Works for Me Wednesday: Untangling a Slinky

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I have been asked, on more than one occasion, to get my daughter, Megan’s Slinky untangled. I have to say, I have perfected the technique. It’s a plastic Slinky. I’ve been told that if the metal ones get tangled, you might as well throw them away, because they get kinks in them and won’t work properly. A plastic Slinky, however, is easily fixed.

Simply hold the Slinky in both hands, with your right hand loosely grasping all of the coils up to the point of the tangle:

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Then, roll part of the Slinky in your right hand away from your body as you twist the tangle toward the left side. The coils will continue to be gathered loosely in your right hand until the tangle has been worked out the opposite end.

Clear as mud? I wish I could do a video, but we currently have an untangled Slinky and I’d like to keep it that way. I think, once you’re working with a tangled one, you’ll see how easy is it to work the tangle out.

Visit Kristin at We Are THAT Family for more Works for Me Wednesday tips.

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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11 Comments

  1. This is GREAT! Now, I’ll have to go buy another slinky! I cant tell you how many of those things I’ve thrown away!

    Thanks for sharing!

  2. It never failed when my daughter was younger and we would get a slinky, it would be tangled in no time, and she would be devastated. I would only make things worse…. her Nana would usually come to the rescue!

  3. This is a MOM post if I’ve ever seen one!!

    Only moms can have the patience to do these kind of things and can have the compassion to share their knowledge of these things with other poor moms who are just figuring it out.

  4. I’m with Martha. I remember the emotional devestation I experienced as a 3 year old when my brother tangled my metal slinky. I wanted a funeral for it. My beloved.

    So glad kids these days can avoid all that dramatic turmoil. 🙂

  5. Too bad I didn’t start my “blog jog” before I just threw out my son’s slinky which I deemed unfixable.
    Thanks for the tip!

  6. Just seeing this now…..could have TOTALLY used this a couple of weeks ago when my daughter was having a meltdown with her tangled mess of a Slinky.

    Thanks!

  7. Every time I try this, my slinky gets more and more tangled. It’s a plastic slinky and I’m getting really upset over it!

    1. We’ve had it work well on several Slinkies, but we had one that we just couldn’t untangle one time. It just depends on how badly tangled they are, I guess. Sorry it didn’t work for you.

  8. Been looking for a way to fix this metal slinky which is how I came across your page, My daughter stretched it out and I really thought I’d be able to find a way to fix it, but after almost an hour of searching online, there seems to be no solution! I guess this will have to get thrown away 🙁

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