DIY Pants Hangers Made from Regular Plastic Hangers

DIY pants hangers can be made instantly from regular plastic hangers. Take care of your trousers and save closet space in one easy step.

Converting Regular Plastic Hangers into DIY Pants Hangers:

All you really need are binder clips and skinny clothes hangers in plastic or even wire. Slip the binder clips over the bottom of the hanger and hang your pants from the binder clips.

The idea came to me after years of struggling with cheap pants hangers or wasting closet space with big wooden hangers. The trouser hangers in drug stores never opened or closed smoothly, and they always fell apart on me after a few uses. The more expensive wood hangers seemed like they were really made for bulky men's suits. They used up about 2 inches of wardrobe space each, which seemed especially frustrating for light-weight silk and wool garments. For years, I still had some of those old fashioned wood hangers that had two panels of wood that clamped over the pants. I got them from my grandmother, so they must have lasted well over 50 years. The models I see now are all too flimsy or too bulky, so I don't think they make the ones I like anymore. Fortunately, they do make binder clips.

I know some people are just folding their pants in half over the bottom edge of the hanger. Personally, it doesn't work for me. Let's just say if you're a small woman, you can accumulate couture pants on eBay for practically just the price of postage. Over time, I wound up with so many black label Armani's, etc., I can't even count. So, if they sit on an unpadded hanger for months and months, they're going to get stubborn creases in the wrong spots.

Using Your DIY Pants Hangers:

There's some debate over whether to hang your pants from the waist or the cuffs. Either is okay depending on the style. For very lightweight pants, it sometimes helps to ease more of the cuff under the clip. As always, hang everything in your closet in one direction to minimize wrinkles and maximize storage capacity. You can always slip a little moleskin or felt between the binder clips to protect delicate fabrics. For your heaviest trousers, you may still want to use wooden hangers.

DIY pants hangers with binder clips have made my life easier and made my trousers last longer.