So you have a bunch of wire baskets around your home, do you? Maybe you have purchased them, acquired them, or handcrafted them over the years, but never had use for them. Well, today I will present you with some ways that you can put those wire baskets to use. Instead of letting them collect dust and rust in your garage or closet, you can employ them around your house for various purposes, including storage, decorative, and clutter reduction. All you need is a bit of creativity and the sky is the limit.
Photo Credit: Pinterest
Why choose wire baskets? To start, wire baskets are easily crafted by hand and make for a nice DIY project. They can be any color that you want, allowing you to mix and match accordingly to complement the setting that you will place them in. They are versatile as well, and if you do not want to take the time to make them yourself, you can purchase them about $10.
Wire baskets are available in a wide selection of styles, shapes, and sizes, giving you plenty of options when you are trying to decide how to optimize your storage options. Smaller baskets work well in kitchen areas to store spices, fruits and vegetables, and even napkins. They can tastefully complement your coffee table as a magazine bin and can also function as a decorative bread holder at the dining room table when you have friends and family over. The uses for wire baskets are limitless.
Getty Images
Customization and Outside the Box Ideas
Wire baskets, for most people, are items that they purchase already built and ready to go, but for the person who likes a true DIY project, you can build your own wire basket storage system to fit any need that you have. With the proper framing and wiring, you can build lightweight dressers, bookcases, and cabinets in the color and style of your choice, allowing you to achieve the aesthetic that you desire. They even work as an interesting choice of lampshade.
Photo Credit: ImgArcade
If you do not feel like creating your own, there are plenty of styles and brands to choose from, including French wire baskets, Fog Linen wire mesh trays, egg and clam baskets, pool locker baskets, and hampers. French wire vegetable baskets are among the most popular basket options because of their versatility. You can hang them, set them on counters, use them outside for travel, use them as a salad spinner of all things, and also use them for straining when cooking certain meals.
Clam Basket Photo Credit www.costalliving.com
Pool Locker Basket Photo Credit www.polyvore.com
Laundry Basket Photo Credit https://www.pinterest.com/pin/457185799643623662/
Photo Credit: French Country Cottage
Pest Protector Photo Credit http://suburbangardeness.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html
If you are feeling especially creative, there are some outside-the-box ideas as well. Some wire baskets are made from chicken wire, and if you have no need for the basket itself, you can deconstruct it and use the wire for various other purposes such as a picture frame, pest protector, glass replacement, or a window display board of sorts.
The pest protector made from a wire basket will give your garden area the security it needs and will keep critters like rabbits, mice, and squirrels out of your garden and flowers. The window display board will give you a convenient place to hang pictures and notes; the picture frame is easy to make and offers a very rustic appeal, and the glass replacement option makes for an interesting aesthetic in cabinets that no longer have their glass. It will give your cabinets a very rustic, country appearance.
Photo Credit: Southern Front Media
http://rainonatinroof.com/2014/02/vintage-modern-rustic-kitchen/
Themed Furniture and Rooms
Everyone loves themes. Choosing wire baskets in the color and style of your choice can help you keep with a certain theme in your kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, or office. As a lover of literature, I find myself drawn to fantasy fiction because of the allure that the tragedy and darkness holds. As such, my taste in furniture tends to drift toward darker colors like black and browns and gray tones. I am a fan of gothic architecture as well, so naturally twisting fences can have a nice aesthetic appeal.
Sticking with this theme, you could turn your tiny personal library into a literary haven that illustrates your taste. Custom wire baskets can be made to mimic wrought iron fencing while serving as bookcases and shelving. Alternatively, you can purchase wire baskets with a very rustic appearance if you are going for a country feel in your kitchen or living room areas.
Photo Credit: B. Mango & Bird
Exterior Use
Wire baskets have great exterior us, too. If you have ever been to a home improvement store, a farm, a ranch, or even a public garden, you are bound to see wire baskets displayed in various locations throughout the property. Wire baskets make for great transportation of fruits, vegetables, and gardening tools. They work well as storage options and can be hung on hooks in garages, barns, and on exterior siding.
For the true flower and plant lover, wire baskets work extremely well as planters or plant holders. You can hang them from beams or along the side of your house or business to create intricate floral patterns, increasing the overall appearance of your property. Wire basket planters will give your flowers and other plants plenty of room to flourish without being trampled on.
In addition to giving your plants and flowers the safety to grow, wire baskets can also clean up your property by giving vines a fixture to wrap around. Some plants are notorious for growing wildly and twisting out and around pathways, but wire baskets can help to alleviate this issue.
