Are collapsible laundry baskets any good for saving space at home?

[Plumcorkyduff]

Does anyone have those collapsible laundry baskets that squash down? Are they any good? Always tripping over mine as don’t have anywhere really to keep them, and they seem to follow me round the house like a couple of toddlers. Would like to be able to stuff them in a cupboard. (Note ; I didn’t do this to my toddlers 😁)

Laid awake as usual and pondering all the important things in life. 😉

Yes we love ours! We have two. When you're not using them you can just flatten them and put them somewhere. On durability, we've had one of them for over five years and it's not even cracking at the handles like our old baskets always did.

I have two and they don't save space but only because no bugger except me puts their laundry away when it's clean so they're always full!

I have one am on the fence about it.It ends up in the normal laundry basket often.
I imagine if you are diligent and put clothes away regularly it might be good.

Yes. Very good. I store mine flat on top of the machine which bizarrely is in the cloakroom of my tiny modern house.

I bought one, instant regret.

Firstly, my washing baskets are NEVER empty, for there may never be a day I do not have ironing or random socks that I'm waiting to find the partner for.

Secondly, the rubber part broke very quickly so I couldn't squash it down even if I tried, and because the rubber part broke it left a hole in the side of the basket 😤

I love mine. Had one for about five years. The rubber began to crack but was still usable, and I only replaced it because I saw one in Lidl so replaced it. Folds flat and stays on top of machine. Would never go back to a non collapsible one

I have absolutely no storage in my little flat so use a folding crate for my laundry. It fits down the side of the fridge when not in use.

My laundry baskets are always in use - they sit on the bedroom floor gathering dirty clothes, I take one downstairs, put wash on overnight, empty into basket next morning & hang on airer then basket goes straight back upstairs to start the cycle again.

Clean clothes are folded from the airer & just carried upstairs & put away, no basket involved in this.

We just use big blue ikea bags. I've got a few and I can sort everyone's clean washing into their own bag then store them together in one bag which hangs on a hook in a cupboard.

I’ve tried a few and hated most of them. I find the flexible silicone bits break away from the main frame quite quickly so I’ve had to replace them, and also most of them don’t have a handle to hold with just one hand so you either have to use both hands or hold against your hip, which is a pain for going upstairs- but that may be a niche bug bear.

BUT I have found one I’m really happy with so far. And it was super cheap!

It’s a collapsible net basket with some flexible wires to keep it rigid. But it folds down into itself so it’s totally flat and you can even fold it into a little circle of you want. I’m actually going to take it in our next holiday because I can stuff our daily washing in it and take it down to the laundry rather than 5 carrier bags. And it was only £7.99 so if it doesn’t last that long I won’t care.

edit to add I’ve attached photo but it’s waiting to be approved

Where do you put your dirty laundry if your baskets are folded down or squashed into a cupboard?

@mathanxiety a laundry hamper that stays wherever you have it. I’d sort of assumed everyone has that. This one is to ferry laundry from hamper to machine to washing line to ironing board (on the odd occasion that features) to the cupboards/drawers.

The collapsible ones with rubber don't last long - mine broke after about a year. The rubber deteriorates fast.

I have a collapsible crate which is a lot more durable

Buy Argos Home 3 x 32L Plastic Storage Folding Crates - Grey | Plastic storage boxes and drawers | Argos

Yes. Brabantia foldables. Game changer. I bought 3 six years ago and suspected I needed therapy as, at the time, they were £85 in total. They’re now £30 each, and I’d still buy them. Ours have survived 3 teenage boys (who were expected to be involved in family laundry, so chucked about a bit, kicked along the floor etc.) and a cat and don’t look any different from when they were new.
They squash down so they are nearly flat. We keep ours flat under the bottom shelf in our pantry cupboard (all 3 on top of each other) as our utility is basically a walk through passage to the back door. They’d easily fit under a bed, chest of drawers or sofa or sideways in a gap between appliances. Obviously, if you don’t empty them, you can’t squash them down, but we are ruthless about turning laundry around on the day it’s washed and getting it put away as soon as it’s dry as we simply don’t have any room to keep laundry baskets anywhere.
At the time, I thought I was having some sort of crisis spending nearly £100 on laundry baskets, but they have been worth every penny!

I have a really good Joseph Joseph one I got in the sale and it is fabulous. It’s fabric but it collapses and stand up by its self

https://amzn.eu/d/05leUht0

I’d go for a collapsible crate as a PP mentioned rather than a laundry basket. Ours is so annoying, it never stays fully up so it’s hard to carry. It does save space for storing but at the expense of good design. Crates that you use in the car for shopping probably work better.

They are fabulous but don’t last long. In the last 10 years we are on our third. The rubber tears and gives way eventually. I see Dunelm do them now fairly cheaply though so I’d be tempted to do that next time. Previoisly we’ve got them from Lakeland.

We have a folding basket similar to the Joseph Joseph one and it lives behind the laundry hamper-takes up very little space.

We’ve had the plastic/silicone ones in the past but as a pp mentioned, the silicone cracks after a while. The current one is a lot more durable.

We keep ours under the bed (the laundry basket’s in our room). We have three plus a proper wicker one. TBH, it’s rare that they go back under the bed as they’re usually full.

I use three non collapsible baskets but I use IKEA bags if I need any extras, they fold up small and go in a small container with the wash bag I use for the dog bedding.

Just come back to my thread and can’t believe I got so many replies! Thank you everyone! @Iheartmysmart @OvernightBloats@ScalesWontShift this is quite exciting. Hadn’t considered these as an option so am off to investigate. Will also check out the other recommendations suggested.
My two baskets are also often full. However, when they do get emptied they’re just hanging about like some Tracy Emin art installation. Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply to my wildly exciting problem, a lot of whom did it in the middle of the night 😁

We use large IKEA bags for our wash baskets. We have a couple of the blue ones but also a couple of other colours that are a bit more expensive than the blue ones. They are easily folded and stored when not in use. I used to have 2 wash baskets but we have several IKEA bags so they come in handy when sorting the washing too.

They are cheaper than the collapsible wash baskets, take up less space, and have multiple uses, I take them for grocery shopping sometimes too. They are easy to wipe clean when needed.

However, I'm not always on top of putting the washing away, so currently I have about 4 bags full of clean washing which are cluttering the house! 😩

Yes, love mine. Saves alot of space in my small kitchen. Lives between the dishwasher and tumble dryer

I have the Dunelm ones
Absolutely brilliant, about 6 years old and still going strong, store in a cupboard and DH tries to keep one full of laundry in his room but I tip it out and put the basket away

@mathanxiety We all have hampers , I never put dirty laundry in them, they are for clean only

I have fabric ones from Ikea in my apartment - one for dirty clothes and another for clean clothes, they fold into nothing when empty but have handles so can be humped around the place easily, are more vertical so take even less floor space and I think are also washable. My DD also bought one for her student apartment.

In our house (permanent home that I’ll return to once work posting finishes next year), we have a woven basket with washable liner for dirty and a solid plastic tub type for clean things….both take a lot more room and the dirty one is not mobile at all. I am debating removing those when I get home…depending on how much I can persuade DH who is still there.