Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Making Storage Easier: Easter Bags and Fabric Easter Baskets

Easter patchwork bag

"You know what I've always wondered about Easter baskets? Where people store them every other day of the year. Because if there's one thing that's not exactly storage-friendly, it's a big, round basket with a gigantic handle on top." — Stephanie, on Cool Mom Picks

Stephanie makes a great point. So what about getting alternatives that store much more easily? There are plenty of DIY options - Cool Mom Picks points you to one of them - but let me show you some that others have made. Let's start with the bag above, from Roxy Creations.


fabric Easter bag with bunny pattern

This handbag / Easter basket comes from Sweet Pea and Co.


fabric Easter basket

And then there are the fabric Easter baskets with more rigid handles, making storage a bit more challenging - but a fabric basket is still going to be much easier to store than a woven one. And you might like these baskets well enough to use them as decorative storage throughout the year. It would sort of be a shame to hide away this lovely fabric Easter basket from Regal Rhino Designs.


fabric Easter basket

I'd say the same thing about this Easter basket from Treasured Totes - it's too cute to only use for one day!


canvas tote bag with egg design

And for the easiest storage of all - and the most adult look - there's this canvas tote bag from Modernest, available in three sizes.

4 comments:

JustGail said...

Sweet baskets - all the ones you show would be great in a baby's room for organizing supplies or toys.

I think Easter baskets could be one of those things that you get a the thrift store (don't wait until the last minute though) and then returned to the thrift store after Easter. There's almost always a bunch of baskets there, and then you don't need to store it. Or ust the basket to hold some other decorations while in storage.

Allison said...

I think these are a really cute idea...for little girls...but what about little boys? My grandsons would think gramma has gone off the deep end early if I gave them one of these bags! Hahaha! GREAT idea tho', I love 'em - so cute!

Other less "Spring-ie" style baskets work, too - you can multi-purpose them then (i.e. potatoes in the pantry, etc.) I've used other items when my kids were growing up like baseball hats so they would wear them after Easter.

Jeri Dansky said...

Allison, there's the Tonka dump truck Easter basket which you can sometimes find on eBay.

And sure, multi-purpose baskets work fine - as well as other types of containers. (I would never have thought of baseball caps, though.)

Jeri Dansky said...

JustGail, the thrift store buy-and-return is another fine option, as long as the baskets don't look too specifically like Easter baskets. If they do look specifically for Easter, the thrift store probably won't be able to sell them for a whole year, either.

I've found I can Freecycle Easter-type items (bags of that really nice paper grass for the baskets, for example) for maybe a month or so before Easter - but after Easter, no one wants them. I've been known to tuck away a box in my garage that's labeled "Freecycle at Easter" (as well as ones for Halloween and Christmas).