A clever Redditor's hack for saving cracked laundry baskets might just make you look at everything in a new light and ask yourself: Can it be mended?
In the series of photos posted to the r/Visiblemending subreddit, the Redditor shows off a few cracked laundry baskets repaired with colorful yarn.
"Mended a couple of split laundry baskets," reads the caption accompanying the photos.
🗣️ What motivates you to wash your clothes in cold water?
🔘 Saves money 💰
🔘 Saves energy 🌎
🔘 Gentler on clothes 👕
🔘 I wash my clothes in hot water 🙅
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
The colorful mending set against the white laundry baskets is reminiscent of the Japanese art of kintsugi. Instead of throwing away broken pottery or aiming to repair it so the cracks don't show, Kintsugi is all about mending broken pottery together to highlight the cracks. It can take some artists months to repair broken items by using gold, silver, or platinum lacquer that highlights the cracks in an artful way.
By repairing the laundry baskets instead of tossing them into the trash, the Redditor isn't just bringing an artful flair to laundry time, but they're also helping to reduce the amount of plastic going to landfills.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 27 million tons of plastic went to landfills in 2018 — more than 18% of the country's total municipal solid waste.
Plus, replacing cracked or chipped laundry baskets can add up quickly.
Fellow menders on Reddit shared some praise and thoughts about the laundry basket handiwork.
"Honestly? They look better WITH the mending than they were before they broke! Love it," one user writes.
"Looks a lot nicer than the zip-ties I used on mine. Well done," writes another.
Another user suggests the Redditor share the hack with the r/ZeroWaste subreddit. "This ticks all the right boxes for me," they write.
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