The Best Clothes Hangers of 2024

Blame it on Marie Kondo. Until I read her book I hadn’t really given clothes hangers much thought. However, after studying Kondo’s process of decluttering and purging unwanted household items to leave only those that “spark joy,” I had a new appreciation for the role that clothes hangers play in organizing my closet and a curiosity about how they compared.

To discover the best hangers, we spent a week hanging, moving, and removing various types of clothing, some damp and some dry, hung on 10 different types of hangers.

Having recently gone through my own personal evaluation of several types of hangers, I wasn’t surprised by the outcome of our testing: The Container Store’s Basic Acrylic Hanger (available at The Container Store) was the best overall. Not only does it look chic hanging in your closet, but it had the least impact on the shape of the sweaters and blouses we hung on it.

The sleek design of the Timmy Stainless Wire Hanger (available at Amazon) was also impressive because its thin but sturdy profile lets you fit more clothes in your closet, making it our favorite hanger for small closets. And we also really liked the IKEA’s Bumerang Hanger (available at Ikea) when it’s paired with an extra Bumerang Shoulder Shaper (available at Ikea), which adds a layer of sturdiness without marking your clothes.

How We Tested

The Tester

I’m Marcia Layton Turner, a freelance writer who has written for Woman’s Day, Health, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Businessweek, US News and World Report, and I currently write for Forbes.com and a number of other outlets. I’ve also tested products for magazines and websites. I was the baby product reviewer for ePregnancy magazine years ago, am an Amazon product tester, and frequently offer my unsolicited two cents when I come across products I love.

As a new devotee of Marie Kondo, I recently cleared my closet of pants, jackets, shirts, and dresses that I hadn’t worn in ages. It left me with a fair amount of space in my walk-in closet, which inspired me to swap out my old collection of random hangers. That’s when I discovered the wide variety of hangers available.

I wanted hangers that were uniform in appearance to make my closet look more organized, and that could hold everything from heavy jackets to lightweight blouses.

The Tests

We chose which hangers to test by getting our hands on some of the most popular brands, such as Joy Mangano’s Huggable Hanger, and others from popular stores like The Container Store, IKEA, Target and Amazon.

To determine which hangers performed best and which didn’t, we tested them over the course of a week in an empty closet. We hung damp and dry clothes on all the hangers in that one closet, so they’d be in the same environment. Then we moved them twice a day, both to see if that affected the clothes and to gauge how hard it was to relocate the hangers themselves. We also pulled them out and removed clothes to see how easy or difficult it was to take them off the hangers; some were surprisingly difficult.

In addition to measuring ease of hanging and removing clothing, we checked whether marks were left in the clothes from the hanger and whether clothes stayed hung or slid off, as well as how many fit in a small space.

We also tested the free hangers you get from the dry cleaners as another option, just for comparison.

What You Should Know About Clothes Hangers

If you looked in my closet a couple of months ago, you would have seen a hodge-podge of thin wire dry cleaner hangers, white plastic hangers, and Ikea wooden ones. I tend to buy hangers when I notice that I have more clothes than things to hang them on. But post-Konmari, I decided I wanted a more uniform appearance with hangers that weren’t bent or misshapen from trying to hold my long wool coat that must weigh close to 20 pounds.

In researching the single type of hanger that would work best, I came across a number of factors. As you weigh your many options, I’d recommend you consider some or all of the following:

• Price: Granted, hangers aren’t very expensive, but you’ll find some that are $8.99 each and others that are $8.99 for a couple of dozen. If your goal is to outfit your closet with one type of hanger, do the math to make sure it will fit your budget.
• Type of clothes you’ll be hanging: This is the biggest factor because the type of hanger you choose should be determined by what you’re hanging. Heavy jackets and sweaters need more substantial hangers to avoid bending under their weight while silk blouses and camisoles will likely do better on fabric-covered hangers that prevent marks. If you’re hanging pants, you’ll need hangers that have a horizontal bar for that purpose; not all hangers do.
• Extra parts needed: I found that I loved the Ikea wooden hanger and loved it even more with the shoulder shaper that sits on top of it. The shaper provides an extra degree of protection against shoulder marks, but the accessory costs an additional $.50 per hanger. Likewise, our top choice, The Container Store Basic Acrylic Hanger and Wooden Hanger come with and without the pants bar; the design with the bar is $1.00 more.
• Closet space: The amount of space you have in your closet may limit your choice of hangers. Some hangers are designed to be compact, allowing more clothes to be stored in a tight space, while others are wide for the protection of the clothes, but which then limit how many can be hung at one time. Make sure the hanger you choose will allow you to hang all the clothes you need.
• Durability: The heavier the materials used to make the hanger, the more versatile and durable it is. If you have heavy clothes, you’ll want to err on the side of a wooden or heavy metal hanger. If you have lightweight outfits, plastic and satin hangers will work just as well.

A Note About Wire Hangers From the Dry Cleaners

We tested the free hangers you get from the dry cleaners as part of a control group, figuring it would have the fewest features, and they turned out to be much sturdier than anticipated. My local dry cleaner appears to have stepped up its game, investing in a thicker wire that is able to hold a heavy jacket without being doubled up. While they are certainly slim, can hold pants, and, best of all, come free with any dry cleaning you have done, these hangers aren’t particularly attractive and you may not get the exact kind of hanger each time, so closets may not look aesthetically pleasing. They didn’t cause much in the way of marks during the week of testing, though I suspect long-term, the harsh points of the wire might cause some denting.

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Other Clothes Hangers We Tested

Although The Container Store’s Basic Acrylic Hanger climbed to the top of our rating, we tested a wide range of products to find the best clothes hangers. Here are some others for you to consider:

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