Repurpose Those Clips On Plastic Hangers Into A Handy Household Gadget

Anyone who buys clothes in large all-purpose stores like Walmart and Target no doubt comes home with a lot of plastic hangers. Unfortunately, these plastic hangers can't be recycled through your standard local curbside pickup, so they frequently wind up in the trash. As we collectively look for ways to reduce the items that wind up in landslides, reusing and repurposing items that can't be recycled become invaluable skills.

What makes these hangers such a great item to repurpose is that they often come free with the purchase of your clothing items, as the checkout person usually fails to remove them for reuse in the store. If you're not intending to use the hanger in your home — either because the clothing will be folded in a drawer or because you already have hangers you prefer in your closet — it only makes sense to find a different use for them rather than throwing them away.

One way to repurpose an item is to break it down into its various parts, which is of particular use in the case of the clip hangers most often used for shorts, skirts, and similar items. By cutting the clips off the hanger itself, they can be used in dozens of different applications around your home.

If you have a surplus of plastic hangers in your house, you might be looking for ways to reuse them. If they are the types of hangers with clothing clips, you can remove those clips from the rest of the hangers and repurpose them in your home.

To do this, all you'll need is a heavy-duty pair of tin snips or pruning shears, available in any home improvement store. When working with any cutting tool, it is vital that you wear protective eye gear so that no stray pieces that happen to fly toward your face will injure your eyesight. Once you've covered your eyes, carefully take your snips or shears in hand and firmly clamp down on the plastic hanger, just to the inside of the clip, making sure to remove it fully intact.

Whether you remove two or two dozen, you can find numerous different ways to reuse them around your home, either in their original clip form or slightly modified using craft items.

The clips removed from plastic hangers can be used in your backyard shed, clamping closed small items like seed packets or large items like mulch bags. They can also be used in your home office or at your computer to clip together notes or important papers that need to be addressed as a group, such as bills all coming due in the next month. With a small craft magnet and some glue, you can even make the clips magnetic to store items on your fridge or a file cabinet for easy reference.

There are an infinite number of ways to use basic clips around the house, but there are also quite a few creative ways to employ them. One option is to thread a piece of twine, fishing line, or photo wire through the clip mechanism on six or more of the clips, then hang these strung-together pieces on your wall as a photo or art display. It's an original way to showcase photos of family and friends as an interesting statement piece. You can also easily interchange different images as your preferences change. If you want, you can paint the clips with vibrant spray paint, too. 

Whatever application you decide on, these plastic clips are incredibly versatile and can provide a lot more functionality around your house than they would in their original form on hangers.