17 Genius Ways To Repurpose Old Hangers To Transform Your Garden

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

That bag of cracked, dusty, decidedly aesthetically unpleasing clothes hangers has been sitting on that garage shelf for months, maybe even years. You kept them because you knew that one day, you'd make something with them; you just didn't have time to research ideas. We've done it for you! Make basic wire hangers way more fun and aesthetically pleasing by literally twisting and bending them into a plant pot bracket, wall-mounted garden hose hook, yard bag holder, topiary frame, hummingbird perch, or weeding tool. Join painted plastic hangers together to create butterflies and stars — add solar or string lights for patio illumination. Hangers make truly usable bubble wands, pond muck scoopers, and herb drying racks.

It's probably obvious that your own wardrobe is the first place to look for hangers to repurpose. If you're doing a declutter, for example, you may end up with a few unused or broken hangers. (Yup, for DIYs where you're simply using the wire of a hanger, it doesn't even matter if the hanger is broken.) Instead of throwing them in the trash, repurpose them for any of these ideas. Ask friends, family, and neighbors. Scour your local thrift stores and yard sales in person, or peruse community free-cycle groups on social media. You can, of course, buy them. A 10-pack of White Plastic Clothes Hangers goes for about $5, while the same number of Mr. Pen Wire Hangers costs just under $10. A pack of 20 Home-It Wooden Hangers is surprisingly affordable at about $24.

Squish a wire clothes hanger to collapse the center and create a horizontal bar of two wires. Bend it in the center and pull the two arms up so they're at a 90-degree angle to the hook, then bend them up again to form a U-shape. Screw the arms to the wall, loop your lightweight garden hose over the U, and bend the hook straight up to keep the hose in place. This also works for organizing long yard tool extension cords in your garden shed.

Here's a DIY that repurposes an old wire hanger into the perfect garden accessory: a hanging planter bracket. Flatten a wire clothes hanger and bend it in half, creating two arms, or double it over to create a hoop for a pot. Mount it on a balcony safety railing, garden trellis, or backyard fence. You can also stretch out the wire hanger, cut it near the bottom, form a hoop for the planter, and hang the holder from a tree branch. Use two hangers for large pots.

Topiary art, where gardeners encourage plants to grow into geometric shapes, dates back to the Ancient Romans. Achieve this classy look with your outdoor potted plants by cutting a wire hanger at the hook and fashioning the resulting length of metal into a hoop, heart, or spiral. Push one end into the soil next to your plant's stem. This idea works best with shrub seedlings (you can train them around the wire as they grow) or vining plants. Wrap twine around the frame if your plant needs more support.

DIY a simple wire weeder tool for your vegetable garden by stretching an old clothes hanger out straight to create a single length of wire. Bend the wire over on itself about three-quarters of the way down the length to form a handle, then bend the longer end at right angles. Heat the hooked end over a fire and hammer it flat. Scrape this flat end along the ground to remove weeds. You can easily move the compact tool between leafy greens and seedlings without ripping them from the ground or damaging them.

A single 48-inch tall K-Brands Tomato Cage costs about $10. Why pay when you can make something similar using a handful of old wire coat hangers? Unravel at least three hangers to create long lengths of wire. Create an arch over your tomato plant by burying each end of one hanger wire into the ground. Repeat with a second, crossing it over the top of the first. Then, push one end of the final wire into the soil right next to the stem of your tomato plant, creating a support pole.

For this quick and easy DIY, you'll need some good-quality wire cutters and two pairs of pliers. Measure an equal distance down on each side of one of the curved ends of an old wire clothes hanger. Make your cuts, and repeat on the other side. You'll end up with two round-end staples, the perfect shape for holding down an irrigation hose or fencing mesh. To secure landscape fabric or solarization tarp and row covers to your lawn or garden bed, square off the loops using the two pairs of pliers.

Overlap the hooks of two plastic clothes hangers like a heart. Repeat with two more clothes hangers, then overlap the inward-facing elbows at the central point to form butterfly wings. Affix cable ties at the overlaps — a 600-pack of OUPENG Self-Locking Nylon Cable Ties in Assorted Sizes costs about $7. Spray paint your butterfly in your favorite hue, then affix it to plastic tubing or a wire rod and drive it into the ground outdoors. Only have a wire hanger? Straighten it out and form petals around a glass marble.

