I have wrapped birthday presents for fifty years. This is the first one I have ever written a letter about
I have wrapped birthday presents for fifty years. This is the first one I have ever written a letter about
Six things these quilted baskets get right as a present that a lifetime of candles, bath salts and scarves got wrong, written by a customer, not a home writer.
Maggie Whitfield · Customer · Cheshire · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Maggie, I am 67, I live in Cheshire with my husband Geoff and a labrador who thinks every parcel is for him, and in all my years I have never once written to a shop about anything. What I have done is buy presents. Fifty years of birthdays, retirements, thank yous and Christmases for sisters, friends, neighbours and the woman who does the church flowers. So this is not a review. It is a woman who has wrapped a great many things, saying which one was worth it.
The one I am writing about is called the Matilda, a quilted laundry basket from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly making the ordinary things a bit lovelier for a few years now. I first saw it at my friend Gwen’s seventieth birthday tea, 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.
It was a proper tea in her conservatory, scones and a sponge and the good cups, and the presents were the usual pile. Bath salts. A candle. A tin of shortbread. A very nice scarf. Then Gwen pulled the paper off one great soft parcel and stood up a basket covered in fat white sheep under a swirling night sky, with a big yellow moon, and she put her hand on her heart. It had come from a woman in her bowls club who, I am told, gives the present everybody talks about, every single year. Read on.
Gwen’s tea. Four of us were over to look at it before the cake was cut.
Here is what fifty years of present buying taught me. Presents for a woman our age come in two piles. The pile that is lovely and useless, the ornaments and the smellies and the good soap that sits in a drawer being saved for best until it cracks. And the pile that is useful and dull, the tea towels and the oven gloves, which say you gave it about four seconds of thought at the till.
Either it was pretty and went in a drawer, or it was useful and nobody looked at it twice. I had been giving both kinds for fifty years.
So I asked the woman from the bowls club, plainly, where it was from. Then I did what I always do, which was order one for myself first to see if it was any good, the sunflower one, fully expecting to send it back. It is still on my kitchen floor, and after a month of it, I can tell you why it works as a present in six things.
The sunflower one, the morning it came. The dog checked the bag for biscuits.
It is a present that gets used every single day
I am starting here because it is the whole point. Everybody has laundry, and everybody has a laundry basket they have never once thought about. This one is out on show from the day it arrives, full of towels by the back door or on the landing, and she sees it every morning. Gwen rang me a week after her birthday to say it was the only present she had used every day since. Nobody has ever said that to me about bath salts.
Mine, by the back door. Tea towels in, wellies out.
Bought it for my sister’s birthday. She says it is the first present from me she has not put in the loft.
Rita P., SwanageThere is a picture for every woman you know
This is where it becomes dangerous. There are around thirty designs, each with its own picture, and every one of them made me think of somebody. Sheep under a starry sky for Gwen, who grew up on a hill farm. Sunflowers for me, because my kitchen gets the afternoon sun. There are cats in a row, proud hens, dragonflies, a bee among daisies, Highland calves and a basket full of dogs. Choosing it is half the present. You are telling her you know what she likes.
I bought the hens for my neighbour who keeps chickens. She laughed out loud when she opened it.
Valerie H., WarehamThe picture goes all the way round
The artwork wraps right round the basket, so there is no plain back to turn to the wall and no wrong way to stand it. On the Matilda the sheep carry on round the hills and the swirls of the sky carry on round the top, and the quilting stitched across it all gives it a lovely soft texture you want to put your hand on. Gwen turned hers round twice at the table to see the rest of the flock.
The Matilda up close. That big sheep has a face you cannot be cross with.
Much nicer in real life than the picture. The stitching catches the light and there is something to look at on every side.
Doreen C., Corfe CastleIt stands up on its own, even empty
This is what made Gwen put her hand on her heart. The moment the paper came off, it stood up by itself on the conservatory floor like a piece of furniture, not a floppy bag that has to be propped against something. It keeps its shape with nothing in it at all, which means it looks smart on a landing or in a bedroom corner whether the washing is done or not.
I expected it to slump like the fabric ones I have had before. It stands up straight on its own, empty or full.
Maureen L., StudlandIt is light, and easy to wrap
Anyone who has tried to wrap a present that is not a box will know why this matters. The basket is light and soft, so a sheet of brown paper round the middle and a bit of garden twine at the top and it looks like it came from a proper shop. And because it is foldable, it will fold away neatly out of sight until the birthday comes round. I carried June’s up to the spare room without Geoff noticing a thing.
June’s, on the kitchen table. Brown paper, garden twine, done.
So easy to wrap compared with anything else I have given. Light as anything, and it looked lovely in plain paper.
Janet S., SwanageIt is soft, but it is sensible
A present for a laundry cupboard has to earn its keep, and this one does. The quilted outside wipes clean if something gets spilt on it and can be washed when it needs to be, and the two handles are stitched on properly, so she can carry a full load of towels up the stairs. It comes in three sizes, small at 14 by 18 inches for a bathroom, medium at 16 by 22 for a bedroom, and large at 20 by 28 for the family wash. I got June the medium.
Bought one for my daughter and one for myself the week after. Mine wipes clean in a second, and so does hers.
Lesley G., WarehamA basket from the collection, against the presents we usually give
You can spend thirty odd pounds on a present in any shop in the country. I know, because I have. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Put away for best and forgotten
One more thing to dust
Smells lovely for a week, then gone
Picked up in a hurry at the till
Awkward shapes that will not wrap
Used every single day
Tidies things away instead
Wipes clean, stays nice
Around thirty pictures, one for every woman
Light and soft, wraps in a minute
About the price
The Matilda is £34.95 in the small, down from £70.00, £37.95 in the medium, down from £76.00, and £41.95 in the large, down from £80.00. Every design in the collection is the same price, my sunflower one included.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the baskets are in the autumn sale to make room before the Christmas stock comes in, and that the popular designs do not tend to last into December. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that a markdown is usually where I start asking what is wrong with something, and after a month of mine in daily use, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered June’s. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. A good many of them were women who had bought one as a present and then gone back for one of their own, which is the same road I took, only backwards.
One for me, one for June, on the landing for one night only.
If you have a birthday coming up, or a sister who has everything, or a list for Christmas that already has three candles on it, this is the present I would choose for you myself, while the Matilda is still there. Pick the picture that is her. You will know it when you see it.
Maggie
THE DECORATIVE LAUNDRY BASKET COLLECTION
- Soft quilted basket, the picture wraps all the way round
- Stands up on its own, even empty
- Two handles, securely stitched
- Wipes clean, washable when needed
- Light and foldable, stores away neatly
- Three sizes: 14 by 18, 16 by 22 or 20 by 28 inches
- Free UK delivery
Autumn sale on now. Once a design is gone, it is gone.