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I love baskets! We have a small-town retail store with a whole aisle-full of baskets–ones I can afford! I have a huge rectangular basket on the hearth that doubles as a home for library books and/or fleece throws, a small-medium-and-large nesting set of baskets that are currently serving the separate functions of holding: mismatched socks waiting for mates on hubby’s dresser, rolled up washcloths in bathroom, toddler’s board books in living room. I have an adorable square basket in the kitchen for napkins…I say adorable because I love its burgundy-checked gingham liner that perfectly matches my kitchen curtains…
My favorite basket of all? An Amish one my parents bought me. You can see it in the picture below. Hand-woven in natural colors with a simple navy/burgundy design added, it’s large enough to house my sewing things. 
Other decorative+functional uses for baskets:
- smallish square basket for holding potholders…perhaps on the microwave, or somewhere handy to the stove
- fruit basket on countertop or at breakfast nook
- magazine basket plus a book or two in the bathroom
- devotional basket–Bible, prayer journal, pens, candle. Mine would have to be by my coffee table, next to the couch…
- hanging plant-type baskets (you know the wire 3-in-1 kind that hang from the ceiling and vary in size?) needn’t be only for plants…use them in the kitchen for veggies and fruits, or hung in a bathroom short on space…they’d be great for washcloths, make-up, toothbrushes and toothpaste…
- plants…my African Violet would be beautiful tucked down in just the right sized basket on an end table
- stationary basket–a place for get-well notes, thank-you cards, birthday and anniversary cards to use in a pinch…and my favorite: You’re having a baby cards! You could also keep “snail mail” letters in this that have yet to be answered!
- I forgot to mention above that I inherited an antique picnic basket, and display it in my bathroom, lid open and propped against the wall by the tub. I keep our best towels (navy, dark brown, and cream–if you care about color schemes) rolled up in residence there
Can a woman have too many baskets? A place for everything, and everything in its place…
Tell me about your baskets!
I use baskets for these as well, “mismatched socks waiting for mates on hubby’s dresser, rolled up washcloths in bathroom, toddler’s board books in living room.” Plus recipe books in the kitchen and fruit and a junk box on my kitchen counter.
Though I’m not a basket lover, they do come in handy!
BTW, love the new site. I’m interested in knowing how it differs from free WP. And where can I get that “Notify me of follow up comments via email” button
Hi Gina,
Here is the URL for the subscribe-to-comments plug-in.
ETA: I think the main difference is most free WP blogs didn’t allow plug-ins–they may now that they’ve upgraded, I don’t know. I just got my own domain to hopefully increase my traffic, take advantage of search engines, and have a website behind it all. Still figuring out some of the differences, like gravatars etc.
I love baskets and I used to have a ton of them. Most of them were from Garden Ridge Pottery in San Antonio, Texas. I loved that place! I used to hang all my baskets on my kitchen ceiling. I became tired of that after awhile because it looked a little cluttered and the spiders loved them too! So, I started giving them away as ‘gift bags’ whenever someone had a birthday, etc. That brought me back to a manageable level.
My favorites: two that I made a few years ago. Our landlord at the time made baskets and hand-dyed them. She showed me how. They’ve last the longest too! I also love a set that I have that are large and rectangular and are rather shallow. I use these to take bread to pot-lucks, serve bread at home, take dishes out to the picnic table in the summer.
Love the new site! How fun for you!
baskets–DH thinks I’m a basketaholic, but I don’t think I have a basket in EVERY room…We have baskets to take stuff upstairs or down, to hold the remotes, magazines, books, napkins, fruit, perfumes, lotions, misc. baby paraphanalia in the bathroom, a diaper changing station upstairs and down, toys in my scrapbooking room… I’m getting winded just trying to think of them all. Odd though that I don’t have one I REALLY love. I just love their usefulness.
Are those pictures really your house? It looks like out of a catalogue. (That’s a compliment)
🙂 Deborah, you’ve been holding out on me! Now you know we’ve got to do a basket-weaving session with the girls! (Not today, of course! ha)
Hi Jessica, so glad to see you! You shared a lot of good ideas, I especially like the diaper changing supply basket! I’ll have to remember that one…it would be a neat shower gift, albeit kind of expensive…
The top pic is just one I found royalty free on the net, the bottom one is from my living room. Your compliment made my day! However, I’m sure we all have corners here and there that can look magazine pretty. My house for the most part is very humble! In almost 14 years of marriage, the only furniture we’ve bought new is our couch and dining table. Everything else is home-built or second hand. But it’s home sweet home to me!
LOL. You are a real basket-case, Mary (tongue-in-cheek) 🙂
That was a good one, Ann! I really am…ay-yi-yi!