night, as the magnets seemed stronger than that! I hurriedly started putting them back up before I opened the doors for business, and they started to fall behind me … only now I saw how it was happening. My stupid cat was lunging at the dangling draw cords, catching them in its paws, effortlessly bringing down the magnetic blinds.
Once the cords were adjusted to prevent the cat from destroying all of my magnetic blinds, I opened up the shop. I was amazed, that one hour into my opening, I heard the awful sound of a set of blinds falling to the ground. I went to the window from whence came the sound, and found a child, rubbing his head, upon which the blinds had fallen. He had decided to play with the cord that I had just tied up an hour ago.
Long story short, I decided that magnetic blinds were not the way to go, and ended up taking them all back to the large warehouse store in which I made the purchase. Thankfully, I got my money back on the ones that weren’t damaged. I had to eat the cost of the others.
I searched on the Internet for reasonably priced mini blinds, and found a great deal at Blinds Chalet (www.blindschalet.com). I even got a substantial discount and free shipping. Turns out, they were incredibly easy to install, much less expensive than the magnetic blinds, and they actually stayed up … even with the cat’s blind crashing abilities!
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