These Amazing DIY ‘Space Hangers’ Help You Hang-Dry Shirts Faster

Hang drying your clothes can help make them last longer, will save you on energy costs, and it can help reduce your ironing time.

But most people don’t like to hang dry their clothing because it takes so darn long. Ain’t nobody got 12 hours to wait for their favorite shirt to dry!

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So, thankfully, some great internet human on Instructables.com created “space hangers,” which help speed up your hang-drying process.

The brilliant person, flavrt, explained that the front and back of a wet shirt often cling to each other, trapping moisture on the inside of the shirt.

“Even with a 100% plastic wardrobe,” flavrt joked, “water clings between layers of fabric.” Drying is related to surface area,and these custom hangers double the surface area that moisture can evaporate off of, according to Lifehacker.

Flavrt said that when the fabric is pulled apart by the space hanger, the water within the shirt can literally just fall out. Creating two hangers shouldn’t cost you more than $2 a piece, according to flavrt’s calculations.

So here are quick steps to making your own space hangers so that you can use “free gravity and thermodynamics instead of fossil fuels,” to hang dry shirts faster.

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1. Get The Ingredients

Flavrt suggests using the super cheap, 10-cent hangers at Wal-Mart with the plastic webbing in the corners. Four individual hangers will make two space hangers.

Then buy a foot of small plastic tubing, and consult the home center experts to find screws that will easily thread into the tubing.

Flavrt used one-quarter inch tubing and number 14 machine screws. He also suggests getting the shortest available screws to save money. As long as they fit the tubing well, they should be plenty strong.

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2. Construct The Hangers

Start by drilling one hole into each of the webbings in the hangers’ corners. Then use a knife or metal file to cut away the sharp plastic that might stick around the edges of the holes.

After that, cut three pieces of tubing that are roughly two to three inches long.

Thread the screws into the hanger holes and into the tubing. Flavrt says you should stay alert at this point, because if your hangers aren’t facing in the same direction, your project could go completely wrong.

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3. Voila!

Your space hangers are ready for action, so try them out! Flavrt suggests getting extra materials to make a few space hangers because you will want to use them all the time, and “your friends will attempt to steal them.”

So guard your precious space hangers!

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Images: flavrt/Instructables.com (4)

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About the Author
Josephine Yurcaba
Josephine Yurcaba is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer. She specializes in lifestyle content, women's issues, politics, and New York music. She has written for Bustle, The Daily Meal, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone.

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