Is this the ‘symbol’ of My Make Do and Mend Year..?

Our washing basket….!

This is a very special post. A guest post. For the second time. By… (drum roll please) the lovely hubby AKA Mr Make Do and Mend himself!!

We have had many washing basket issues in our time.

Not sure if we overload or over-work them – is carrying small child PLUS washing bad? After a few failures we decided to splash out a few years ago and get a more expensive, sturdier model.

I have to say I can’t remember where we got this particular version from. But I do remember that it broke not long after we got it, mainly from trying to carry washing under one arm with baby attached to the other side (both Mummy & Daddy were guilty of this).

The first repair was to bandage up the handle grips with parcel tape and this worked well for ages until a crack appeared near one of the handles. One thing we are not short of in the Make Do and Mend house is glues and adhesives. My first port of call was the trusty Q Bond with plastic powders and this worked for a short while until the the crack opened up again and one of the handles sheared completely.

After much head scratching and deep thought I decided reinforcement was needed so I drilled out the handle and inserted a sawn off old school wooden peg to act a support the join was then filled with Sugru (which is just magic stuff, it really does do everything they say!). I then sat back on my laurels safe in the knowledge that my fixing here was done…..

That was until I fell up the stairs  carrying the washing and landed heavily on the washing basket and on my very expensive shoulder which was also recently fixed after many Osteopath visits. It was carnage. There was plastic shrapnel everywhere, damp washing all over the floor, a very grumpy Mr Make Do & Mend cradling the afore -mentioned shoulder and a very sympathetic Mrs Make Do & Mend trying to stifle the giggles.

Mrs Make Do suggested that we ditch the basket and use an old grocery plastic box instead, it was at this point that I refused to let the old basket die and got my stubborn head on.

The basket had completely split down one side and several shards of plastic had broken off it some of which were never seen again. This was going to be a big fix….

First up I got out the Q Bond and glued all the little shards back together like a 3D jigsaw.

The biggest crack was filled and repaired with a really cool UHU epoxy putty which bonded and filled the gap whilst adding strength.

It was then over to our old friend the Duct Tape. After much trimming and cutting we have the finished article.

This is undoubtably stronger that when it came out of the factory and will become a family heirloom to be passed on down the generations…

And I have suggested that it should become the mascot for our Make Do and Mend Year…!!

What do you think?

Will this last until September..?!