5 Reasons Women Across Britain Are Throwing Out Their Plastic Laundry Baskets
5 Reasons Women Across Britain Are Throwing Out Their Plastic Laundry Baskets
I own a labrador. My favourite thing in the house has two cats on it. Here is how that happened.
By Maggie Whitfield, a customer in Cheshire · 4 min read
- Two stitched cats on a shelf of stitched books, pretty enough to leave out
- Stands upright on its own, whether empty or full
- Two padded fabric handles, so a full load carries like a bag
- Folds completely flat the moment you need it gone
- And the strange one: the laundry actually goes in it now
The full five, with my photographs, below. The basket is the Poppy, from Manchester Boutique.
First, how I got here. My sister June has one in her bathroom, and I stood in there far longer than any guest should, looking at a ginger cat asleep on two embroidered novels and a black cat glaring elegantly from a stack of three. I assumed craft fair. I assumed three figures. It was on sale at a small British boutique. I ordered one that evening, and then a second for the bedroom, which is when I admitted this had become a thing worth writing down.
Mine, on duty beside the machine. The first laundry basket I have ever owned that improves the room.
It is pretty enough to leave out
Every plastic basket I ever owned lived behind a door. This one has a whole scene stitched around it, the two cats, a shelf of little book spines in teal and plum and red, wildflowers climbing up from the bottom, the odd butterfly. Like a bookshop cat decided to become furniture.
And the part I checked before buying: it is quilted and stitched, with proper raised texture you can feel, not a printed picture. That is why it reads as folk art from across the landing instead of novelty from up close.
The day it came. The cats are stitched, not printed. You can see the relief.
It stands up on its own
The quilting is soft to touch but structured, so the basket holds its round shape stuffed with a family’s worth of towels or completely empty in the corner. No slumping, no sagging into a fabric puddle, which is where every soft hamper I ever owned ended up.
Completely empty, holding its shape. This is the whole engineering argument.
It carries like a bag
This is the one nobody believes until they carry a full load downstairs. Two padded fabric handles are stitched into the rim, so the whole thing goes down on one arm like an oversized shopper. No hugging a cracked plastic tub to your chest, no pinched fingers, no bumping every banister on the way.
Down the landing on one arm. My old plastic one required a full embrace.
It folds completely flat
This is the one June led with. Guests coming and the spare room needs clearing? It collapses flat like a disc and slides beside the wardrobe or on top of it. A rigid plastic tub never once managed that in forty years of my asking.
Folded flat beside the wardrobe. Try that with plastic.
A pretty one actually gets used
The strange one. The laundry goes IN the basket now. When the basket was an ugly plastic thing, the clothes piled up beside it, on the chair, over the banister. Nobody wants to bury the cats, so the cats get fed. My bedroom chair is a chair again, and I did not change a single habit. I changed the basket.
The bedroom one. Second purchase, zero regrets. The labrador remains unbothered.
I already did. The small lives in the bathroom, the large in the bedroom, and the cracked plastic tub went to the tip without a eulogy. I am a dog woman with a cat basket and a tidier house, and I recommend the arrangement to anyone.
— Maggie Whitfield, Cheshire
Two practical things before you go. They are made to order in runs, and once a run has gone, it has gone until the next one. And the cats are one design of dozens, lambs, dogs, gardens, seasides, all in the same quilted style, so there will be one that is properly you.
POPPY | Cat Parade Laundry Basket
Small £34.95 · Medium £37.95 · Large £41.95 · Free UK delivery
See The Laundry Basket CollectionMade to order in runs. Once a run has gone, it has gone.
Maggie Whitfield is 67 and lives in Cheshire with a labrador. She is a customer, not a writer, and she was not paid for this list.
This page is an advertisement for Manchester Boutique. Manchester Boutique · Free UK delivery · 30 day returns.