Hang It Up

Wire hangers have faded from common use (aside from when you get your clothing back from a dry cleaner). But I'm no fan of plastic hangers either. Several years back I replaced my plastic shirt hangers with wooden ones. I bought them in boxes of 20 at Bed Bath and Beyond. They still carry them, but they aren't as good a deal now; I think they come in packages of six or 12.

If you live in the vicinity of an Ocean State Job Lot store, there's a much better deal available to you. They have wooden hangers for 50 cents each, which is about what I paid per hanger for my first couple of batches from BB&B. These don't have a crossbar, so they might not work so well for heavier outerwear, but if you stick to using them for shirts and light jackets, they will do just fine.

Yesterday I discovered an even better deal at Job Lot: suit hangers. Suit jackets and sportcoats should be hung on wider hangers to preserve the shape at the shoulders and keep the jacket draped properly. Several of my sportcoats are vintage items I found on eBay, and a couple of my suits were bought online, so none of them came with hangers. Even if you buy a suit from a department store, there's no guarantee you'll get an appropriate hanger with it. You might have to ask for it, or you may be told it's store policy to keep the hangers.

What you want is a hanger that flares out toward the ends to at least a couple of inches wide. A bar for holding trousers is also nice. OSJL has hangers like this for only $2.25 each. I've been looking for such hangers for a while now; the best price I've been able to find online is $6 each for ones without a crossbar, $7 each with the bar, from a site called Wooden Hangers USA. I was about to place an order from them, and while the hangers I found yesterday may not be as durable, the lower cost is much better for my wallet at the moment. I grabbed half a dozen, and I may go back for more if needed.