Upgrade Your Laundry Basket!

Becoming a newlywed did not dramatically open my eyes to the world of men, especially having moved up to Oregon with my now husband 1 1/4 years before our wedding. But what it did do is make me more "aware" of his habits and how the not-so-cute ones needed solutions! One habit my husband has is taking off his dirty clothes and/or used towels and leaving them in a very specific corner of the guest bathroom. He also does this in a pile next to his side of the bed. Once he feels like doing laundry, he grabs both piles and washes them. Yes, we have laundry baskets in the walk-in closet. No, he doesn't use them.

So what is a new wife to do? Place the laundry basket in the bathroom of course!

Now, we have plenty of those white plastic baskets. They're cheap, they serve their purpose. I don't "need" to spend more money on those fancy wicker laundry baskets, but I do need to make those plastic baskets look good in our home, especially if it's in a guest-visited space.

My solution? Turn that white plastic basket into a frugal-girl's version of those expensive wicker ones!

What you'll need:

-Laundry Basket
-Spray Paint in color of choice (I grabbed Krylon Fusion in Hammer Finish brown; leftover from spray-painting some pots for our potted plants)
-and old fitted sheet (or buy a new cheap one)
-Needle and thread!

Make sure the basket is cleaned before you spray paint. Follow directions on spray can and do at least 2 coats with plenty of dry time in between. You don't have to worry about spraying the inside of the basket or that top lip as these will be covered by the sheet. Your end result should look something like this:

 

 

Now grab your fitted sheet and measure the sheet the approximate length of the basket's height from the fitted corners at the lip of the basket, down the center of the sheet towards the bottom of the basket. Cut across the sheet. 

 

With both corners in your hand, find the small loose ties from the sheet's threading and tie together.

 

With the sheet inside out, align the sides of the sheet together with right-sides facing each other. Pin together and sew. You now have a cylinder!

 

Place the sheet in your plastic basket inside out facing you. Fold the bunched-corners of the sheet over the lip, this makes the "right side" of the sheet now in the "inside" of the basket when you look in it.

 

Play with the sheet and figure out how you want it gathered going towards the bottom of the basket. Pin in place. Remove the sheet and sew the circumference of your material to hold the gathering in place. Place back in the basket.

 

You probably have a lot of material at the bottom of your basket at this point. To smooth the bottom out, take one semi-circle section of material and place it over the excess material. Pin in place, you will cut the excess material that is laying underneath it and sew the right-sides together, leaving you with a nice circular bottom.

 

 

 

Place it in your basket again and you're done! Now show it to your husband and tell him to start using the new basket and if you're lucky, he may be inspired to do the laundry too!