Manchester Boutique ad: The laundry basket three friends have asked me about

I almost did not post this. I am 67 and I am not one for putting things on Facebook. But three different friends have now asked me about my laundry basket, of all things, and it started to feel a bit silly not to just tell everyone at once. It is from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly making the home a bit lovelier for a few years now. They have their summer sale on at the moment. It is called the Ruby. A quilted laundry basket scattered all over with scarlet poppies, with sturdy canvas handles, and it stands up on its own. I will tell you what I told them. For my whole adult life a laundry basket was an ugly plastic thing I shoved behind the bathroom door and hoped nobody saw. This is the first one I have actually wanted to leave out. The quilting is soft but structured, so it holds its shape and stands upright even when it is empty, the handles make it easy to carry up the stairs, and the poppies are so pretty that it looks like something from a smart home shop rather than a chore waiting to happen. My daughter spotted it in the bathroom and assumed I had paid a fortune for it at one of those interiors places. I let her think that for a good minute. That is the rarest sort of useful thing. The one that does the boring job and looks lovely doing it, so a corner of the house is nicer for having it there. I did go and read the reviews before I ordered a second one for the bedroom. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some websites, which if I am honest made me trust it rather more. The same things kept coming up. One woman had written, "So pretty I use it as decoration, and it actually holds a full load of towels. I have bought three." That was the one that decided it for me. The reason I am posting today rather than next week is that the sale is on now and they do a whole collection of these prints, in small, medium and large. They are made to order, so once a run has gone it is gone. If you have an ugly plastic bin you keep meaning to replace, this is where I would start. — Maggie