How's it Hangin'? A Flop Tutorial

I know some of you still have snow on the ground, but for us Floridians summer is already kicking into high gear. And summer means flip flops.

Yep, we southern girls have 'em for everything: casual wear, evening wear, 'flops with heels, 'flops with big poofy flowers glued on...you name it. They're cheap impulse buys, so it's easy to accumulate a whole mountain of flip-flops in a single season.

But say you don't like the "mountain" storage method. Say you need to get your mound o' 'flops off the floor and into a tidy system, but are limited on space. What then?

Well, how about this?

This was my no-cost solution last year: a left over curtain rod mounted on two shelf brackets, and lots of modified hangers. For the rod you could also use a wooden dowel, piece of PVC pipe, or any other strong bit of metal. To mount it we bent up the tips of two metal shelf brackets and secured the rod with small screws, but you could also use conventional closet rod hangers, which you can find in any hardware store.

Now, the fun part is the actual hangers. Here's how to make them:

First, grab a handful of the flimsiest metal hangers you can find in your closet. (You want to be able to bend them with your hands, if possible.) You'll also need a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

Cut off the bottom section of the hanger like so:

You may need to score the metal with the pliers and then snap it with your hands.

Now take your pliers and roll up the two edges, like this:

This gets the sharp edges safely out of the way, and also looks kind of cute.

Now, using both your hands and your pliers, bend your hanger into this approximate shape:

Kind of like a stick figure flexing his muscles. :)

Now, to be honest, you could just stop here. I did, for over a year. The hangers are perfectly functional, if a bit chippy and drab.

I recently went back and decided to pretty them up, though. First I put a fresh coat of spray paint on them:

And then I found some gorgeous teal, orange, and red ribbon - though it took me a little while to figure out a way to use it. In the end, I came up with this cute little hanger jacket:

Here's how you make it:

Make sure your ribbon is snug, so it doesn't fall off the hanger. To secure it you can use fabric or super glue - or, if the glue stains the ribbon like mine did, glue dots also work really well.

Step 6 shows the backside of the hanger. I suggest flipping it over like this to trim off the excess ribbon.

When you're done, your hanger should look like this:

Again, you could stop there, but I thought a red button was the perfect cherry on top for mine:

And here they are, hanging in a row:

Actually I have even more than this, but I didn't want to hang them all up because then you'd know I have that many flip-flops and it'd be, like, totally embarrassing.

Here's how the 'flops hang:

I never could get all the sides quite even. :/

And now en masse:


Plus, here's a handy bonus: you can also hang your ballerina flats on these!

And finally, since I spent the better part of an evening cleaning it out, allow me to present - for your judging pleasure - a glimpse inside my closet:

Hey! It's, like, neat and stuff!

I had to use a wide-angle lens to get this; it's pretty cramped in there. As you can see, when I'm not wearing flip-flops I'm wearing little boy's sneakers or boots. (I loooove boots.) I think the last time I wore a pair of heels was our Christmas cruise, but at least they look pretty on the shelves. ;)


So, do you guys have any nifty space-saving tips from your closet? Share in the comments!

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