Laundry baskets used to be the catch-all for all odds bits of stuff in my life and while they do sell them over here, I’ve not been in a mad rush to go out and buy one. That’s right … there are no laundry baskets at all in this house.
In my previous life, clean clothes rarely seemed to make their way out of the baskets and into the dresser drawers. I’d fold the clothes, put them back in the basket, carry the basket to the appropriate room, and there it would sit until it was practically empty because I hated putting up laundry. These days,with no laundry baskets in the house and no tumble dryer for me to hit the refresh button, things tend to go directly they belong.
An added benefit to our no basket approach is I no longer have a place to stash miscellaneous stuff to sort out later. It either goes into the proper place for it or it finds a new home.
You may be thinking with only a drying rack and an outdoor clothesline … how do they transport the wet stuff?
I snapped the photo below the other day to show you how we do it here. The sun was shining so it we had a big wash day and after filling the clothesline you can see hanging in the very back, I moved the drying rack outside too to take advantage of the weather.
When you live in a place with frequent rain and no dryer by choice (John’s choice, not mine, but I’ve adjusted) you learn not to put things off. And with only one very old baby’s bathtub to get the wet stuff from washer to clothesline, it gets used and put away afterwards so it’s always empty and at the ready for a good wash day.
John’s been using his niece’s old bathtub to transport washed clothes outside to the clothesline since he found it in his dad’s attic after his father died in 1997. The plastic bathtub’s former occupant turned 29 earlier this week and while she looks great, the plastic on the tub is beginning to crack.
If I know my ‘use it up or wear it out’ husband at all, I’m betting we’ll use it another year or two before we buy something more traditional like the one below.
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Having had time to learn the new behaviors I mentioned above, I think I’ll be okay having a laundry basket in the house again, but only if we stop with just one.
Gifts Of The Journey 
LOL! Oh, my dear. I do admire your spirit. When I downsized to my tiny cottage last year, there was no room for a laundry basket either, so now laundry is stored in what used to be my garbage bin and tucked away under my hanging robe in the bathroom. But it will fill to overflow before I actually marched it down to the main house where there is a state-of-the-art washer/dryer and get it done. My least favorite chore. Although, seeing your drying rack, I’m now tempted to get a small one of my own. We do have plenty of the freshest air on my mountaintop.
We have the same drying rack. If it’s sunny it’s out on the deck, if it’s raining I get to look at it all day in the kitchen, but I’m with John, through choice I dispensed with my dryer a good few years ago. It must be a ‘clothes’ day today, I have spent the day in the most unglamourous get up, emptying, cleaning and editing our wardrobe before refilling it. As it is a walk-in type with lots of open shelves it was long overdue. It looks so much better now.
Think yourself lucky Elizabeth – everyone in this house is on ‘use it up AND wear it out orders!!’ xx
I’m rather partial to milk container carriers (are there any any more?) and small bowls and votive candle holders for storage. I mean, really, in 650 sq feet there’s no one place for every odd and end. Already have two drawers full. But, I only have one wash basket!!! And it’s only used to carry wash to the washer and dryer and then back into the house, clothes folded, where it will be placed under the table that is draped for discretion– completely empty. This post has made me feel highly virtuous.
I have a clothes line, a drying rack and, sadly laundry baskets. I am guilty of laundry basket storage!
You give me hope.
When I lived in France for a month a couple of years ago, I was surprised how easy it was to do without a dryer. It seems so absolutley wasteful and stupid that clotheslines are not allowed here in my condo complex in California. Oh, yes, let’s gobble up more energy in a land where the sun is almost always shining.
Gave up a dryer many years ago. My storage bete noir is Sainsbury’s/Tesco’s heavy duty recycleable shopping bags. So much less classy!