Our laundry bin solution to the mounds and baskets of dirty clothes

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This laundry bin was a great solution to our laundry woes. As I am sure you can imagine with several dogs and a young child, we do some laundry. That means four or five laundry baskets right in our kitchen/laundry...one for darks, whites, kid's clothes, towels, delicates. Tripping over them, kid(s) dumping them out, dogs knocking them over...mass hysteria right?

 

Now you have it all separated, and you have the first load going , great. Now, cue the kid again, cue the dogs, bump in to the laundry baskets maybe even throw one?

Unload, dry, rinse, repeat right??? Over and over again, every other day at least.

We gave our baskets the middle finger and added our bin on wheels.

Steele Laundry Bin and Washer/ Dryer Everything goes in, sorted right from the basket.

Nothing to knock over, for anyone to dump out, difficult (but not impossible for our hulk dogs) to knock over.

It's heaven, in the laundry room (& kitchen) with this bin, and its so much fun to "shoot" the dirty dish towel directly into it.

I must have seen these bad boys at a previous Brimfield Fair (which is the East Coast's biggest and greatest antique show), because when I set out this past summer for another trip the laundry bin was the first thing on my list to find. Usually when you have a list like that and have previously seen an item, you can't find it the next year because someone far smarter than you grabbed it while you stood around wondering if you should. Then you kicked yourself all year long for waiting to pick it up.

Seems the laundry gods were looking out for me on this day because not only did I happen across this bin, but at least 5 others at one of the venders. This badboy happened to be one of the smallest and with hardly any stamping so he gave it to me for 65$!

I couldn't believe my lucky stars when I saw the bins all nicely covered with fabric, no sharp rusted metal,  in darn near perfect condition, and small enough for our little laundry space. It would only make sense that they would be wayyyyy out of budget (Murphys law ehh?). So paid him a quick as I could just incase he changed his mind.

Turns out they came out of an old textile factory and he had hardly any interest in them so far, so he wasn't going to make me pay a ton for 1 of the 6 or more he still had lying around.

Want a similar laundry bin?

If your interested in getting one of your own I found new versions you can buy from Steele Canvas American Made right here in Massachusetts since 1921 (perfect for our home which was built in the early 20's). Or you can search out some textile factories in your area, see if they have any broken versions they are willing to sell you and you can do a quick repair, otherwise I'll see you at the Brimfield Antiques Show searching them out!

 

Reality Check

No matter what you do to try and keep a small galley kitchen/ laundry room organized and clean even a giant bin doesn't help us all the time. Its usually a crazy mess in our household, and thats just the time in our lives , wouldn't have it any other way.

Anyone have some good tips on how to keep the laundry corralled in a small space?