Command Broom Grippers vs. Cheap Mop Clips: Which Holds Better

My broom fell over so many times in our hall closet that my husband started calling it the domino. Open the door, broom tips into the coats, mop tips into the broom, and half the time the dustpan came down with the whole mess. I tried fixing it the cheap way first, a three-pack of plastic mop and broom clips I grabbed off an end cap for about six dollars. Then I switched to Command Broom Grippers after a friend swore by hers. I've now run both in the same closet, on the same door, holding the same broom and mop, so this isn't a guess based on the packaging. It's what actually happened when I lived with each one, month after month, through the exact same daily chaos.

Short answer if you're short on time: the Command Broom Grippers win on grip strength, how long they hold up, and how clean they come off if you ever need to move them. The cheap mop clips win on upfront price and nothing else, at least in my experience. If you want the full breakdown of where each one earns its keep, keep reading.

Feature	Command Broom Grippers	Cheap Mop and Broom Clips
Price	$8.09 for 2 hangers and 4 strips (current price)	$5 to $10 for a 3-clip pack (current price)
Installation Method	Foam adhesive strip, no tools, no screws	Thin adhesive pad or a small screw-in tab
Wall or Door Damage	None, strip pulls straight down and off clean	Adhesive residue or a small screw hole, depending on version
Grip Style	Spring-loaded claw, catches the handle from an angle	Rigid open clip, handle has to be lined up and pushed in straight
Weight and Handle Fit	Fits broom, mop, and dustpan handles from thin to standard	Fits thin handles well, tends to gap on thicker mop handles
Renter Friendly	Yes, adhesive only, nothing to patch later	Yes for the adhesive version, no for the screw-in version
Durability Over Time	Held daily use for over a year with proper cure time	Clips cracked or the adhesive let go within six to eight weeks for me
Noise When Removing a Tool	Quiet click, spring tension stays consistent	Handle can pop out unexpectedly if pushed in at the wrong angle
Best For	Daily-use closets, rentals, households with kids grabbing tools often	Light, occasional use, garages, or a temporary setup

How I Tested Both

I ran the cheap mop clips first, for about two months, on the inside of our hall closet door holding our regular broom and a flat mop. I hung and unhung both tools the way our house actually uses them, which is a lot, probably four or five times a day between sweeping the kitchen and my kid dragging the dustpan out to help. When those clips started failing, I switched to the Command Broom Grippers on that exact same spot on the door, same broom, same mop, same daily habits, so the comparison isn't apples to oranges.

I checked both for how securely the handle sat once hung, how the tool felt when I yanked it out in a hurry instead of lifting it gently, and how the mounting held up to humidity swings between summer and a dry winter with the heater running. I also paid attention to how each one handled a slightly angled grab, since nobody in my house lifts a broom straight up and out the way an instruction diagram shows, and I kept a small notebook on the closet shelf just to jot down the date anything slipped, cracked, or fell.

Where Command Broom Grippers Win

The claw grip is the whole story here. Command's gripper hangers use a spring-loaded plastic claw that catches the handle from almost any angle, which matters a lot more than it sounds like it should. My son grabs the broom sideways half the time instead of lifting it straight out, and the claw still closes around the handle without me having to line anything up for him. The cheap clips I tried before this needed the handle slid in dead straight, and if you missed the angle even a little, the handle would just bounce off the plastic instead of catching, usually clattering to the floor at the worst possible moment.

The adhesive underneath the Command strips is also just built for the job differently. It's a foam and adhesive combination rated to hold real weight and real shear stress, the kind of sideways yanking a broom actually takes when someone grabs it in a hurry. I wiped the door down with rubbing alcohol first, pressed each strip on for thirty seconds like the instructions say, and let it cure overnight before hanging anything. A year later those strips have not budged, no lifting at the corners, no sagging, not even during the muggiest weeks of summer when every other adhesive in our house seemed to be struggling.

The other thing worth mentioning is how clean the removal process is if you ever need to reposition. Command strips have a stretch-release pull tab built in, so you pull straight down and the adhesive lets go without tearing paint or leaving a sticky patch behind. That's a big deal in a rental, where every hole or residue mark is something you have to explain at move-out, and it's the reason I felt comfortable committing to adhesive in the first place instead of holding out for a landlord's permission on something more permanent.

