Better Homes And Gardens Hand Woven Willow Laundry Hamper Mocha
If you want a laundry basket that can hold a lot of weight and can stand up to constant use and abuse, The Container Store Stacking Laundry Basket is the best laundry basket out there. It holds a full week's worth of laundry, it's easy to carry with the attached handles, and it can stack to make sorting easier. The plastic is strong and the handle design is comfortable even when the basket is loaded with 40 pounds of weight. If you need a hamper, the Starplast Tall Flex Laundry Basket is strong and well ventilated.
Our pick
The Container Store's Stacking Laundry Basket is lightweight, sturdy, and easy to carry. It performed better than any other laundry basket in our testing. The handles—which tend to be a point of failure for baskets—held up to thorough testing with their simple but tough design. If you need more than one for a multi-person household or to separate lights and darks, this basket's ability to stack is a bonus.
Our pick
If you want a hamper over a traditional basket, we recommend the Starplast Tall Flex Laundry Basket. It's sturdy and well ventilated, so sweaty clothes won't get moldy, and because it's flexible, you can grip both handles in one hand for easy transport down steps.
Also great
The Honey-Can-Do SRT-01235 Heavy-Duty Triple Laundry Sorter allows you to separate dirty clothes between people or loads of laundry. Because it's on wheels, you can roll the whole thing to the laundry room or carry each bag individually.
Also great
If your laundry has to be out in the open in your bedroom, the hand-woven Seville Classics Water Hyacinth Oval Double Hamper is a nice option. It has two bins for sorting, and you can remove its canvas bag for transport to and from the laundry room.
Everything we recommend
Our pick
Our pick
Also great
Also great
Who should buy this
If you've got a laundry basket that holds all of your laundry and isn't falling apart, you probably don't need to replace it. Wait for it to fail first. But if you're still transporting all your clothes from the dryer in a sack that wrinkles them, it's time to move to a laundry basket.
A basket can store wet or dry clothes, dirty or clean, and will handle everything from holding the dirty clothes as they build up to transporting them to the washer and back. It's also sturdy enough to carry a box of detergent along with your laundry, no problem.
Baskets vs. hampers
While baskets are open on top and usually wider than tall, hampers are taller with a smaller footprint and sometimes have lids.
Generally, the benefit of a basket versus a hamper or a bag is that it performs double duty: It stores dirty clothes for transport to the laundry room and carries the folded, clean clothes back. Ample ventilation and volume ensure that wet clothes and still-damp clean clothes don't attract mold or mildew. We have some suggestions for hampers as well, but if you're only getting one, the basket is all you need.
That having been said, a laundry basket can't handle everything. If you need to move clothes one-handed or possibly down very narrow staircases, or if you walk or take public transit to your laundromat, a one-basket solution may not work—you might consider a laundry hamper or bag system.
How we picked
No surprise: Buying guides for laundry baskets and hampers are virtually nonexistent. The majority of the "guides" that do exist are nothing more than slideshows of laundry baskets and hampers that an editor considered pretty enough to put on screen. After a good amount of digging, I did find a pair of guides with basic and utilitarian, but important, recommendations.
Even though there are ecological reasons to avoid plastic, we chose plastic laundry baskets for several reasons.
Plastic won't warp or disfigure from exposure to water and, unlike wicker, resists mold and mildew. Both plastic and wicker are lightweight and portable, but considering laundry is often damp, a hamper that won't let your clothes breathe isn't a good pick. I've had many workout clothes left in the bottom of canvas hampers develop mold but none that have been left in well-ventilated baskets. Some baskets or hampers are made by covering cardboard with a coated material, like the Rubbermaid 4D06. If that cardboard inside gets wet the basket is ruined.
Plastic is very strong for its weight, making it easy to transport laundry up and down stairs or to and from a car. Loads of laundry can get heavy, especially when transporting wet clothes from a washer to a dryer. A lightweight basket or hamper makes moving laundry easier.
Sturdy, comfortable handles are also important with heavy loads of laundry. Many baskets use trim pieces on their handles that look nice, but create a weaker joint. Some also have ridges on the underside of the handles that add some security, but dig into your flesh. Multiple sets of handles to hold the basket lengthwise or widthwise are nice.
