Everything in my house was chosen. The laundry basket just turned up
Everything in my house was chosen. The laundry basket just turned up. This is a letter about the one I finally chose
Six things this quilted basket gets right that twenty-six years of plastic never did, from a woman who had not thought about her laundry basket once until she saw somebody else's.
Pat Holloway · Customer · Leeds · 5 min read
I am 68, I keep a tidy house, and I want to start with an admission. Everything in that house was chosen. The curtains were deliberated over for a fortnight. The cushions were auditioned. Even the doormat had a shortlist. And the laundry basket, which I look at every single day of my life, is a cracked plastic thing that came off a garage forecourt in about 1998 and simply never left. I never chose it. It turned up, and it stayed, and I am not sure anybody in Britain has ever actually chosen their laundry basket. So this is not a review. It is a woman who finally chose one, saying why.
The basket I am writing about is called the Honey Daisy Bee Laundry Basket, from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I first saw it on the landing at my friend Vera's house, full of towels and standing there as smartly as a piece of furniture, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
Mine, on my own landing now. I assumed Vera's was decorative. It was full of towels.
Here is what twenty-six years with the plastic one taught me. A laundry basket lives in two states. Shoved out of sight when anyone knocks, because it is frankly an embarrassment. Or on display by accident, cracked handle and all, because you were halfway through the towels when the doorbell went. Somewhere along the way I accepted that the ugliest object in the house would be one I handled daily, and that was that.
I chose the curtains, the cushions and the doormat. The thing I actually touch every day just turned up in 1998.
This basket is the first one I have ever owned on purpose, and having filled it, carried it, wiped it and folded it away for a month, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. It popped up standing and has not slumped since.
It stands up on its own, even empty
The quilted sides hold their shape whether it is full of towels or holding nothing at all. No slumping, no sagging into a heap in the corner. Empty, it stands there looking deliberate, which is a word I have never before applied to a laundry basket.
Empty or full it stands there like a piece of furniture. The plastic one went to the tip the same week.
Ann B., DoncasterThe artwork wraps all the way round
The bee and the daisies go right round the basket, so there is no wrong side to turn to the wall. Wherever you put it down, whichever way it lands, it is facing the right way. The plastic one had two states as well. Ugly, and uglier.
The bee, close up, with the honeycomb quilting behind it. It faces the door and gets asked about.
There is no bad side to hide against the wall. The bee faces the door and every visitor comments.
Gillian F., HalifaxThe handles are stitched on properly
Two padded fabric handles, securely stitched, that a full load of wet washing has not troubled. They do not bite into your fingers on the stairs the way a cracked plastic rim does, which anyone who has carried a week's towels down two flights will appreciate.
The cuff and one of the handles. Padded, stitched, and kind to your hands.
Carried a full wash down two flights and the handles did not so much as creak.
Susan H., RiponQuilted and soft, but it wipes clean
The premium quilted material is soft to the touch but it shrugs off the everyday splashes a basket gets by the sink and under the line, wipes clean with a damp cloth, and can be washed properly when it needs it. Pretty things are usually precious. This one is not.
Splashed by the sink twice a week for a month. Wipes off with a cloth and looks new.
Brenda W., PontefractIt folds flat when you want it gone
Lightweight, and it folds down flat to slide under the bed or into the airing cupboard, then pops back up standing. When the family descends at Christmas and every corner is needed, the basket obliges. The plastic one never obliged anybody.
Folded flat and under the bed when my son visits with the dog. Pops back up like nothing happened.
Kathleen D., KeighleyThree sizes, and thirty designs
A small for the bathroom, a medium for the bedroom, a large for the family wash. And the honey bee is one design of thirty in the collection. There is one covered in sea turtles that I have been circling for the bathroom, which is how these things start, apparently.
Mine, and the turtle one I am pretending I have not decided about.
Medium for the bedroom and the small for the bathroom. The prettiest useful things I own.
Norma J., BarnsleyThis basket, against the one that just turned up
Nobody buys a laundry basket on purpose. That is the problem. One arrives, somehow, and stays for decades. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Cracked rim that bites your fingers
Shoved in the spare room when anyone knocks
Slumps, splits and yellows with age
One ugly side, then the other
Never chosen, never liked, never left
Padded stitched handles, kind on the stairs
Stays out, and gets asked about
Stands up smartly, even empty
Artwork that wraps right round
Chosen on purpose, at last
About the price
The small basket is £34.95 at the moment, from £70.00. The medium is £37.95 from £76.00, and the large, the family-wash one, is £41.95 from £80.00.
I am careful with money and I will not pretend otherwise, so I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that they are a small shop selling directly and there is a sale on to make room for the autumn stock. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that at that price the deliberation did not last long, and that Vera has since bought the large.
I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
On duty by the machine. The forecourt one went to the tip, twenty-six years of service, no tears shed.
If your laundry basket also just turned up one day and stayed, this is the one I would put in your hands myself, while the design you want is still there.
Pat
HONEY | DAISY BEE LAUNDRY BASKET
- ✓Stands upright on its own, even empty
- ✓Bee and daisy artwork that wraps all the way round
- ✓Padded, securely stitched fabric handles
- ✓Soft quilted material that wipes clean and washes
- ✓Folds flat and stores away when not needed
- ✓Three sizes, from £34.95 · 30 designs in the collection
- ✓FREE UK delivery & 100% happiness guarantee
Sale on now, making room for the autumn stock. The popular designs go first.