Replace the metal rod or plastic tubing body of the DIY plastic hanger butterflies we highlighted above with outdoor torch-style solar lights. A pack of 16 Dynaming Warm White LED Outdoor Solar Pathway Lights costs about $27. Stick them into a planter or hang them on your fence. Alternatively, hide string lights behind wings covered in shower curtain fabric or use ten hangers to make a string light-covered, outdoor, wall-mountable star. Make patio candle lanterns by piercing holes in tin cans and crafting a handle from old wire clothes hangers.

Is your spring or summer garden producing way more herbs than you could possibly use fresh? Preserve them for later use during the less productive winter by hanging them out to dry. Fashion simple S-hooks from wire cut from wire clothes hangers and use them to hang bundles of herbs tied with string from, well, pretty much anything you wish. An old pot hanger or garment rack works well. Just make sure you choose a spot that's dry and shady. Alternatively, repurpose clip hangers into ready-made herb bundle hangers.

Keeping your pond clean requires some pricey equipment, from water pumps and filtration systems to aquatic plants and the various natural treatments recommended to pond owners. Even something simple like the Aquascape 98556 Mini Pond and Fish Net costs upwards of $20. A wire coat hanger can at least save you some money on that one tool. Simply open the hanger out into a diamond-shaped or circular hoop and stretch some fine netting or even an old pair of nylons over it and start skimming leaves from the water's surface.

Struggle to get the kids outside? Bribe them with bubbles. Fashion an old wire clothes hanger into a circle, then straighten the hook for a handle. Voilà! You have a surprisingly effective giant bubble wand. Next, find a large shallow dish that you can fit the entire modified clothes hanger into and fill it with some Atlasonix Non-Toxic Giant Bubble Wand and Powder Mix for about $17 and water as per the manufacturer's instructions. Finally, take everything into the backyard and start making giant bubbles with your kiddos!

Easily create a garden trellis using closet staple wire clothes hangers by overlapping the hangers and securing them at the joins with wire ties to form a series of large squares or rectangles, somewhat like a wire quilt. Use a similar method to create a decorative and protective wire fence around a garden bed. A potentially easier method is to bend wire hangers into diamond shapes and join them together at each point with metal twist ties. Keep adding hangers until you reach the size of the trellis you need.

Turn your empty soda cans into beautiful garden labels by cutting labels from the can, embossing seedling names on them, and attaching them to the nursery planters using wire from a metal hanger. Untwist the hook of a wire hanger and cut the hanger in half so you have two wires. Bend the top to form a mini shepherd's hook-style stake, then hang from it a metal jar lid or other found object with the plant name on it. The thick, flat hooks cut from a plastic hanger make simple plant markers, too.

Bend a wire clothes hanger into a diamond shape and lay it flat on the table. Bend the hook up at right angles; it should face away from the center. Repeat with a second hanger, then overlap both and secure them together using cable ties, forming a single frame with two hooks. Loop the handles of your yard bag over the hooks and thread the bag through the frame. Hang it over a deck railing or somewhere else handy for pulled weeds or raked leaves.

Droopy peonies? Here's how to fix the issue ... Open out a plain metal clothes hanger into a single length of wire. Gently wrap it around the middle of your floppy peony plant — or any shrub that's struggling to stay upright — and hook the ends together to keep it in place. Alternatively, stretch the hanger into a diamond (yup, that shape again) and carefully push it down over the plant you want to support. If you think the hanger looks unsightly, leave some leaves outside the loop of wire to disguise it.

If a hummingbird wants to rest, it needs a perch. Craft one for your backyard by opening up a wire clothes hanger completely, then bending the resulting long length of wire three times to form a square with a long hook for hanging. Alternatively, bend the wire into a hooked arch and wrap the ends around a piece of dowel to create the perch. Hang the swing near your nectar feeder, which just so happens you can craft a sturdy hook for using a wire clothes hanger, too.

Remove the hooks from a dozen or so wooden hangers. Mold a circular base for your patio side table from cement. While it's still wet, push in a plastic pipe and the hangers, hook sides facing out. Once the cement is dry, flip the table upside down and press it into another damp disc. Prefer not to work with mucky cement? Glue four wooden hangers by their hook ends to form the legs of your side table (or plant stand) and top with a square of wood.