I Was Shocked to Learn Why There Are Holes in Laundry Baskets — and It's Not Why You Think

As your dirty laundry piles up before a nice, eco-friendly soak in the washing machine next weekend, is it best to contain your odorous clothes in a laundry basket with holes in it throughout the week? And when your laundry has finished drying, is it ideal to transport your clean clothes in a laundry basket with or without holes?

For that matter, why are laundry baskets with holes so ubiquitous? Is there a functional reason for the design, or is it completely random?

To answer these important questions, keep reading. It is important to understand how to keep your dirty clothes from getting even dirtier than necessary before their weekly wash, as well as how to keep your freshly laundered clothes from getting stale while sitting in a clean laundry basket.

There are several different reasons why your laundry basket has a hole-filled design.

For one thing, the holes in plastic laundry baskets actually make them lighter and therefore easier to transport when they're full, as Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore author Patric Richardson explained to Apartment Therapy.

Additionally, Richardson noted that this lightweight design mimics laundry baskets of older times, which were woven baskets that inherently contained holes between the weaves.

There are additional benefits for both dirty and clean laundry in baskets with holes, too. According to The Spruce, laundry of all kinds can benefit from the ventilation that holes in a laundry basket provide.

Otherwise, your clean laundry may smell stale, and the foul odor of dirty laundry may fester. Plus, per The Spruce, holes in a laundry basket afford slightly damp, clean laundry the opportunity to dry more successfully than remaining moist in a crowded basket.

If your clothes become mildewy, that could cause a formidable concern — both for the offensive odor as well as the cleanliness of the clothes. Factor in the benefit of preserving the long-term health of your back by making the basket easier to carry, and it sounds very sensible to add in holes to the design of any laundry basket.

In general, there are benefits to using hamper with holes — though if yours doesn't have holes, you're probably fine, too.

Families may use laundry hampers for clean or dirty clothes, just as laundry baskets may be used for both. According to a blog post on the used home goods website Reperch, in general, a hamper is more stationary, whereas a laundry basket is the lighter, more portable container used to transport clothes between the laundry room and your closet.

That said, because you can use a laundry hamper to house both clean and dirty laundry, for similar reasons, you might want your hamper to contain holes, just like a laundry basket.

It is sensible to want to avoid the buildup of foul orders of dirty clothes, as well as to want proper ventilation for potentially damp clothes, so a hamper with holes is very important.

Ultimately, the decision on the design of your laundry containers is yours. It is important to keep in mind that the most ubiquitous design of a laundry basket with holes is typically produced from plastic, which contains its own serious environmental concerns. We recommend shopping for laundry baskets and hampers secondhand, or looking for ones made from sustainable materials, such as recycled plastic, cotton, or canvas.