Where the Cheap Mop Clips Win

I want to be fair, because the cheap clips aren't a scam, they're just a lighter-duty product for a lighter-duty job. At around six dollars for a three-pack, they cost less upfront than the Command grippers, and if you only need to hang one broom in a garage that barely gets touched, that lower price might be all you need. For a vacation rental, a storage unit, or a spot where the broom sits mostly untouched between uses, the cheap clips will do the basic job of getting it off the floor for less money than the Command version.

They're also a little more compact. The clips I tried sit flatter against the wall than the Command claw hanger does, which matters if you're mounting something in a genuinely tight spot, like the inside of a shallow cabinet door where even an inch of clearance counts. If your handle is thin, like a lightweight dustpan handle, the rigid clip actually holds it snugly enough that the lack of spring tension isn't really a downside in that narrow use case.

The honest tradeoff is that the cheap clips are not built for the kind of daily grabbing my household puts a broom through. Two of the three clips in my pack had visible hairline cracks by week five, right at the hinge point where the plastic flexes every time you push a handle in or pull it out. The third one held longer, closer to eight weeks, but the adhesive pad underneath started peeling at one corner before it finally let go entirely, and the broom ended up back on the floor exactly where I started, dustpan and all.

I didn't think six dollars versus eight dollars would matter much either way. It mattered a lot once I was picking the broom up off the floor again eight weeks later.

The Installation Difference Nobody Mentions

Setting up the Command grippers took about ten minutes total, mostly because I was careful about spacing them far enough apart that the broom head and mop head wouldn't tangle every time the door closed. Wipe the surface, press, hold for thirty seconds, then walk away and don't touch it for at least an hour, longer if you can manage the patience. That waiting period is the part people skip, and it's also the reason a lot of one-star reviews on adhesive products exist in the first place. Skip the cure time and you're testing a strip before it's actually ready to be tested.

The cheap clips went up faster, closer to three minutes each, since there was no real cure time mentioned on the packaging and the adhesive pad was thinner and tackier right out of the gate. That speed is appealing until you realize a thinner, tackier adhesive is usually a sign it's built for lighter loads and shorter-term holds, not a broom getting yanked sideways multiple times a day for months on end.

What About a Whole Mudroom of Tools

If you're trying to organize more than a broom and a mop, say a dustpan, a Swiffer, and a small dust brush too, this is where the difference in per-unit cost starts to add up on both sides. A pack of Command grippers gives you two hangers, so you'd need two packs to cover four tools, which pushes the total cost higher than a couple of cheap clip packs would run you. I get why that math is tempting if you're outfitting a whole mudroom at once, especially when you're already budgeting for bins and hooks and everything else that goes into a real entryway overhaul.

But I'd still lean toward the Command grippers for anything that gets handled daily, and save the cheap clips for the tools that mostly just sit there, like a step stool hook or a rarely used extendable duster. In my own closet, the broom and mop get the Command grippers because they're grabbed constantly, while a seasonal cobweb duster hangs on one of the leftover cheap clips in the back corner where nobody's yanking on it in a hurry. That mix has worked well enough that I haven't felt the need to replace the low-stakes clips at all.

Who Should Buy Which

If your broom and mop get used most days, if you've got kids grabbing tools without being careful about the angle, or if you've already been burned by a flimsy clip that cracked within a couple months, spend the extra couple dollars on the Command Broom Grippers. The claw grip and the real adhesive strength are the difference between a system you trust and one you're quietly bracing to fail. If you're setting up a rarely used closet, a garage corner, or a temporary spot and you just want the broom off the floor for now, the cheap clips will do that job for less money, as long as you're not expecting them to last a year.

I keep both in my house now, honestly, Command grippers where things get grabbed constantly, cheap clips where the stakes are low and the tool barely moves. Knowing which category your closet falls into before you buy is really the whole decision, and it's a five second gut check that saves you from buying the same fix twice.