Goodbye Cluttered Cabinets: Store Old Pot Lids With A Wire Hanger Hack

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Pot lids run amok in your cabinets, causing all kinds of space issues and making organizing your kitchen cabinets a lot more challenging than it needs to be. With all those bumpy knobs getting in the way of making a proper stack, it's a full metal avalanche just waiting to happen the next time you open the cabinet door. Fortunately, there's a better way to store and organize pot lids that's cheaper than buying shelves, and it's already in your hall closet: wire coat hangers. With a twist of the wrist and a snip, the hangers go from hanging your clothes to hanging your pot lids inside your cabinets. And those annoying knobs? They actually play a role in the solution.

You'll need a specific kind of wire hanger for this to work properly. The hangers need to have an indent in the shoulder area of the hanger instead of being designed with three straight wires on all sides. The RA Running Alien Clothes Hangers 50 Pack is a good example of the hanger design this project requires. You'll need a pair of needle-nose pliers when it's time to bend and then reconstruct the hanger. Although you should be able to break apart the wire with the pliers, thanks to metal fatigue, a pair of wire cutters may also be useful. Finally, you'll need hot glue sticks and a glue gun or tape to hang it up.

You'll start by cutting the hanger up. Specifically, position the needle-nose pliers at a spot that's about 2 inches away from the indent in the metal at the shoulder area of the hanger. Cut the wire there on both sides. This will remove the hanger's top hook and leave you with a hook on each end of the wire. Now, find the midpoint in the straight part of the wire, and bend it in half. You don't want the bend to form into a sharp point; you want it to be rounded because you're going to fit the pots' knobs in the crook in the wire. You might find it useful to slide a pot lid into the bend to see if the dimensions are correct. If not, bend the point until a lid knob will fit there.

Next, use the needle-nosed pliers to slightly bend the hooks on each end of the wire forward a bit. Doing this will lift the crook upwards a bit once you hang the wire on the wall or inside the cabinet door. This encourages the pot lid and its knob to slide easily into place. Finally, glue or tape the hanger in its spot, making sure that the bottom crook lifts up slightly away from the cabinet door. Slide a lid onto the hanger, hooking it on the hanger by its knob.

Finally, instead of hanging the piece up with glue or tape, consider using Gussker D-ring Picture Hangers, which you should have in your starter tool kit. The ends of the wire should slide easily into the "D" part of the hanger. Since a D-ring hook is secured with a screw, the coat hanger lid holder should hang more securely on the cabinet wall.