Everything in My House Was Chosen. The Laundry Basket Just Showed Up, and Stayed 28 Years.
Six things this quilted basket gets right that twenty-eight years of cracked plastic never did, from a woman who had never once thought about her laundry basket until she saw her friend's.
Diane Pelletier · Ottawa, Ontario · October 2026 · 6 min read
I'm 63, I live in Ottawa, and I keep a tidy house, so I'll start with a confession. Everything in that house was chosen. The living room curtains took three Saturdays and two trips back to the store. The cushions on the chesterfield were auditioned one at a time. Even the doormat had a shortlist.
And the laundry basket, the one thing in the house I put my hands on every single day, is a cracked white plastic thing from a neighbour's garage sale in 1998 that simply never left.
I never chose it. It showed up, and it stayed. I'm not sure anybody in Canada has ever actually chosen their laundry basket.
I chose the curtains, the cushions and the doormat. The thing I actually touch every day just showed up in 1998.
How I noticed
I wouldn't have noticed at all if it weren't for Monique. We've played cards on Thursdays for twenty years, and in September it was her turn to host. On the landing halfway up her stairs stood a quilted basket covered in bees and daisies, as neat as a little piece of furniture. I assumed it was decorative. It was full of towels.
That night I went down to the basement and looked at mine properly for the first time in years. Cracked rim. One handle held together with packing tape. Gone the colour of old piano keys.
What I had wrong
Here's what twenty-eight years with the plastic one taught me. A laundry basket lives in one of two states. Hidden in the spare room the moment someone rings the bell, because frankly it's an embarrassment. Or caught out in the open, cracked handle and all, because you were halfway through folding towels when the doorbell went.
Hidden or embarrassing. I had chosen hidden for twenty-eight years.
Somewhere along the way I'd simply accepted that the ugliest thing in my house would be the thing I handle every day. It never occurred to me that a laundry basket was something you could choose.
Monique told me where hers came from: Sylvie & Odette, a small boutique in Montréal. The one she has, and the one I now have, is the Honey Daisy Bee: a soft quilted basket with honeycomb stitching, and a plump little bumblebee and white daisies printed all the way around.
I've filled it, carried it up and down the basement stairs, wiped it, folded it away and set it back up for a month now, and it comes down to six things.
Autumn Sale: from $64.95 CAD, regularly $120. When a design sells out, it's gone.
1.It stands up on its own, even empty
The quilted sides hold their shape whether it's full of towels or holding nothing at all. No slumping, no sagging into a heap in the corner. Empty, it stands there looking deliberate, a word I had never once used about a laundry basket.
"Stands up on its own even when it’s empty, so I’m not fishing socks off the floor anymore. The old plastic one is finally out of the house."
Jane H.2.The artwork goes all the way around
The bees and daisies run right around the basket, so there's no back to hide against the wall. Wherever I set it down, it's facing the right way. The plastic one had two sides as well: ugly, and uglier. Mine sits on the landing now with the bee facing the front door, and people ask about it.
"Even prettier in person than in the photos. My daughter walked into the laundry room and asked where I got it before she even said hello."
Mariot C.3.The handles are made for basement stairs
Two sturdy canvas handles, stitched on securely, that a full load of wet towels hasn't troubled one bit. They don't bite into your fingers the way a cracked plastic rim does, which anyone who has carried a week of laundry up from the basement will appreciate. Our stairs are steep, and I have never once felt it was going to give.
"Carried a full load of wet towels from the second floor down to the basement without a wobble. The handles are padded enough that they don’t dig into my hands."
Leslie P.4.Soft and quilted, but it wipes clean
Pretty things are usually precious. This one isn't. The quilted cotton blend is soft to the touch but thick enough to shrug off the splashes a basket gets beside the washer, and the drips from wet mittens all February. A damp cloth and it's done, and it can go in the wash properly when it needs it.
"Got splashed by the sink the first week and it wiped clean with a damp cloth. The yellow is a touch softer than it looks on screen, more honey than mustard, but I actually like it better this way."
Vicky L.5.It folds flat when you need the room
It's light, and it folds flat to slide under the bed or into the linen closet, then pops right back up standing. When the whole family came for Thanksgiving this month and every corner of the house was spoken for, the basket simply got out of the way. The plastic one never got out of anybody's way.
"Folded it flat and slid it under the guest bed when the grandkids came to stay last weekend. Popped right back into shape the moment I pulled it out."
Julia J.6.Three sizes, and nearly fifty designs
There's a small for the bathroom (14 by 18 inches), a medium for the bedroom (16 by 22) and a large for the family wash (20 by 28). And the honey bee is just one of nearly fifty designs: golden retrievers, lambs, dragonflies, chickens, wildflowers. There's one covered in sea turtles that I've been circling for the bathroom, which, Monique tells me, is exactly how these things start.
"Loved the bee so much I went back and ordered the turtle design for the guest bathroom. Dangerous shop — I can’t stop at one."
Joy R.The Honey Bee vs. the one that just showed up
Nobody buys a laundry basket on purpose. That's the whole problem. One arrives somehow, and stays for decades. Here's the difference, laid out plainly.
- Cracked rim that bites your fingers on the stairs
- Hidden in the spare room when anyone knocks
- Slumps, splits and yellows with age
- One ugly side, then the other
- Takes up the same space all year
- Never chosen, never liked, never left
- Sturdy stitched handles, kind to your hands
- Stays out, and gets asked about
- Stands up smartly, even empty
- Artwork that goes all the way around
- Folds flat when the family comes
- Chosen on purpose, at last
About the price
The small is $64.95 CAD.$120.00 CAD
The medium is $71.95 and the large, the family-wash one, is $78.95. I'm careful with money and I won't pretend otherwise, so I'll pass on what the boutique says: it's their Autumn Sale, and when a design sells out, it's gone. Their words, not mine. There's a little extra if you buy more than one, 10% off two, 15% off three and 20% off four, which is exactly the kind of arithmetic that gets a turtle basket into a bathroom.
The plastic one lasted me twenty-eight years. If this one lasts even ten, the small works out to less than two cents a day for the thing I touch more than anything else in the house. I paid a good deal more for the curtains, and all I do with those is look at them.
I don't trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews first. They sit at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, and the same six things kept coming up.
What I'd tell you if we were friends
Go down to the basement tonight and look at your laundry basket. If it showed up one day and simply stayed, you already know what I mean.
This is the one I'd put in your hands. And you have 30 days to send it back, which is a very cheap way to find out whether it stands up on your landing the way it stands on mine.
Everything in my house was chosen. Now, at last, so is the laundry basket.
Diane
P.S. The Autumn Sale prices won't last, and the popular designs go first. Check that the one you want is still there.
See which designs are still in stockDiane Pelletier is 63 and lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with her husband Gilles and a retriever. She is a customer, not a writer, and she was not paid to write this letter.
The Honey Daisy Bee & the Sylvie & Odette Quilted Baskets
★★★★★ 4.2 out of 5
From $64.95 CAD$120.00 CAD
- Stands upright on its own, even empty
- Bee and daisy artwork that goes all the way around
- Sturdy canvas handles, securely stitched
- Soft quilted fabric that wipes clean and washes
- Folds flat and stores away when you need the room
- Small 14" x 18" · medium 16" x 22" · large 20" x 28"
- Nearly fifty designs in the collection
- Extra 10% off 2, 15% off 3, 20% off 4
- Free shipping across Canada · 30-day returns
Autumn Sale on now. When a design sells out, it's gone.
This page is an advertisement for Sylvie & Odette. Sylvie & Odette · Montréal · Free shipping across Canada · 30-day returns.
