Unused clothes hangers - what happens to them?

February 9, 2004 11:23 AM

What do people do with their unused clothes hangers?
posted by jeremias to Home & Garden (18 answers total)

Yeah, metal ones I receive from the dry cleaners I return.
posted by geekyguy at 11:56 AM on February 9, 2004

Mine sit at the back of the closet waiting for more clothes - I only have 5 or so extra.
posted by rhapsodie at 12:01 PM on February 9, 2004

Mild steel welding rods.

Also marshmallow roasting devices.

Also armatures for sculptures.
posted by konolia at 12:20 PM on February 9, 2004

99 out of 100 return from whence they came (which, according to belief system and taste is either the dry cleaner or the sock that was lost from the dryer the day the hanger appeared in the closet) but 1 gets disassembled as its useful for cleaning certain pieces of glass/brassware. Ahem. *cough*
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:44 PM on February 9, 2004

I bet you could give them to Goodwill or some such place. They would either use them or recycle them.
posted by orange swan at 1:01 PM on February 9, 2004

I've used wire hangers as radio antennae. Some turn them into The Emperor's New Clothes.
posted by azul at 2:04 PM on February 9, 2004

I must be in the minority -- I throw them out with the trash, they hit the metal dumpster along with the food tins and empty beer/soda cans that are so nasty the homeless scorn them.
posted by cedar at 2:12 PM on February 9, 2004

Back alley abortions, mainly.
posted by yerfatma at 2:22 PM on February 9, 2004

I use them for hanging clothing to dry off of my heating pipes. I was going to throw them out, but then I saw my power bill and swore off the dryer.
posted by ODiV at 2:33 PM on February 9, 2004

I create delightful mobiles and distribute them in nursing homes.
posted by Slagman at 4:20 PM on February 9, 2004

People have extra clothes hangers? Such a state of being exists?

At all times, and no matter how many times I get new ones from the dry cleaner, I seem to have four less hangers than I have items of clothing to hang on them.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:16 PM on February 9, 2004

Bend them into shapes to deal with some crisis or other, usually.
posted by callmejay at 9:39 PM on February 9, 2004

jacquilynne: you know you can buy them, right? :) I think the going rate is more than you could ever use in your lifetime for $1.49.
posted by callmejay at 9:40 PM on February 9, 2004

It doesn't matter how many you buy, you will still have four less hangers than items of clothing that need hanging. Perhaps the socks know where they disappear to?
posted by dg at 10:27 PM on February 9, 2004

hot dog roasters.
posted by Katemonkey at 12:41 AM on February 10, 2004

I scatter them in parking lots....which is why when you lock your keys in your car, there always seems to be a hanger in the parking lot!
posted by Dagobert at 3:54 AM on February 10, 2004

I raise mine from paperclips and grow them into bicycles for commercial sale.
posted by bonehead at 6:07 AM on February 10, 2004

bonehead, I hope you're alluding rather than plagiarizing. I was going to express my surprise that nobody had mentioned Avram Davidson's great story "Or All the Seas with Oysters," unfortunately not online but summed up here:

...the assertion (found in "Or All the Seas with Oysters," that early and most plagiarized Davidson gem) that safety pins are the larval, and coat hangers the pupal, stage of bicycles...

It's a great story, and I urge everyone to find and read it.
posted by languagehat at 8:01 AM on February 10, 2004