Wicker Bathroom Storage BasketsDecorative Amish Bathroom Baskets

A bathroom is the smallest room in the house and the one with the most small things in it. Spare rolls, tissue boxes, cotton rounds and the wastebasket all need a home, and there is rarely a cabinet to spare. These baskets are woven for those jobs rather than adapted to them: a tall basket that holds four rolls upright under a wood lid, a long basket sized for the toilet tank, covers that hide a tissue box on a counter, and three sizes of round waste basket. Each one is rattan reed woven over hardwood posts on a solid wood bottom, so it stays where you put it and keeps its shape.

A woven basket keeps its shape and looks better with age. The toilet paper basket is 7 inches across and 20 1/2 inches tall, 19 by 6 inches inside, and rolls stack one above the other, which is what lets it take standard rolls and mega rolls. Its solid wood lid lifts off by a hand-cut leather strap riveted to the lid, and the strap snaps to the side of the basket.

If the floor beside the toilet is free, the toilet paper basket takes the spare rolls and hides them. If there is no floor to spare, the tank basket uses the top of the tank: 16 inches long, 7 inches wide, holding two large rolls and a square tissue box. On a counter or a shelf, a tissue cover replaces the cardboard box. For the bin, three round sizes: 13 inches across, 11 inches, and 9 inches for the gap beside a vanity or a pedestal sink. Every measurement on this page is the outside at the widest point.

Every basket here is handwoven in the home of an Old Order Amish family along the Iowa-Missouri border, not in a factory, and the families depend on this work to support their homes and farms. The family member who weaves your basket signs their name on it, and if the weaver is under eighteen their age appears beside the signature. Each basket arrives with a letter from the family. An engraved solid brass plate is optional on every piece if the basket is a gift.

The same materials and the same weave run through everything the families make, so a bathroom basket sits comfortably beside a laundry hamper, a living room basket or a bread box from the same hands. Nothing has to be matched deliberately. For another size, the custom basket pages cover rectangle, square, corner, triangle and round baskets woven to the size you choose, in whole inches, with the same materials.

The reed and the wood bottom handle the steam of a normal shower. Dust it with a soft cloth. A cloth liner washes in cold water and air dries.

Four standard rolls stack in it comfortably, and the inside measures 19 inches tall and 6 inches across, which is room for the Extra-Large and Mega rolls sold today. Rolls sit one above the other rather than side by side, so you take the top one and the stack stays upright.

The lid is solid wood and lifts straight off. A hand-cut leather strap is riveted to the lid and snaps to the side of the basket, and that strap is also the handle you lift it by. Unsnap the strap, lift, and set the lid aside. If you would rather have a wooden knob on the lid instead of the strap, or no leather on the basket at all, write it in the order notes at checkout.

The square cover, 6 1/2 inches square and 6 inches tall, is for a standard cube box. The rectangular cover, 10 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches and 4 1/2 inches tall, is for the flat box that measures about 9 by 5 by 3 3/4 inches, with about 3 5/8 inches of height inside. Both are woven for the everyday box. A cover woven an inch or two taller is a special order: write it in the order notes.

Both are optional on every one of them. The liner is hand sewn from pre-shrunk cotton in cream, wine, blue or green and slips over the rim on its own elastic, and it washes in cold water. The lid is solid wood, cut half an inch wider than the basket so it rests on the rim and lifts off. Either can be ordered later on its own page if you decide you want one after the basket arrives.

Many people do, and a standard small bag hangs over the rim. The cloth liner is what the families make for the job, and it is what most owners use instead of a bag.

A few changes are a matter of writing them in the order notes at checkout: a wooden knob instead of the leather strap on the toilet paper lid, no leather at all, a solid tank lid with no tissue opening, or a tissue cover woven taller. Those are woven to order and take a little longer than a basket that is ready in the Shipping Barn. For another shape or size, the custom basket pages cover rectangle, square, corner, triangle and round baskets in the size you choose.

The 9 inch basket, 9 1/2 inches tall, is the one that fits a half bath, the gap beside a vanity or a pedestal sink. The 11 inch, 11 1/2 inches tall, is the everyday bathroom and bedroom size. The 13 inch, 13 1/2 inches tall, is the one for a kitchen, an office or anywhere a bag of trash builds up quickly. All three are the same round basket in three sizes, and each has its own liner and its own lid.