Last Christmas: three people who are impossible to buy for, and the one gift none of them saw coming
Every year I swear I'll get it right, and every year something ends up in a drawer. Last year, for once, nothing did.
Megan Hayes · Knoxville, Tennessee · 5 min readEvery family has one. The person who says "oh, you shouldn't have" and means it, because whatever you got them goes straight into the hall closet with the scented candles and the gadget nobody ever figured out. In mine, I have three of them.
My daughter, who buys herself whatever she wants the minute she wants it. My sister Ruth, who has said the same thing about every gift I've given her for forty years. And my friend Joan, who insists she doesn't need a thing, which is true, because she has two labradors and between them they've chewed through most of what she owned.
"Well. Isn't that something." That's my sister's way of saying it's going in a drawer.
Every December I'd stand in a store aisle holding a scarf or a picture frame, already knowing exactly which drawer it was headed for. Last year I didn't. And the thing that finally worked was the last thing on earth I'd have guessed.
It started with a gift to myself
The fall before, and not with a gift at all. My granddaughter came to stay for the weekend and asked me, in front of everybody, why my laundry basket was the ugliest thing in the whole house.
She had a point. A cracked beige plastic hamper I'd been pushing behind the bathroom door for ten years. So I replaced it with a quilted one from a small husband-and-wife studio called Ella & Finn Boutique. Mine is the Sunny Joy: a big yellow sun over rainbow hills, with a whole meadow of wildflowers stitched all the way around it.
My own bathroom corner, before and after. This is where it all started.
Yes. A laundry basket. Stay with me.
Nobody ever chooses the laundry basket
Here's what I worked out, standing in my bathroom looking at the new one. Everything in our homes gets chosen. The curtains, the throw pillows, the dish towels, the little sign by the front door. We fuss over all of it.
Everything in our homes gets chosen. Nobody ever chooses the laundry basket.
It just shows up one year, usually plastic, usually cracked, and it stays for a decade because nobody thinks it deserves any better. Not even the people who are impossible to buy for. Especially not them.
That's exactly what makes it a good gift. It's the one thing in the house they've never once picked out for themselves, and it's something they'll use every single day. Not a drawer gift. An every-day gift.
So last Christmas, I gave three.
Three gifts, three reactions
The Sunny Joy, for my daughter
The same one as mine. She laughed when she saw the shape of the box. A laundry basket, Mom? Then she opened it, turned it all the way around, sun and hills and wildflowers, and went quiet. It's in her bedroom now, out in the open, holding the throw blankets.
She laughed when she saw the box. She stopped laughing when she opened it.
The Sunny Joy. Hers matches mine, which she insists is a coincidence.
The Sunshine Flower, for my sister
Ruth. Forty years of "isn't that something." I picked the Sunshine Flower for her, bright yellow blooms all the way around, because her kitchen has been yellow since the seventies. She pulled it out of the paper, held it up to the light, and said the words I have waited my whole life to hear.
"Where did you get this? I need one for the guest room too."
The Sunshine Flower. Ruth has asked me for the website twice since.
The Barkside Magic, for Joan
Joan has two labradors and, until Christmas morning, a plastic laundry bin with one corner chewed clean off. I found her one with a whole pack of colorful dogs quilted all the way around it. She laughed so hard she had to sit down. Then she put her laundry in it that same night, which for Joan is the highest compliment there is.
The Barkside Magic. The dogs on the basket behave better than the ones in her house.
Why it worked when the scarves never did
It gets used every single day. Nobody puts a laundry basket in a drawer. It sits right there in the bedroom or the bathroom, and they think of you a little every time they fill it.
It's lovely to look at. Soft quilted fabric, a design that goes all the way around so there's no ugly side, and it stands up on its own even when it's empty.
It's practical. The fabric wipes clean, the canvas handles are sewn right on, and it folds flat when the guest room needs clearing out.
It's easy to make personal. There are dozens of designs, flowers, dogs, cats, mountains, and three sizes, from a small bathroom to a whole family's towels. I picked each one by the person, and every one of them could tell.
One for her, one for me
A word of warning: you'll want to keep one. I gave three away and I'm already eyeing a second for my own guest room.
So here's what I'd tell a friend. Get one for her and one for you. The studio takes an extra 10% off when you buy two or more, which is exactly how I talked myself into it.
About the price
The baskets start at $49.95. They used to be $165.95.
Before I ordered that very first one, I read the reviews. Over 11,540 customers, rating them 4.8 stars. Not a suspicious wall of perfect fives, which made me trust it more.
Shipping is free in the US, and if someone doesn't love theirs, there are 30 days to send it back for free. Nobody on my list did.
One last practical thing. Ella & Finn Boutique is having a Studio Clearance right now to make room for the new collection. There's still stock in most designs for the moment, but once a design sells out, they don't make it again. So if you already have a name in mind, I'd pick their basket sooner rather than later.
Three people who are impossible to buy for. Three baskets that are still out in the open.
Megan
QUILTED LAUNDRY BASKETS
- ✓Dozens of designs: flowers, dogs, cats, mountains and more
- ✓Soft quilted fabric that stands up on its own, even empty
- ✓Wipes clean and folds flat for storage
- ✓Three sizes, from a small bathroom to a family-size load
- ✓Extra 10% off when you buy two or more
- ✓FREE US shipping & 30-day free returns
Studio Clearance on now. Once a design sells out, it's gone for good.