Wire coat hangers.

Yes, I miss the wire coat hangers too. They were so versatile and you could even use them for hanging clothes on. 👕👗👚🧥👘

Usedtobeblonde: Did you manage to clear the drain from your sink?!

Yes they still use them. We have our heavy winter coats cleaned every spring before putting them away and they always come back on wire hangars.

Yes Thankyou Ashcombe I did.
I went into the shed and found a roll of wire of some sort hanging up.
I have no idea what it’s use is but it was very flexible and got some very disgusting gunk out, I am quite embarrassed but however you can’t see it so….😉

The last time I had dry cleaning done the clothes came back on flimsy plastic hangers.

Incidentally, I always think of "Mommie Dearest" when I see the the wire coat hangers. Does anybody else?

They sell them in cheap foreign shops or Primark ..

I hate them, they intermingle and breed in the wardrobe🤬

In Denmark and in Germany dry cleaners still use wire coat hangers, but I don't know about the UK, as I moved away in 1970.

I have straightened one out to hook things up with, when they fall down behind radiators, used another cut into two to enable an angel in a nativity scene (figures not children!) to float in mid-air, and made the kind of standing ruff associated with Elizabeth Tudor with the help of another.

You really cannot do without them, can you?

Hurry and find a dress that has to be dry-cleaned!

I haven't seen one for years! Thank goodness.

Whatever would Blue Peter do now with no wire hangers to twist into Christmas wreaths
As you mentioned the 'C' word first, usedtobeblonde, I have used these as the base for a Christmas wreath:

I don't know if it would work for unblocking sinks, though!

I bet Blue Peter didn't show you how to make dowsing rods out of two wire coathangers and a couple of cases from defunct biros or felt tip pens.

Use snips to cut the coathangers at the places shown by the red lines in the picture, and throw away the pieces with the hooks on, and the dead refills from the biros.

Straighten the short arms of the other two pieces to a right angle, and insert them where the refills would go in the biro cases. They should be a loose fit.

To dowse, hold one biro case in each hand, with the coathanger wire sticking out at the top with the long arm pointing away horizontally from you. It will swing around wildly at the least movement. Adjust the angle you are holding it at so that it is pointing down very slightly while you are standing still, then walk slowly forward, keeping.

The theory is that the horizontal wires will swing in towards each other if you cross running water, electric cables, or (so it is said) whatever it is that you are looking for. In practice they either stay stubbornly parallel, or they swing around with each step for no obvious reason. It may help if you can relax and walk calmly.

I did find that it always twitched more at a certain point in my livingroom (though I did know in advance that two conduits with elecric cables in them crossed in the cellar at that point) and it showed where a buried black plastic water main entered a cottage in the country. Again it was logical place for the water main to enter, so I may have expected it to be there.

It is a good way to get a group of usually sensible adults to behave like schoolchildren.

Suzieque66

They sell them in cheap foreign shops or Primark ..

You can buy them in bulk in the net! I was looking for a simple pic of one to draw red cutting marks on for my previous post, and discovered they do still exist.

When i send the ironing out we get quite a few. I always send them back but I will retain one next time. I can rent it out.

My husband found a wire coat hanger very useful for retrieving my mobile which had slid into the pit under the passenger seat of my car.

Ooh, when I've done odd stints volunteering in charity shops I've always been impressed at the gazillions of wire coat-hangers in the stockroom. It's where they go to breed......

My OH takes his shirts to be ironed and they always come back on the wire hangers. Every so often he takes a clutch of them back.

Elegran

I bet Blue Peter didn't show you how to make dowsing rods out of two wire coathangers and a couple of cases from defunct biros or felt tip pens.

Use snips to cut the coathangers at the places shown by the red lines in the picture, and throw away the pieces with the hooks on, and the dead refills from the biros.

Straighten the short arms of the other two pieces to a right angle, and insert them where the refills would go in the biro cases. They should be a loose fit.

To dowse, hold one biro case in each hand, with the coathanger wire sticking out at the top with the long arm pointing away horizontally from you. It will swing around wildly at the least movement. Adjust the angle you are holding it at so that it is pointing down very slightly while you are standing still, then walk slowly forward, keeping.

The theory is that the horizontal wires will swing in towards each other if you cross running water, electric cables, or (so it is said) whatever it is that you are looking for. In practice they either stay stubbornly parallel, or they swing around with each step for no obvious reason. It may help if you can relax and walk calmly.

I did find that it always twitched more at a certain point in my livingroom (though I did know in advance that two conduits with elecric cables in them crossed in the cellar at that point) and it showed where a buried black plastic water main entered a cottage in the country. Again it was logical place for the water main to enter, so I may have expected it to be there.

It is a good way to get a group of usually sensible adults to behave like schoolchildren.

I’ve got coat hanger dowsing rods. They work really well unlike the ones I actually bought which don’t. I thought my grandchildren would find them interesting but they don’t .

Message to all wire coat hanger lovers:- Slip an old sock over one side of a coat hanger and use it to dust those hard to reach places.

MayBee70 They see so much "magic" every day in videos and films and TV that some real natural magic doesn't impress them.

Magenta8

Message to all wire coat hanger lovers:- Slip an old sock over one side of a coat hanger and use it to dust those hard to reach places.

Don't need to. My black cat dusts those places for me and come out covered in dust and spider webs. I believe she must have been a housemaid in a previous incarnation!

AuntieE She sounds like the ideal feline companion.

My first thought on reading the heading was Blue Peter Christmas decorations. Others have mentioned this too, just shows how much of an effect this programme had on so many of us.

AuntieE

Magenta8

Message to all wire coat hanger lovers:- Slip an old sock over one side of a coat hanger and use it to dust those hard to reach places.

Don't need to. My black cat dusts those places for me and come out covered in dust and spider webs. I believe she must have been a housemaid in a previous incarnation!

Do you hire her out?

Magenta8

The last time I had dry cleaning done the clothes came back on flimsy plastic hangers.

Incidentally, I always think of "Mommie Dearest" when I see the the wire coat hangers. Does anybody else?

NO… WIRE… HANGERS!!!!
(Beats child with said item). I do not advocate the Joan Crawford School of Child Rearing