Photo Credit: Remodelista
Interior Storage and Display
Take a look around your house. If you have items stacked and piled in the corner, or tucked away in boxes in the closet, that you would like to display, then there are many ways to do so. Pull out some of those wire baskets and get to work. As an example, let us pretend that you want to restore some order to your kitchen area. If your spices are confined to a corner of your pantry, you can do yourself a favor by hanging wire basket on the wall like a shelf and depositing your spices inside.
If you are afraid of the collective weight ripping the wire basket from the wall, then you can display the basket neatly on the counter along the wall. Having a couple wire baskets to keep track of your spices (and other cooking ingredients or utensils) will make operating in the kitchen a lot easier and will help you keep your kitchen organized.
If you are the creative type, such as a sketch artist or a painter, then you undoubtedly have quite the collection of tools. Paintbrushes, paint tubes, pencils, markers, pens, and other tools can create quite the mess if they are not relegating to a proper storage area. With wire baskets you can keep track of all of your materials while keeping them out of the way of everything else. You can mount the baskets on the wall, set them on your desk, or even set them on a display table for easy access.
In bedrooms and nurseries, wire baskets are perfect for keeping your children’s toys out of the way and can also help keep your own belongings organized as well. Nurseries and children’s rooms are notoriously messy because of the toys that are left on the floor, but wire baskets will help you keep everything in order. Additionally, they will also help you optimize storage and display space in your own room.
Wire baskets are also useful for storing even more mundane objects such as umbrellas, shoes, handbags, towels, blankets, toilet paper, and even fruit. The options are pretty much endless when it comes to deciding what you want to use your wire baskets for. All it takes is imagination and a little bit of space.
Photo Credit: U-Create Crafts
Improved Aesthetic Appeal
Depending on the way you decide to use your wire baskets, you can drastically improve the interior aesthetic appeal of your home or business. Taking into consideration the weight of the items that you want to display, you can hang wire baskets on the wall and use them as shelves for a variety of things, including vases, books, pictures, china, art, and much more.
So let us pretend that you want to spruce up the kitchen a bit and add a bit more color. Take some wire baskets and hang them from the wall and display your choice of flowers in a vase. Not only will you add color, but you will also improve the scent of your kitchen. You can use wire basket drawers for extra storage as well. You can organize fruit and choice vegetables like potatoes in their respective drawers, adding literal flavor to your kitchen while keeping valuable cooking ingredients in reach.
Bathroom areas have plenty of use for wire baskets as well. If you have run out of space in your cabinets, wire baskets provide easy access for your linens and towels. Even better: you can display your towels in a decorative manner, adding to the aesthetic appeal of your bathroom. Like the kitchen area, you can hang your wire baskets overtop the vanity, mount them on stands next to the toilet or in the corner beside the vanity, and you can also use wire baskets as shower caddies inside the tub to hold your shampoo and soap.
Wire baskets can also be strategically installed in laundry rooms during a home remodel as well and can help you organize the way you store and transfer laundry. Instead of stacking your clean clothes and linens on top of the dryer or washer, you can store them in pull out wire baskets housed under the counter. Doing so will help you reduce clutter and will make doing laundry far more efficient.
Photo Credit: Paper & Stitch
Cooking
Wire baskets also make for very useful cooking utensils. Depending on the proximity of each wire, certain wire baskets work well as salad spinners and will help you mix your greens together before you add the dressing. They are excellent pasta strainers as well and will drain the water from your meal, leaving you with a dish that is hot and ready to serve. Wire baskets are also useful as egg strainers and steamers, for deep-frying, or for crab and lobster boiling.
Photo Credit: AfroMartha
The Case for Wire Baskets
Repurposing a wire basket is far from a new idea and there are many ways to do so as you can see. You can use them as shelves or storage on the floor and they can hold anything from toilet paper to flowers in a vase. While they are prime decorative additions to any house or business, their main purpose is, first and foremost, storage and clutter reduction.
In houses and businesses today, keeping your items organized and out of the way is important. At home, your kids will have plenty of toys, clothes, and shoes that they leave on the floor. At work, you might have tools or merchandise that you want to tastefully display without giving up valuable floor space. One of the biggest benefits of wire baskets in this situation is their versatility.
Wire baskets are a cost-effective storage method. You might think about investing in new cabinets, vanities, or shelving to compensate for the amount of clutter that you have around your house or business, but when you take into consideration how much money high-quality products like those cost it is often a better idea to go with something simple yet proven, which is exactly what you get with wire baskets. Wire baskets cost about $10, they are malleable to a certain degree, and they can be displayed anywhere.
Photo Credit: Golden Boys & me
Bookcases, dressers, shelving, and kitchenware: wire baskets are perfect for many different uses. They are available at many home improvement stores, and with their cost-friendly pricing they are logical investments for anyone looking for quick storage options. Invest in wire baskets today for fun DIY ways to decrease clutter and improve the aesthetic appeal around your house or business.