Wicker Baskets

There are many wonders of wicker, and the uses for small wicker baskets seem never to end. They are portable and lightweight, and they're great to store things in. They are not expensive, for the most part, and they can work in any room of your home.

You can purchase wicker baskets that are rectangular and boxy or round, and these offer excellent storage solutions for your home. Many homeowners use wicker to show off flower arrangements, and other displays that they use as decoration in their house.

Small baskets work well for holding hand towels and guest soaps in your bathroom. You can also use them to keep potpourri well out of the reach of curious youngsters. If you find baskets that are a bit larger, you can use them to store facial tissues and toilet paper rolls. If you place them on higher shelves, you can use them for health and beauty aids, like shavers, ointments, Vaseline and make-up.

You can use wicker baskets in various ways in children's and adult bedrooms. They can display perfume and jewelry in your bedroom, or use a basket to store sewing needs like extra buttons, needles and thread. In a kid's room, baskets are perfect for glue sticks, crayons, pencils and small toys. If you use wicker in your children's bedrooms, check the baskets occasionally, to make sure that the strands of wicker are still intact. In your baby's nursery, small wicker baskets are excellent catch-alls for first aid supplies and washcloths. Larger baskets can be used to keep clean diapers and other types of baby items close at hand.

In your dining room, a wicker basket will display floral arrangements, shelled nuts or fruits beautifully. During the holiday season, baskets on tables can hold dinner rolls or fancy napkins. In your den or family room, wicker baskets can hold stray toys, flash cards, small games, or remotes for TV and audio. Larger baskets will work fine for magazines and newspapers that always seem to find their way into the family room.

Wicker is quite at home in the kitchen, as well. You can use baskets for holding home-made bread, potholders and utensils. Wicker baskets are also handy for storing tools and household items that you always seem to find in your kitchen. You can help to keep a home office tidy by using small wicker baskets for extra printer cartridges, business cards, small memo pads, desk supplies, envelopes and stamps.

Wicker baskets go exceptionally well with wicker outdoor furniture. They can be used as bird feeders – just use a basket with a handle and hang it, and then fill it with bird seed, to feed your hungry garden visitors. In the garden area, they can be used inside clay pots for flowers and herbs. They can also be used as flower pots themselves, as long as you sit them where water can freely drain through the wicker. In this way, your plants won't sit in stagnant water. The gaps and holes in small wicker baskets let air into the soil and help your plants breathe.

One of the most innovative way to use large wicker baskets is to build a display to encourage customers to make point of purchase sales. These are displays at your check lanes that show attractive impulse buys to people as they wait to check out. This a great way to use large baskets to set up POP displays for your stores.

Wicker baskets work well for store owners because they add visual appeal and rustic charm to stores, in addition to showing off items for sale. Using wicker for displays is an easy way for businesses to branch out into charming sizes, shapes and styles of wicker.

First, as the store owner or manager, you need to decide what type of item you'll be displaying, so you'll know what size baskets to purchase. If you'll be selling small candies, you can use smaller wicker baskets, but if you have a quantity of anything to display, you'll want to use larger baskets. If you are selling bakes goods or candies, wicker doesn't protect these products, so you'll want to only display wrapped goodies in wicker.

The size of your display area will also affect the size of the baskets you will use in your displays, and also how many displays you will set up with wicker. Take an overall look at the checkout area of your store to determine how many displays your space allows. You don't want to set up too many displays, so that your large wicker baskets look cluttered. Don't display any more than the space allows.

After you have decided on what kind of merchandise you'll be displaying, and how many displays you will be setting up, you can choose what type of wicker baskets and the number of them, to use in your store. You can purchase wicker baskets as single units, in various shapes, placed in floor stands or free standing, or positioned on rotating racks for better visibility. You can check POP display companies or wicker companies to determine where you will obtain the wicker for your displays, as well as the candies or other items that will be placed on display.

Wicker baskets are attractive to look at, and many tourists who have visited the Middle East, Asia and Africa bring some back as souvenirs and keepsakes. In addition to being used in displays, wicker baskets are also used to carry lightweight items. They may be seen in homes as laundry baskets, which is because of their light weight and their attractiveness. You can use a larger wicker basket to carry a full load of clothes to the laundry.

Wicker is commonly used in the United States as a basket for used towels in tanning salons and day spas. Instead of having a harsh looking can or bin for this laundry, the companies use attractive wicker baskets to collect it. These baskets allow air to circulate in the towels until it's time to wash them. Large wicker baskets have many roles to play, and they do each one with charm and attractiveness.

Laundry is such a task, but using wicker laundry baskets will brighten up this tedious chore. No one enjoys doing laundry, but you don't want clothes that need to be laundered cluttering up your house. If you place a wicker laundry basket in the bathroom or hall, or in each bedroom, your spouse and children will hopefully catch on and put their laundry where it belongs. This will make it easier for you to do laundry more often, so that it won't pile up on you.

A laundry basket made of wicker is a simple and classical way to bribe your family to put dirty clothes where they belong. A wicker basket looks great, and is easy to move into the laundry room if you don't want to pull all the clothes out to move them. You can also use separate wicker baskets, of a different style, to store clean linens and towels in, as long as your family doesn't get them mixed up. That would make for more of a hassle than laundry already is.

If a laundry basket gets full, it may weigh more than you think it will, so wicker will provide a lighter weight basket, and it will be more easily moved into your laundry room. Wicker is also quite durable, so you know your basket won't come apart anytime soon. Using a wicker basket for laundry will also allow clothes to air out while they are waiting to be washed. Proper ventilation is only one thing that wicker baskets offer your laundry room. Wicker can also fit into any decor, and with any kind of furniture. Wicker is made from plants, including grasses and vines, and the resulting material is very sturdy and strong. Wicker laundry baskets can carry pounds of dirty clothing without being hard on your back.

When you use wicker baskets for laundry, make sure that you don't leave wet washcloths or the like inside. Wicker doesn't do well with moisture, and the strands may get wet and thus have a looser grip on each other. They will eventually come apart, and your wicker basket will not be as usable. It's easy to avoid getting wicker wet, just remind the family not to put moist or wet clothing in the wicker baskets.

Wicker laundry hampers are made so that they can hold at least one full laundry load. They may include a wire frame to make them stronger, and they may have dividers inside, so you can keep the whites and colors separated as they hit the basket. The woven wicker will give the baskets durability and flexibility. You can also buy them with fabric liners, to help protect the laundry.

When you shop for wicker baskets for laundry, keep in mind the number of clothes you use every day or every wash cycle, so make sure that the basket you buy is big enough to do its laundry duty. Select wicker baskets that can hold all your laundry until next wash day (which might well be the very next day). Choose wicker laundry baskets to go with the design and color in the rooms they will be sitting in, so that they will go well with the furniture of whatever room you put them in.