Stop using wire hangers immediately. Well, for clothes, that is. Joan Crawford had a point; they don’t have a place in your closet, as they can damage your clothes. Once you’ve upgraded to better options, you’re left with a pile of wire that shouldn’t go in the trash. This easily-bendable material with a ready-made hook helps one of them transform into a plant hanger with just a few bends and twists. Use one with just a bend or two, or double them up to harness heavier plants. This trick works best with plants in pots with a protruding lip, since this gives the pot a secure hold over the wire. Also, you’ll need to suspend your potted plants against a wall or a fence, since it relies on another surface to hold the plant in the wire loop.

Grab a hanger that’s made entirely from wire rather than the half-wire, half-cardboard variety. Fold the two shoulder areas toward each other, and curve the wire around the pot. Manipulate the wire so that it’s fitting snugly enough against the pot to hold it in place, and hang it where you’d like.

The beauty of a wire hanger hook is that you can rotate it to hang over a rail or link in a fence, but you can also keep the hook in its original position to hang over a nail. Gather up enough wire hangers, and you can use hanging plants as an affordable way to cover a chain-link fence for more privacy.

If you’re doubtful of its ability to defy gravity, use another piece of wire to connect the corners of the shoulder areas behind the pot. If the wire is pliable enough and the pot isn’t very large, you may be able to twist the body of the hanger into a full loop to set your container in.

The plant’s foliage might have enough volume to hide the otherwise less-than-attractive wire hangers. But if not, why not give the au naturel wire a makeover? After you’ve manipulated your hanger into a satisfactory shape, you can make this basic wire hanger way more fun and aesthetically pleasing with a bit of yarn or embroidery floss. Wrap multicolored yarn around the bare wire, crochet a covering, or knot embroidery floss around it friendship bracelet-style.