How to Untangle Windchimes

Windchimes can be untangled with a delicate hand and lots and lots of patience.

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Your favorite set of windchimes has ended up a tangled mess, either because you threw them in a box or they were the victim of a windstorm. Chucking the tangled windchimes in the trash is always the best option, unless you’ve become too attached to the tinkling things. You can untangle windchimes--and keep your sanity--with a few steps and lots of patience.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

Lots of patience
Lots of time
Gentle touch
Place to hang them or flat, soft surface

Step1

Hang the chimes securely, in all their tangled beauty, and leave them be for a few moments. Some tangles will untangle themselves with this step.

Step2

If the chimes have no hope for untangling while hung, lay them gently on a large towel or other large, flat and somewhat soft surface.

Step3

Work from the bottom upwards, untangling the ends and working your way to the top of the chime ornament. This is going to involve what seems like three or four hands.

Step4

Home in on one dangling ornament at a time, attempting to extricate it from its mess. You’ll find a lot of overlapping, so you will have to move your focus on each dangling item as it impedes on the last one.

Step5

When you get frustrated, leave the tangled mess alone and come back to it at a later time. One set of chimes took me a year to untangle. I only worked on it when I knew I had the wherewithal. The chimes are now stuffed back in a box, because I decided I didn’t like them anyway.

Tips & Warnings

Gauge the cost and sentiment of the windchimes versus the time and effort you will spend untangling them. If the latter outweighs the former, throw the dang things away.
If you love the windchimes but find they become perpetually tangled outdoors, you can still hang them in the house where there is less wind. Don't hang them by a ceiling fan.
Do not cut the strings, no matter how tempting that becomes.
Do not yank, pull or create more tangles while you are untangling.
Don’t buy chintzy windchimes in the first place or this will happen constantly.