Laundry Baskets

I realized this morning as I folded and put away clean clothes that I have been using the same laundry baskets for 14 years. I bought them right about this time in the summer of 1995...I was gathering things I would need when I went away to college. I bought these baskets at a discount store...the price tag is still on one of them: $1.39. These laundry baskets have been through everything with me...going away to school and being away from home for the first time ever, carrying clothes down to the wash room in my dorm. A few years later they moved with me to the first house we bought; we moved in 2 days after we returned home from our honeymoon. Over the years these baskets held honeymoon clothes, clothes after other various trips and vacations, officer's uniforms, dance attire, golf wear, fancy clothes from weddings, mourning clothes from funerals, warm clothes in winter, shorts and tanks in summer....then baby clothes. These baskets held multiple loads of freshly washed pink baby girl clothes. The baby girl clothes got bigger and bigger then once again the baskets began holding maternity clothes. The baskets moved with us again to our newer, bigger house and began holding baby boy clothes.

These baskets, these cheap pieces of molded plastic have been through 14 years of my life. And if you look at them now...not one single tear or crack. That's why I've never gotten rid of them...they are so strong and dependable...these baskets that only cost me $1.39....

Can we say the same for other things in our lives??? How many things, things that cost way more money, have to be replaced every couple years or so. I look around my living room right now...TV- a year old. Our old TV didn't even make it to 10 years old....it died on us. And what about the things we replace just because...the couch I sit on is only a year a half old...we bought new furniture when we moved. The old furniture was still okay...it sagged in the middle of the cushions a bit and the light fabric was permanently stained...but it was still useable (it sits in our finished basement).

But these baskets.....they just amaze me. I wonder what kind of laundry will be in them over the next 14 years.....