The Matter of Coat Hanger Shortage

The wardrobe contained forty-three hangers.

Vikram had counted them in September during a brief period of domestic enthusiasm. Forty-three hangers. More than enough for his current wardrobe, which ran to approximately thirty-two items that required hanging.

It was now October and there were no hangers.

He stood at the wardrobe with a shirt in his hand. The wardrobe was full. The wardrobe was full of clothes, all on hangers, all in their correct positions. He had put them there.

The hangers were in use. They were not available. They were occupied by garments and doing exactly what hangers do.

He needed a hanger for a new shirt.

The new shirt was not a new shirt. It was a shirt that had come back from the laundry. It needed to go back where it came from.

The chair was the answer, as it usually was.

The chair existed in a third category between clean wardrobe and dirty laundry: things that are ready but not placed. The chair held approximately four items currently. The shirt became the fifth.

Vikram went back to the wardrobe. He pulled out a shirt, removed the hanger from it, and hung the newly arrived shirt on that hanger. He put the removed shirt on the chair.

The chair now had six items.

The wardrobe had one more hanger in use and one less shirt.

The chair had been assigned an unofficial place years ago, when he first started using it for category-three clothing. Other objects in the room respected the chair's role. The lamp beside it angled away. The bag on the floor left a clear path.

Using the chair for its original purpose — sitting — would now feel like breaking into a system that worked without interference.

Nobody sat in the chair.

The coat hanger shortage is not a shortage. It is a distribution problem. The second time it resolves itself through the chair, the chair becomes a permanent solution.