Reuse An Old Pants Hanger For This Unexpected Pantry Storage Hack

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

We've all been there: you purchase clothing, and the person at the store register asks if you want to keep the flimsy plastic hanger. Odds are that your gut reaction is to say no thank you, as they are typically too cumbersome and breakable to actually use as regular clothes hangers at home. But if you do make the mistake of saying yes, the hanger likely won't last long before it's destined for the trash pile. However, before you toss that old, broken pants hanger or plan to hand a new one back to the store clerk, you may want to think twice, as the internet has spoken yet again with a hack that puts these clip-style hangers, new or used, to good use.

Going viral on TikTok and other social media platforms, a little hack proves that the clips on the end of the pants hanger are good for more than just, well, hanging pants. In fact, considering the dents and damage they can cause in fabric, perhaps they are put to even better use as chip clips. The idea behind this pants hanger turned chip clip hack is beyond simple, and there are a couple of methods to make it happen. Depending on how your hanger is structured, with removable or fixed clips, you can opt to upcycle them as a pair of individual, standalone chip clips or as a part of an entire hanging snack pantry storage system (particularly effective with smaller children's size clip hangers). With this beginner-friendly trick that only takes seconds to accomplish, you'll never toss or pass up a clip-style clothes hanger ever again.

If your pants hanger has removable clips, simply slide them off the sides of the main body of the hanger in order to function as standalone chip clips, allowing you to still use the hanger itself for a separate project if desired. If you cannot slide the clips off the hanger, you can also cut them off to be able to use them independently. This can be accomplished by either bending the spot where the hanger meets the clip until it snaps, or with wire clippers, a hack saw, or utility knife for more stubborn materials. As needed, give any rough edges a light sanding or melt plastic with a lighter to smooth them out.

The other option is to use the entire pants hanger to not only keep the bag of chips wrangled and fresh with the clips, but also to create a hanging system for your favorite snacks with the included hook. For those with metal pantry shelves, you can simply hang the clipped chips from one of the rungs on the underside of a shelf to take advantage of vertical space without monopolizing square footage on the shelf itself. For other shelving styles or cabinets that do not have a rail to use as hanging storage, simply purchase a small tension rod, such as this tension rod two-pack from Amazon, in the correct size for the interior width of your shelf. Install it within an inch or two of the underside of the shelf above to create a dedicated rod for hanging and organizing pantry snacks to optimize dead vertical space between shelves. And there you have it: two ways to repurpose a pants hanger as a pantry staple for clipping and storing your favorite chips and snacks.