A LETTER FROM ROBYN, ABOUT THE LAUNDRY BASKET WITH THE HONEY BEE ON IT

A letter from a reader

EVERY DAY I CARRIED THE UGLIEST THING I OWN OUT TO THE PRETTIEST CORNER OF MY GARDEN. NOT ANY MORE

Six things this quilted basket gets right that twenty-seven years of plastic never did, from a woman who had never given her laundry basket a second look until she saw somebody else’s.

Robyn McKenzie · Customer · Whitianga · 5 min read

I

’m 67, I live in Whitianga, and I’ll start with a confession. The best spot in my whole garden is the washing line. It sits on the lawn under the old pōhutukawa, and on a clear morning you can hear the sea from it. In December, when the tree flowers, the grass underneath goes red. I’ve hung washing out there nearly every day for twenty-seven years, and I’ve never once minded.

I

’m 67, I live in Whitianga, and I’ll start with a confession. The best spot in my whole garden is the washing line. It sits on the lawn under the old pōhutukawa, and on a clear morning you can hear the sea from it. In December, when the tree flowers, the grass underneath goes red. I’ve hung washing out there nearly every day for twenty-seven years, and I’ve never once minded.

But every single one of those days, I carried my washing out in a split blue plastic basket from a hardware store sale in 1999. One handle cracked in about 2004. The bottom has a crack I’ve been ignoring since the grandchildren were in nappies. Every day I carried the ugliest thing I own out to the prettiest corner of my garden, and it never occurred to me that I could do it any differently. So this isn’t a review. It’s a woman who finally noticed what she’d been carrying, and did something about it.


The basket I’m writing about is the Honey Daisy Bee Laundry Basket, from Eleanor & James, a small boutique over the hill in Coromandel that makes lovely everyday things for women our age. The first time I saw it was in my friend Denise’s laundry, when I popped round to borrow some pegs. It was standing by her machine as smartly as a piece of furniture, with a quilted honey bee on the front and daisies all the way round. I picked it up to have a proper look, and nearly dropped it. When I wrote to Eleanor & James about it later and they asked if they could share my letter, I said yes, on one condition: that I could be completely honest, including about the blue one.

Mine, on my own landing now. I assumed Denise's was decorative. It was full of towels.

Here is what twenty-seven years with the blue one taught me. A laundry basket here lives in one of two places. Tucked behind the laundry door, out of sight, because frankly it’s an embarrassment. Or sitting out on the lawn by the line half the morning while the washing dries, in full view of anyone walking past to the beach, the neighbours over the fence and the grandchildren coming up the drive. In a beach town, everybody walks past.

 

I’d spent years making that garden lovely: the pōhutukawa, the hebes along the fence, the herb pots by the back step.

 

And right in the middle of it, every single day, sat a split blue plastic basket. I’d simply stopped seeing it. Everyone else hadn’t.

This is the first laundry basket I’ve ever owned on purpose. I’ve filled it, carried it out to the line, left it on the lawn through a passing shower, wiped it and folded it away for a month now, and I can tell you it comes down to six things.

The morning it arrived. It popped up standing and has not slumped since.

1

IT STANDS UP ON HIS 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.

Barbara T., Wharekaho

2

THE 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.

Wendy M., Kaimarama

3

THE 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.

Christine W., Kereta

4

QUILTED 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.

Janice T., Kennedy Bay

5

IT 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.

Margaret W., Pukepoto

6

THREE 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.

Helen P., Ōtāpaurau

SEE WHICH DESIGNS ARE STILL IN STOCK

THIS 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.

THE FORECOURT PLASTIC ONE

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

THE DAISY HONEY BEE BASKET

Padded stitched handles, kind on 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 $74.95 NZD at the moment, from $187.00. The medium is $84.95 NZD from $210.00, and the large, the family-wash one, is $94.95 NZD from $235.00 NZD.

 

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 spring sale on to make room for the summer 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 Denise 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.

4.2 ★

FROM 300+ REVIEWS

100%

100% HAPPINESS GUARANTEE

FREE

NZ DELIVERY

On duty by the machine. The forecourt one went to the tip, twenty-seven 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.

Robyn

DAISY | HONEY BEE LAUNDRY BASKET

4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

$210.00 NZD

$74.95 NZD

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 $74.95 NZD · 30 designs in the collection

Free NZ delivery and 100% happiness guarantee

SEE WHICH DESIGNS ARE STILL IN STOCK

Sale on now, making room for the summer stock. The popular designs go first.

About the writer. Robyn McKenzie is 67 and lives in Whitianga. She is a customer, not a writer, and she was not paid to write this letter.

This page is an advertisement for Eleanor & James. Eleanor & James · Free NZ delivery · 30 day returns 
Product not found