What can I do with extra dry cleaner hangers?
Question:They say they don't want them back, but I hate throwing them away. Still, you only need so many marshmellow sticks...
Answers:
Donate them to Goodwill or Salvation army or use them to clean out lint from the dryer vent pipe, they are useful for broken antennas, nursing homes might even take them hold up a dragging muffler or exhaust pipe under their cars
Wire hangers can be put to good use
By Popular Mechanics, For The Associated Press
It may not be true that wire hangers reproduce in your clothes closet when the door is closed. But wire hangers do accumulate, get tangled, and clutter up the closet.
Now, here's good news: wire hangers can be recycled for many uses. Here are a few:
Painting
Bend the ends of a piece of wire hanger at a right angle and securely tape the ends to the side of a paint can with the middle section of wire running across the can opening. Use the wire instead of the rim of the can to tap the excess paint from your brush. The wire will keep the paint from getting into the lid groove and from dripping down the side.
To park your paintbrush during a break, twist a piece of wire hanger around the lower part of the handle with pliers and form a small hook by turning the ends of the wire downward. Then you can hang the brush on the edge of the can so that the bristles stay in the paint and don't dry out.
The hook on top of a wire hanger makes a great tool for squeezing excess paint from a roller. To shape the hanger into a cleaning tool, bend the "wings" of the hanger back with the middle pointing in so that they can be held together as a handle. Then starting at one end of the roller, pull the hanger hook down the length of the roller several times. Turn the roller slightly with each pass.
Storage
Make a rack on the back of a hall closet door to hold gloves and caps from a hanger and clothespins. Mount three screw eyes on the door. Straighten a wire hanger and feed it through the eyes, slipping it through the springs in two or three clip-on clothespins as you go. To secure the rack, bend the wire around the screw eyes at each end.
Finding a place to put a hot soldering iron so it won't roll away or damage something in your workshop can be tricky. One solution is to make a stand for your soldering iron out of a wire hanger. Bend the wings into an M-shape so that only the tips of the wings and the hook rest off the work surface. Then rest the tool in the "valley."
Use a wire hanger to speed drying of rubber boots and other footwear. Bend the hanger so that the bottom goes over the hook, forming two loops on either side. Slide the boots through the loops, sole side up. Hang the assembly over a hook or a nail.
Handy tools
You can make a handy tool from a wire coat hanger that will show you exactly where to mount your pictures. Cut a 10-inch piece of a wire from a hanger and file one end to a point. Using pliers, bend the pointed end at a right angle and form a finger-size loop at the other end. To use the tool, insert the pointed end under the picture wire or sawtooth hanger. Position the picture on the wall, holding it by the looped end of the tool, and gently push the point into the wall to mark the spot.
When running cable for a new electrical outlet, make fishing for the cable less frustrating. Tie a strong magnet to the end of the fishing line and lower it through an opening above the new outlet's location. Push a straightened coat hanger, with a hook at one end, through the hole. When the magnet locks on to the wire hanger, guide the magnet out through the hole
Good Luck !
Find out if you can use them for making antennas. If they would conduct electromagnetic frequencies well enough try to make a new type of antenna that would do something that no antenna currently does.
Good luck.
You can ask if they are needed at a nearby homeless shelter, a nursing home, or a day care/ senior day center.
A school or scout troop might welcome them for use in arts and crafts.
If you live in a major urban area like me, they are taken with metallic objects for recycling.
You can use them yourself for arts and crafts, they make great frames for papier mache projects.
make a Christmas tree out of them. You take two hangers and tape them together so that the hooks of one hanger are touching the other hanger. They both will make a point on the top. It takes 3 sets of these to make a 'tree' tape them so that they form a pyramid. With the points all touching the top. now cover this with garland, and lights and you have made a Christmas Tree
It would be nice if you donate them to Goodwill Stores or any other place like that.
you can give to you local salvation army or a place like that. they are always in need of these things. as well as plastic sacks. great way to recycle.
I know they really pile up I put mine together neatly by using twist ties then when I donate clothes to Good Will etc I put the hangers in the box..they might have too many hangers too but
better than throwing them away.
I find it strange they won't take them back. The last 2 cleaners we've used took recycles them. We'd put them on a hanger holder and when it was full, we'd return them to the drycleaners. They would give us a discount on our cleaning for this service.
If your drycleaner won't do this for you, look around and see if another is willing. It might save you some money, and it helps eliminate waste as well!
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