Mending the Laundry Basket

I think it is cool to fix broken stuff.  I find no objection to a mended or patched aesthetic.  Just the opposite, in fact.  It is satisfying.  It makes good sense from a resource point of view every way I slice it.  I lament the throw-away culture that surrounds me.  So, I was pretty pleased to repair the broken handle on my laundry basket.  Especially since it took mere minutes and involved items I already owned.  I've been using the repaired basket for months and it has held up great.  As good as new!

As it happens, this isn't the first time I have extended the life of a broken laundry basket.  In that case, I used t-shirt rag strips to bind the splintering wicker together.  In this case, I used duct tape and a dry-erase marker.

The marker is just barely visible under there.

I broke the handle of our plastic laundry basket when balancing it against my hip with just one hand.  Probably so I could open the door or something.  We've had it for a decade and I've done this a gazillion times.  But, this time, the handle broke.  Oops.

I recalled something I'd seen online about using a wooden dowel or part of an old rake handle, etc. to reinforce such breaks.  I had filed it away in my mental database for future use--and then I actually remembered it when the time came!!  I didn't have a dowel handy.  What I did have immediately to hand was a fat, dried-out, blue marker.  So I used that.  

The marker fit perfectly into the space beneath the handle, buttressing it across the broken gap.  I even had blue duct tape (for some reason) so the laundry basket patch is all color-coordinated.  Bonus!

Since there's no composting this one as I did with the wicker basket it makes me extra pleased to have extended its useable lifespan.  

9/20/2023 Addendum:  After reading this post Matt informed me that we have blue duct tape because I used it to patch some holes in my blue winter coat!  :)