Look for a smooth finish that won't snag clothes. Wicker baskets especially are prone to small breaks that can snag fabric. A smooth, flat finish will prevent your basket from damaging your clothing.
Ventilation is good for both wet, smelly workout clothes and clean, slightly damp clothes. Damp clothes buried in the bottom of a non-breathable hamper or basket are prone to developing mold. (I've had it happen.) A well-ventilated bag or basket can prevent this. It also works well for items that might not get totally dry in the dryer, such as jeans or towels.
A rectangular shape will hold clothes most efficiently once they're folded. Shaped, hip-hugging baskets seem nice, but hold less volume and really aren't any easier to carry. Most clothes fold into nice rectangles or squares, and the curve of hip-hugging baskets leads to items like pants not lying flat. They then take up more room and are likely to wrinkle. Square baskets hold as much dirty laundry as rectangular ones due to their greater depth, but are troublesome when trying to overload the basket. Round baskets and hampers don't hold folded clothes well at all.
Most laundry baskets range from 1.5 bushels to 2.2 bushels, but most people will be suited just fine by a basket on the smaller side of that range. A 1.6-bushel basket can hold two full loads of laundry, about a full week's worth of clothes for a tall adult like myself. It easily holds more than a week's worth of clothes for my wife, who is more average-sized than I am, and five to six days' worth of clothes for a pair of toddlers.
A basket with two bushels or greater capacity certainly has more space and can hold a good 10 days' worth of clothes, but also weighs far more when loaded, which puts more stress on the basket handles. If you do laundry weekly, a 1.5-bushel basket should be enough. If you go through multiple sets of clothes every day (work clothes, casual clothes, workout clothes) or do laundry less frequently, you may need to consider larger or multiple baskets.
We knew the qualities we wanted, but actually finding a high-quality laundry basket was much harder than we expected. For as simple a device as it is, most are designed with some critical flaw. With the above goals in mind, I began a thorough survey of all the laundry baskets and hampers on the market. I read hundreds of reviews from Amazon, Walmart, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, The Container Store, and more to narrow down a list of possible contenders. I visited local stores to examine the contenders up close and in person. Do the handles feel good? Does it hold enough laundry? Does it feel well made?
In the end, I evaluated more than 30 models to determine what makes a laundry basket good and uncover which one you should buy. I went to stores and loaded the baskets up with towels and bedding to get an idea of their capacity and how they felt when loaded. I read countless reviews and talked to people about their laundry baskets. I finally narrowed it down to a few final contenders and bought them for use with my own laundry before determining a final winner.
Our laundry basket pick: The Container Store Stacking Laundry Basket
Our pick
The Container Store Stacking Laundry Basket succeeds because of its simplicity and lack of outstanding weaknesses, which makes it stand out in the world of laundry baskets. It's plastic, lightweight, easy to carry, durable and spacious enough for a whole load of laundry. As simple as that sounds, it's actually the only basket we found that checked all those requirements while simultaneously avoiding failures in other respects.
Its stacking feature is a bonus that didn't weigh into my selection, but it does make it easier to sort laundry if you're managing a multi-person household with lots of lights, darks and towels all needing their own separate baskets.
The size of The Container Store Stacking Laundry Basket (which used to be sold under the Sterilite brand) proves to be a benefit when moving up and down narrow stairwells. The two-bushel Sterilite Ultra Laundry Basket we tested left no room for my arms on the side when going down my basement stairwell. The Stacking Basket is a bit narrower and allows more room to maneuver in these tight spots. The square basket also proves useful in narrow stairwells, unlike a hip-hugging design.
If we define "good design" as the form factor most conducive to the task at hand, then this one from The Container Store is very well designed. The interior is smooth and won't snag your laundry. It is well-ventilated, so wet, dirty clothes or damp clean clothes will both be able to dry out. The basket itself is a single piece of plastic, making it strong and durable. Many baskets have thinner plastic around the handles to allow for two-piece construction, which winds up weakening the joint. I was skeptical of the strength of the handles on the Stacking Basket at the start, but the design is simple yet solid, with few points for failure.
