This all started due to an off-hand comment within my family. When it grew to the point where a survey seemed in order, I was merely interested in seeing if there was a correlation between the direction clothes face and sex or handedness of the owner, but other issues have added flavor.
So these are the results. 42 people participated; 31 female, 11 male. Of the 11 who made no effort to have clothes face in one direction, 4 were male.
Turning now only to people who “cared”, only two man’s clothes faced left. Of the females who cared, (24), 17 faced their clothes right and 7, left. There were several people who reported ambidexterity and a couple lefties, but not enough to judge. So I conclude that females are two-thirds or better more likely to have clothes face left as right, and men tend to think oppositely (stats very low here).
There are a few other considerations like closet design and which side the door is hinged on that may enter into the mix, but I’ll need the gov’t grant to pull that together.
I did learn two things we all knew. People all want the hooks to go from the front to the back and if clothes are hanging in a “staging area” prior to being placed in the closet, they are hung facing away from the wall or door on which they are hung and/or facing the world (instead of the wall). One woman got so annoyed at her husband for failure to follow the proper guidelines for their joint coat closet that on a bad day, she would hook his coat with the hook coming from the back in order to have the coat face properly; she said, “Let him deal with it”
Its perfectly obvious, but how the clothes will hang on the rod depends upon the orientation of the hook at the time the clothes are placed on the hanger. For those of us who end up the clothes facing both directions, I think its because we don’t have a preference for how the hook faces while putting the garment on it.
One woman maintains several closets and how clothes end up in the various closets depends on where she hangs that person’s clothes after she irons them.
Three people (2 M and 1F (see above)) said they would change the direction of the garment if it was wrong (but this wasn’t really learned from the “one-owner/one closet” concept), so that could be more prevalent.
Only one person (Tamara) cited any reason for hanging that had nothing to do with the clothes or closet design themselves (sentiment). Two people mentioned efficiency of removal/dressing when hanging the clothes. Another matter to take up with the grant money will be an exploration of the tendency to remove the garment from the hanger while the hanger remains on the rod versus removing the hanger as well. ?
One man said that not only did all his clothes have to facing correctly (R), but that they had to be equidistant from one another before he left the closet.
You may recall that the first two questions were, “Do you know without looking which way…?” and “Do they all face in same direction?”. Results showed that people who answered “Y” to the first also answered “Y” to the second: with one exception, the converse was also true, but one woman was surprised to find that all hers faced alike.
Several people asked why I was doing this, but only one asked if it was a joke.
Y’all might think I have nothing to do, but that isn’t true. I have so much to do I don’t know where to start, but this was controllable, so I did it. Thanks again.
Susan Webster Canton, Ohio
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