How To Clean Wicker Baskets

My love of baskets means that eventually I needed to figure out a way to clean wicker baskets — because I have a LOT of them around my house. In the kitchen, in the bathrooms, the bedrooms, the living areas — I just love the natural and rustic feel they add to a space. And if you know where to look, you can get them for next to nothing!

My number one resource for cute baskets to decorate with is our local thrift store. I would guess that about 90 percent of the baskets in my home came from there. The bonus of buying them cheap from the thrift store is that you don’t feel too bad when you ruin one or just feel the need for a change and want to get rid of one.

But what I don’t love is how dirty baskets get! Especially in the kitchen and the bathroom where grease and hairspray and other sticky stuff coats them and attracts dust and dirt like a magnet! And it’s not like you can dust them either!

So there they sit — gathering even more dirt and dust until desperation sets in.

Well, at least that’s what happened to me. I couldn’t stand the grimy baskets anymore and short of throwing them out, I decided to experiment with giving them a “bath” instead. I mean what did I have to lose? Some baskets that cost me a few dollars each…at the most? I could live with that if my experiment went terribly wrong.

Since most wicker baskets (at least the ones I have) are made of wood products (ie. cane, rattan, reed, bamboo) I figured a little water couldn’t hurt them. After all, most bamboo is grown in tropical climates. So a little dip in the pool (sink) seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

On this particular day I needed to clean this basket that has been a fixture in our kitchen for years. It’s the basket shelf that sits next to our kitchen sink and holds all the diabetes supplies for No. 2 son. We are so used to it being there that I don’t know if we would know how to function without it! But it had been sadly ignored for quite awhile and needed a very well-deserved bath.

I filled the kitchen sink with warm, soapy water (use just a few drops of your favorite dishwashing liquid) and gave it a dip.

Actually SEVERAL dips. I know it looks like it didn’t fit, but after several tips and turns and the use of the sprayer, I managed to get it all washed. Just don’t let it sit in the water for very long. A quick dip will do ya!

And here is the dirty “bathwater” to prove it! YUCK!!

After letting it drip dry for a few seconds…I immediately took it outside for a little sun bathing time. On this hot, sunny day it hardly took any time at all and the wicker shelf was completely dry and ready to be put back into service in the kitchen.