The handles were our only point of concern, but after thorough testing, I'm confident that they will last a long time. When empty, this basket weighs 2.2 pounds. I loaded it up with my laundry for the week: 11 pairs of socks, seven pairs of boxer shorts, three pairs of slacks, three pairs of jeans, one pair of sweatpants and 16 shirts. As a 6-foot-3, 165-pound male, I have fairly bulky clothes, but they all fit inside of The Container Store basket. If you do laundry weekly, instead of every 10-14 days as I do, you'll fit it all in more easily.
With all of that laundry, the basket now tipped the scales at 21.4 pounds. I then proceeded to abuse the handles as much as I could, torquing, twisting and straining them to the best of my ability. I shook the basket violently. I tried to pull the handles out from the sides. I did everything I could to destroy them or cause them to pop out and failed. In comparison, the handles of the two-bushel Sterilite Ultra Basket we tested flexed and broke under this stress. They felt good while they survived, but they did break. The Rubbermaid laundry basket handles dig into your flesh if carrying a full load. The square 1.5-bushel Sterilite was unable to hold the full load due to its less-efficient size but the handles did not fail.
Undeterred, I added 20 pounds of hand weights to the basket as well. Even weighing more than 40 pounds, The Container Store Stacking Basket was still easy on the hands, though much heavier than any load of laundry will ever be. I repeated the same attempted destruction on the basket and the handles held up to the abuse. For further testing, I handed it off to a pair of breakage experts, my three-year-old and one-year-old sons, and let them have their way. After a week of solid usage by them, the handles remained locked in The Container Store basket. Basically, if these handles break off, it will be because it was a lemon that made it past quality control, not bad design.
The Container Store Stacking Basket isn't large, but it's large enough (and not so large as to encourage skipping weekly laundering). It has a 1.5-bushel capacity, enough for the average person that does laundry weekly. The rectangular shape makes it easier to stack and sort than a curved or square design. My clothes are large due to my height, but I can fit a full wash cycle folded into this basket without an issue.
Laundry hampers
Hampers are mostly for storing dirty clothes because their deeper, taller shape isn't well-suited to carrying folded, clean clothes. As a result, they complement the laundry basket but don't replace it, and only really need to be bought if you have a reason for one, like stylistic concerns or the need for a one-handed design that can be hauled like a sack.
Ventilation is even more important in hampers than it is in baskets. The narrow, tall design means that a wet item placed at the bottom of the hamper could be totally buried the first day and not washed until the hamper is full. That means it might be a full week or more for items to sit and develop mold or mildew. Good air circulation will help prevent this by allowing those wet or sweaty items to air out. Airflow also helps get out the smell from clothing that sits in there for a few days.
A good hamper should also be easier to carry with one hand, since that is one of the primary benefits of a hamper over a basket. Hampers with a removable bag are also good, as that makes it easy to toss the bag in with your wash, keeping the hamper itself clean and free of mold and mildew.
The cheapest, most basic option is a round basket hamper. We look for many of the same things in these that we do in the basket: plastic construction, ventilation and carrying handles. Since this basket will typically only hold dirty clothes, being able to carry folded laundry is not as important to our decision here.
Pop-up hampers are another option, but not a good one. Since you'll always have dirty laundry around, the hamper will rarely, if ever, actually need to be stored away. The mesh makes it very light and breathable but is a very weak material to construct a hamper out of. When completely filled with clothes, the hamper gets weighed down and prone to ripping and falling apart. A conventional laundry hamper takes up the same amount of space and is both more durable and cheaper.
Our laundry hampers pick: Starplast Tall Flex Laundry Basket
Our pick
The best hamper option is the Starplast Tall Flex Laundry Basket, found at Bed Bath & Beyond. Available in blue or white and costing only $9, they're everything you want in a laundry hamper. They're sturdy and well-built, so they won't fall apart. The plastic construction is smooth and won't snag your clothes. There is a lot of ventilation so even sweaty clothes at the bottom of the basket will dry out over a week and not develop mold. They're also flexible, which lets you grab both handles with a single hand to carry it up and down the stairs. If you like sorting your clothes into lights and darks, you can get two of the hampers and carry one with each hand. They aren't fancy and won't look stylish in your bedroom, but they will do the job.
