How To Use A Basic Laundry Basket For Garden Hose & Accessory Storage

It can be frustrating to spend lots of time and effort on getting your yard or garden to look good, only to have it spoiled by the eyesore of a garden hose. While these long tubes are certainly useful for watering flower beds, lawns, and potted plants, their artificial colors and utilitarian materials can often look out of place amongst all your lovely greenery and carefully chosen patio furniture. You could hide the hose in a garage or shed, but this means a lot of walking back and forth every time you need to use it.

Instead, why not keep your garden hose tucked away in style by coiling it neatly inside a simple laundry basket? This solution not only goes a long way towards hiding the eyesore of your hose, it can also help prevent it from tangling by offering a contained location in which it can coil neatly on top of itself. In addition, the center of the hose coil can be used to hold the different nozzles, clips, or any other added components, making them easier to find and reducing clutter in your yard. 

If you are looking to save money, you can repurpose a laundry basket you already own, just make sure it is a durable one that doesn't have large holes that you'll be able to see the hose through. Alternatively, you could thrift or buy a new one that matches the aesthetics and color scheme of your outdoor space. Either way, if you're interested in this storage hack, let's explore this creative way to use a laundry basket around your garden.

Many laundry baskets have holes in the side to make them lighter and easier to carry as well as to provide ventilation for the clothing typically held inside. This makes them great for storing garden hoses, too, because the end of the hose can be looped through a hole in the basket and then connected to the tap. You then simply have to grab the other end and use it to water your plants, knowing that the rest of the hose will be held inside the basket rather than tangled up in the yard behind you. This works best if you tend to have your hose hooked up to the tap most of the time, so you don't have to continually loop it in and out of the side of the laundry basket.

If you would like to keep your hose attachments and other useful items inside the basket, you could also opt to add a smaller basket that fits inside the central coil of the hose. This means you can take out all the attachments at once to quickly find the one you need. It will also allow you to access and recoil the hose at any time without having to remove all the smaller items one by one. To add serious personality to your garden hose storage solution, you could even choose to decorate the outside of a plain laundry basket using outdoor paint or decals. Or, try surrounding it with potted plants in similar colors so that it blends in with the rest of your space.