HOW TO | RESHAPE A BOLGA BASKET

Should you be as predictable as I am in your home storage / decor choices, then chances are you have a couple bolga baskets laying around. Mine tend to take a beating. They hold odd-shaped toys, books + magazines, current needlepointing projects (tangles! it's exciting), and they tend to get a little misshapen after a while. They'll bulge or tilt, sometimes they sag, it's rather depressing. Sometimes a basket shows up from the manufacturer freshly folded in on itself + misshapen from the get go. When this happens, you'll need to reshape your bolga basket, and luckily, it turns out it's actually incredibly simple. 

Cheyenne Mojica stopped by with her magical camera the other day, so I roped her into shooting a little How-To with me real fast. This is about as professional as it gets over here! Not a single iPhone involved!

How To Reshape a Bolga Basket

You'll want to save this one for later.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED /

water (preferably from a spout or hose, though filling + refilling a pitcher is always fine too)

a few towels

your basket

brute strength 

STEP ONE / In a large sink or bathtub, or out in the back yard, fully soak every inch of your basket, avoiding any leather detailing (the dye on the leather will run!) (The dye on the grass will not.)

I had two baskets that needed reshaping, one that arrived just this week misshapen, and another that arrived last year misshapen, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet #oops.

STEP TWO / Allow basket to drain completely, then set aside on a towel or other water-friendly surface. 

STEP THREE / Okay hold up. Wait a moment or two. Go get a Diet Coke. You need to let the fibers rest a minute or two so that all the water can soak in completely, leaving the grasses as pliant and friendly as possible. If you attempt to reshape a basket while the grasses are still overly wet, chances are your basket will continue to reshape itself after you've finished reshaping it, thanks to gravity. So, chill a minute. 

STEP FOUR / Reshape that sucker.

This is going to take some effort. Use your hands + fists to push + pull + stretch + mash that basket into shape. Really get into it. The baskets are tough, they can take a beating. Don't be too ginger with it. (Hah, get it Brandon? Ginger?) (sigh) It's kind of a similar mechanism to stretching out a sweater that's shrunk a bit in the wash, or kneading really tough pizza dough maybe. 

Enlist your preschooler as assistant if he happens to need funding for his plastic animals collections.

Keep going . . . 

Okay so yeah this part can take forever and also makes for a highly awkward workout.

Whew! 

STEP FOUR / Allow baskets to dry completely before bringing them back into rotation.

STEP FIVE / Fist pumps. I mean, celebrate the small victories, people.

ps-on me:

jeans = madewell

chambray = madewell (similar)

botines = imogene + willie in pdx

necklace = madewell

watch = daniel wellington

baskets found on amazon here and here