For sorting your laundry: Honey-Can-Do SRT-01235 Heavy-Duty Triple Laundry Sorter
Also great
If you want a nicer way to sort your dirty clothes, get the Honey-Can-Do Heavy-Duty Triple Laundry Sorter. With three separate bags that can each be carried with a single hand, it provides enough space for multiple people to keep their dirty laundry sorted, or for one person to sort their laundry into whites, darks, and colors. The rack is sturdy and won't wobble or fall apart, and the bags are solid—although they are canvas and thus won't breathe as well as plastic or mesh. After reading user reviews, we found that the mesh and plastic ones had too many durability issues to recommend.
An attractive option: Seville Classics Water Hyacinth Oval Double Hamper, Hand-Woven
Also great
Some people also want a more stylish hamper that can be left out in the bedroom. It doesn't perform any better, or even as well, as our previous picks, but if appearance really is your primary concern, the Seville Classics Hand-Woven Oval Double Hamper will keep your laundry sorted and the wicker looks much nicer in a bedroom than plastic hampers do. There are two bins to allow for easy sorting of lights and darks. It also features removable canvas bags that are easy to take out and carry while leaving the heavier hamper behind. This also keeps the wicker from snagging your clothes. It's much more expensive than anything else we reviewed, and you will still need a laundry basket to transport clean, folded clothes, but it is the most functional pick of the better-looking hampers.
The competition
Rubbermaid and Sterilite make hip-hugger baskets, but neither holds as much as a rectangular basket, and both feature less sturdy handles than on the regular Rubbermaid model.
The Rubbermaid Stack'N Sort laundry basket is a rectangular design, and like our top Container Store pick, these can be stacked on top of each other for sorting. In person, they are hard to stack compared to our pick and the handles pop out of place easily. It costs more than The Container Store basket and doesn't perform as well.
As far as hampers go, the Seville Classics 3-Bag Laundry Sorter might look like a pretty good option, but the slightly smaller wheels and fewer long-term reviews made the Honey-Can-Do a better pick.
The Whitmor Chrome Laundry Sorter has mesh bags to help prevent mold and mildew on dirty clothes, but reviews indicate that the bags are weak and fall apart fast.
The Household Essentials Hanging Cotton Canvas Laundry Hamper Bag is sturdy and can hang out of the way, but holds very little and doesn't breathe particularly well. Wet washcloths I left in it were still wet days later. It's also small—a grown adult would likely fill this up in just a few days. It's a good option if you need something for a low-traffic laundry area, but wouldn't work as a main solution.
The Rubbermaid Flex-N-Carry plastic hamper is nicely designed, but compared to the Starplast, its only advantage is a nicer handle. It also costs nearly four times as much as the Starplast, making it a much worse value overall.
The Rubbermaid Foldable Laundry Hamper was the top-selling hamper on Amazon at the time of testing, with a nice design and easy one-handed carrying. Unfortunately, it's based around cardboard, and there are pictures of it failing if you happen to get it too wet. It also does not breathe well due to the design.
DAZZ Deluxe Pop-Up Hamper has hundreds of reviews on Amazon, giving us a lot of reliability data to use. The overall design looks good, with a pocket for laundry soap and easy carry handles at at top. But more than 10 percent of the reviews report that it rips very easily after purchase and is cheaply made. It also costs more than our regular hamper pick.
The Whitmor 18-inch Collapsible Hamper has far less data to go off of but also an overall good rating. There are still a lot of people reporting that it falls apart easily. Many of the positive reviews come from people using it for something other than laundry, such as a butterfly habitat or chameleon transporter. It lacks the side pockets of the DAZZ model and still costs more that the regular, sturdy hamper from Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Sources
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Lauren Hill, How to Buy a Laundry Basket, Mama's Laundry Talk , January 26, 2012
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How Do I Choose the Best Laundry Baskets?, WiseGeek
About your guide
Chris Heinonen is a senior staff writer reporting on TVs, projectors, and sometimes audio gear at Wirecutter. He has been covering AV since 2008 for a number of online publications and is an ISF-certified video calibrator. He used to write computer software and hopes to never do that again, and he also loves to run and test gear for running guides.
Better Homes And Gardens Hand Woven Willow Laundry Hamper Mocha
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-laundry-basket/
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