CindyRetailers, dry cleaners, and hospitality locations toss billions of hangers annually. And chances are, if you get your clothes dry cleaned, you’ve got a decent stockpile of them too! While some scrap metal places will recycle wire hangers, others won’t and getting rid of them is not as simple as putting them in your curbside recycling bin.
To save you trying to locate a recycling plant, or returning them to your dry cleaners for re-use, we’ve come up with 20 ways you can recycle wire hangers in your home and garden.
Have fun and get crafty while doing your part for the environment!
How to Recycle Wire Hangers
There are so many creative ways to recycle the wire clothes hangers in your home, here are a few of our favorites. We’ve broken this list down into household uses, garden uses and arts & crafts use to make it even easier to recycle your wire hangers.
Household Uses for Wire Hangers
#1 Fishing the keys out of a locked car – If you’ve locked the keys in the car with the window slightly open you can use the hanger to fish them off the seat and bring them through the window.
#2 Unclogging drains – Wire hangers are great for unclogging drains, both toilet, and sink. You can go fishing around in the drain and try to remove the obstruction, without getting your hands dirty!
#3 Use them as arm/finger extensions – Keep some around the house for those emergency prodding and poking situations that require a sturdy bit of thin wire. For example, they’re handy for hooking things that are out of reach in cupboards to where you can grab them.
#4 For making hooks – Make S-shaped hooks using a wire cutter to cut the hanger and then pliers to create the shape.
#5 Hang your toilet roll – A recycled wire hanger makes an instant toilet paper hanger.
#6 Or your paper towels! – Bend your wire hanger into shape to use as a paper towel holder. Watch the below tutorial to see how easy this one is:
#7 Create a paint strainer frame – Pull the hanger into a roughly round shape and cover it with a pantyhose leg. Once used, you can wash the pantyhose thoroughly and keep the frame for another day.
#8 To reduce static cling in your clothing – Run a wire hanger between whatever you’re wearing and your skin. It works so well to get rid of any static!
Gardening Uses for Wire Clothes Hangers
#9 Make a plant hanger – Bend the hanger to make a cool looking plant hanger for a pot. See tutorial here by Johanna Rundel.
Image credit @ Johanna Rundel
#10 Make a garden trellis – If you have enough hangers, you could use them to make a trellis frame for climbing plants. Great for small or vertical gardens.
#11 Turn to trees into topiaries – Create simple topiary forms using those surplus wire hangers.
#12 Make a water-dowsing tool – Take two coat-hangers and bend into 90 degrees, making one “arm” twice as long as the other.
How to Recycle Wire Hangers for Arts and Crafts
#13 Frame your favorite artwork – Make picture easels and frames with leftover hangers.
#14 Make a giant bubble wand – Bend the hanger into a bubble wand. Pour bubble soap into an old ice cream lid or another large shallow dish, dip the wand in and have fun.
#15 Create a mobile for your baby – Hangers are great for making homemade mobiles to hang over babies’ beds.
#16 Make a net – Bend the hanger into a circle and stretch old pantyhose around it. Kids can take this to look for little fish and crabs in a stream, or to sift out seashells at the beach.
#17 Make Christmas decorations – Get ready for the next holiday using your old hangers. Bend them to make wreaths and then decorate them with leaves, cones, or other seasonally appropriate materials.
#18 A glue gun holder – Use your wire hanger as a holder for your hot glue gun or soldering iron. Bend the hanger in the middle through the handle and then fold up each corner into an M-shape.
#19 Turn them into personalized hangers – If you knit or crochet, you can use up those little bits of yarn you have and turn your boring wire hangers into padded and decorative ones.
#20 Make a photography tool – Turn a wire coat hanger and shower curtain into a photographer’s light diffuser. This works a treat and saves you cash.
As you can see, there are so many fun and creative ways to recycle wire hangers! And these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. If you have another way to recycle your clothes hangers, let me know in the comments below!
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