5 Reasons Women Across Texas Are Throwing Out Their Plastic Laundry Baskets
5 Reasons Women Across Texas Are Throwing Out Their Plastic Laundry Baskets
I did not expect to have opinions about a laundry basket. I now have exactly five.
By Peggy Dalton, a customer in Austin, Texas · 4 min read
- A stitched lamb meadow that makes it the first basket worth leaving out
- Stands upright on its own, whether empty or full
- Two 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 photos, below. The basket is the Matilda, from Iris and Nora here in Austin.
First, how I got here. My neighbor Carol went to Galveston and left me her cat, and in her laundry room stood a quilted basket covered in little black-faced sheep under a swirly painted sky, looking like folk art that had wandered in from a craft fair. I assumed three figures. It was on sale at a small Austin boutique. I ordered one the day she told me, 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 washer. 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 meadow wrapping around it, black-faced sheep with cartoon eyes, cypress trees, a swirling sky with a golden sun, like a storybook and a Van Gogh had a very productive meeting.
And the part I checked before buying: the scene is quilted in, stitch by stitch, not printed on. It has raised texture you can feel, which is why it reads as folk art from across the room instead of novelty from up close.
The day it came. The sheep are stitched, not printed. You can see the relief.
It stands up on its own
The quilting is soft to touch but structured, so it 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, standing at attention. This is the whole engineering argument.
It carries like a bag
This is the one nobody believes until they live with it. Two proper fabric handles are stitched in under the rim, so a full load goes down the hallway on one arm like an oversized tote. No hugging a cracked plastic tub to your chest, no pinched fingers in those thin cut-out grips, no bumping every doorframe on the way.
Down the hall on one arm. My old plastic one required a full embrace.
It folds completely flat
This is the one that sold my sister. Company coming and the guest room needs clearing? It collapses flat like a disc and slides beside the cabinet or onto a shelf. A rigid plastic tub never once managed that in forty years of my asking.
Folded flat beside the cabinet. 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, on the treadmill. Nobody wants to look away from the sheep, so the sheep 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, favorite lamb bottom left.
I already did. The small lives in the bathroom, the large in the bedroom, and the cracked plastic tub went to the curb without a eulogy. If a laundry basket can be a small daily pleasure, and it turns out it can, this is the one.
— Peggy Dalton, Austin
Two practical things before you go. They are made to order in runs, and once a run is gone, it is gone until the next one. And the lambs are one design of dozens, cats, dogs, gardens, seasides, all in the same quilted style, so there will be one that is properly you.
MATILDA | Lamb Meadow Laundry Basket
Small $54.95 · Medium $59.95 · Large $64.95 · Free shipping
See The Laundry Basket CollectionMade to order in runs. Once a run is gone, it is gone.
Peggy Dalton is 63 and lives in Austin, Texas. She is a customer, not a writer, and she was not paid for this list.
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