At 63, I Replaced The One Thing In My House I'd Stopped Noticing (Lulu)
AT 63, I REPLACED THE ONE THING IN MY HOUSE I'D STOPPED NOTICING
I have never once in my life given a moment's thought to my laundry basket. It was the sort of thing that existed the way skirting boards exist — present, doing its job, entirely beneath consideration. Which is why it took someone else, someone twenty-six years old and far too polite to say what she actually meant, to make me see it properly for the first time in a decade.
I hadn't thought about that basket in ten years. Someone else had to notice it for me.
It was an old canvas bag with a broken drawstring, slumped in the corner of the laundry room by the machine. It had been there so long I had genuinely stopped seeing it. You do that with things you walk past every day — the eye simply edits them out.
Then Freya Came To Stay
My son brought his girlfriend Freya home for the first time back in the autumn. I gave her the tour, as you do, pointing out nothing of consequence — and I caught her glance land, just briefly, on that laundry room corner. She didn't say a word. She didn't have to. I went and looked at it properly that evening for the first time in years, and I understood exactly what she'd seen.
It was my friend Carol, of all people, who mentioned Eleanor & Co Australia a few weeks later — a small place, she said, that did proper quilted laundry baskets that actually stood up on their own, not the floppy canvas sort that collapses the second it's empty. Carol has two cats and is therefore entirely biased, so of course she'd bought the Lulu — a ginger cat and a black cat curled up on a stack of old books, with butterflies and wildflowers all the way round. I ordered one that same evening, more out of curiosity than conviction.
What Susan Said When She Came To Stay
My daughter Susan stayed the following weekend, and she's not someone who comments on soft furnishings — she's far too sensible for that. But she stopped in the mudroom doorway and said it looked "finished" in a way she couldn't quite explain, and it took me a moment to realise it was the basket. It stands up entirely on its own, even empty, and just then it was filled with a stack of folded throws waiting to go through to the linen press, the two cats peering out from under them by the coat pegs like they had always lived there.
Three Things I Have Learned
One. It holds its shape. Empty or piled with a fortnight's washing, it stands up entirely on its own. No sad collapsed canvas bag slumped on the floor.
Two. It actually wipes clean. The cotton-poly quilted fabric wipes down properly, unlike the old canvas one, which had gone grubby and grim after ten years of use.
Three. There's a size for every room. Small, Medium and Large, so it's not one basket trying to do every job in the house — I went with the Medium for the mudroom.
About The Price
I went in expecting it to be one of those things that looks lovely for a fortnight and then sags. It's $69.95 for the Medium, down from $174.95. I read the reviews before I ordered, the way I imagine you're doing now — 4.7 stars from over 900 of them, not a suspiciously perfect five, which if anything made me trust it more. No countdown timer pushing me to decide before I'd read the description properly — just the basket, and a returns policy if I'd got it wrong.
"I bought it thinking it would be a pretty thing that flopped over, and it doesn't — it stands there properly even with nothing in it. It lives in the corner of the bedroom now instead of behind the door." — Christine H., 61
What I Would Tell You If We Were Friends
If you've got a laundry basket you've stopped seeing too — the sort that's just there, quietly doing a mediocre job in the corner — it's worth five minutes to actually look at it again the way Freya looked at mine. You might be surprised what you've been walking past.
I didn't think a laundry basket could make a room feel finished, until it did.
Robyn
Lulu – Cat Parade Laundry Basket
- Self-standing — holds its shape empty or full
- Cotton-poly quilted blend, wipes clean
- Sturdy canvas carry handles
- Available in Small ($59.95), Medium ($69.95) and Large ($84.95)
- Free Australia-wide shipping