The days of garage clutter may be coming to an end thanks to a Thousand Oaks father and son duo. Lutz Klooth and son Christoph invented and are marketing a storage platform as a way for homeowners to store items in the garage. The Auxx-Lift product consists of a platform to support stored items that lowers from the garage ceiling. According to the younger Lutz, the idea for the Auxx-Lift came from the personal experience of his father having difficulty getting Christmas decorations out of the garage. “My father is an engineer and came up with a better way of doing this,” Christoph Lutz said. The pair has already made about 200 of the units through their company, LFK Engineering. Sales have not yet begun. Lutz Klooth is the head engineer while his son handles marketing and sales. Marketing for the Auxx-Lift includes ads in home improvement publications, direct mail and the company’s Facebook page. The Klooths have an active KickStarter campaign to raise $25,000 to continue producing and promoting the platform. As of Nov. 9, a little more than $3,000 had been raised. The Auxx-Lift consists of a 4-foot-by-8-foot platform capable of holding 400 or 600 pounds, depending on the model. The platform is attached to support beams and is raised and lowered using two half-horsepower motors operated by a wireless remote. The storage platform height can be adjusted, unlike a stationary storage rack. The two models cost $989 or $1,189. It takes about two hours to manufacture one of the platform units, Christoph Klooth said. The unit comes pre-assembled for faster installation on the customer end. “Developing the Auxx-lift took two years,” he said. “We refined it and tried out different suppliers so that in terms of design, safety and performance it brings the customer maximum value.” Lutz Klooth, an electrical engineer with 40 years of experience in the research and development of electrical products, founded LFK in 2012. The Auxx-Lift is the company’s first product. – Mark R. Madler