Sort through your hangers and dispose of any wire hangers, such as the ones you receive free at the dry cleaners, as they can misshape or stain your dresses. Also dispose of any flimsy plastic hangers that can easily break.

Decide upon the appropriate type of hanger for your dresses based on their style and fabric.

Select sturdy wooden hangers for dresses made out of heavy materials such as thick wool or leather.

Dresses made of delicate fabrics such as satin, velvet, silk, taffeta and chiffon are best when hung on padded hangers.

Check the inside of your dresses for tiny loops of fabric known as "hanger helpers" or "garment straps" that the dress manufacture may have sewn into the inside top of the dress, to be used for hanging up the dress. If your dress has these special hanging straps, hang on a notched hanger.

If your dress does not have these straps, or is strapless, it can be a hassle to manually sew them in. Instead, you can hang up a strapless dress using a clamp hanger with padded clamps.

Hang fragile, expensive, or otherwise important dresses in a garment bag to protect the dresses from moisture, dust, bugs and stains.

Select wood hangers or heavy-guage, plastic tubular hangers for your more casual dresses made out or cotton or other lightweight materials.

After hanging your dresses on their appropriate hangers, you may want to organize your dresses by style, fabric, occasion, season or color.