It’s been an entire year already since we moved into our home in Georgia. For 2019, I set a flexible goal to work on one room/area in our home per month. February’s project is dedicated to the guest bathroom which also happens to be the girls’ shared bathroom. It’s pretty roomy, considering I shared a bathroom with them when we lived in our 1,300 square foot Florida home (it was the only bathroom with a tub and that’s how this mama relaxes!). However, since moving in, the guest bathroom hasn’t received much love. I’ll be sharing the full reveal soon, but today I’m sharing a DIY rolling hamper hack.
With 3 girls in one bathroom, the clothes tend to pile in a corner on the bathroom floor. They have a hamper in their bedroom, but I realized one was needed in the bathroom, too, since that’s where they strip down for bath time. (PS: Does anyone else call it a hamper?)
When browsing some online, I came across a few that I loved, but the price tag was a bit higher than I wanted to spend…
This industrial canvas one with wheels for $62
This one I loved, but the price tag was way over budget at $150!
And then there’s this one from World Market which costs $100… I liked it best, but it’s still more than I wanted to spend on a receptacle that holds stinky clothes.
So when I was at Wal-Mart one day looking for storage baskets and found this large metal wire laundry basket for only $15, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I loved everything about it: the metal wire, the fabric liner & the copper handles, but it didn’t have wheels, so I decided to DIY a wood base with casters. The entire project cost us about $28 (we had scrap wood and the stain already) which is significantly less than the others. Last I checked, the basket couldn’t be shipped online, but it could be ordered online and then picked up at your local store.
I wanted the wheels on my basket because it’s so easy to just slide it down the hallway instead of schlepping baskets or arms full of laundry… I’ll take any & all life hacks, please, and I now want to add wheels to all the things.
Here’s how we did it & what we used:
Sources are affiliate linked for your convenience.
This laundry basket pictured above from Wal-Mart.
Wood for the base (since we screwed in the cable clamps to the wood, I opted for 1 x 12″ common board). The base measures approx. 10″ x 15″ and since a 1″ x 10″ is really a bit less than 10″, we used a piece of scrap 1″ x 12″.)
Stain in your choice of color (we used Special Walnut)
Step 1 (Top Left): Remove the laundry basket liner and set aside. Measure & Trace the bottom of the wire basket. I wanted the wood to be flush with the bastket.
Step 2 (Top Right): Make your cut lines and ensure that they’re straight
Step 3 (Bottom Left): Cut your board down to size
Step 4 (Bottom Right): Sand the sharp corners down
CONTINUED BELOW…
Step 5 (Top Left): My husband attached the caster wheels first, but you may want to stain first. This was a scrap piece of wood from a sign hence the white paint on the bottom. The wheels cost $10 for the 4 of them – they’re about 1.5″, you can find various designs and styles depending on the look you want to achieve – which will also vary in cost.
Step 6 (Top Right): Stain your color of choice. Our go to color is Special Walnut.
Step 7 (Bottom Left): Place all of your 1/4″ cable clamps where you want them. Do not insert any screws until you’ve added all of your clamps because it will be more difficult to put them on once you tighten it down to the wood. Four in each corner would’ve done the trick, but we added two more in the middle for extra measure.
Step 8 (Bottom Right): The wire grid makes it impossible to screw in from the sides so you’ll need to place the basket on the ground and screw in all of the clamps from the top.
That’s it! I love how it looks like it cost much more than it did. Not only that, but this would be an amazing DIY for storage baskets in the playroom; just scoot the bins around to make clean up a little bit more fun and easy.
Can you link the hamper????
Hi there! It is linked above, but link color may be hard to see, so here it is again for ya. It seems it went up $2 as of now, but still a good deal 🙂
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Better-Homes-and-Garden-Rectangle-Wire-Laundry-Basket-with-Liner/373707346?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=3786&adid=22222222227148385047&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=260254482169&wl4=pla-430438672535&wl5=9011040&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=373707346&wl13=3786&veh=sem&sourceid=csebrutp15681727900697518185610090301008005&veh=cse&wmlspartner=bizratecom
What a money saver this post was! THANK YOU! I needed 6 wire baskets on wheels. I saved a fortune.
I’m SO glad to hear that. And I just saw that the laundry baskets are only $5 each now!! I thought it was a steal at $15, haha. Good luck with your project. I want to add casters to all the things now.
Can you specify the dimensions on the board? I’m not understanding the dimensiones in the post. Thanks so much! I have the same exact hamper and have been trying to put wheels on it but haven’t made the move until now!
The dimensions of the board are the same size as the base of the laundry basket and it’s 1” thick pine. I can try to grab you exact measurements when I’m home but we just traced the bottom of the wire basket onto the wood and cut it out then used the wire clamps to attach the wood piece to the bottom of the basket. (If you go to my Instagram stories and click on “guest bathroom” there are some videos that may be helpful, too)
Now that you’ve used these for a while, how have they worked for you? Would you recommend different casters? Did the bag inside the basket rip? I’m curious how they’ve held up because they’re so dang cute!
Hi there! It’s been a great DIY and no, the bag inside the basket hasn’t ripped, it’s designed to hang inside of the wire metal basket and the casters are the perfect size. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Brittany!! Girl, I had been on the hunt for one of these too! Walmart did not have the same basket you used, But- they had a similar one. We used this tutorial as a guide with modifications. I could not be happier with the results!! Thank you!! Sometimes it is the little things that help the most.
Oh, yay, Audrey! I’m so glad to hear that. Yeah, it stinks when they discontinue a product, but people can use the same method for any variety of wire baskets, thanksfully. You’ll have to send me a photo of your DIY via IG!
I actually have an existing copper coloured wire laundry basket that I love but wish had wheels… But it also sits typically on top of a storage chest. This post was perfect inspiration! I think I’ll just add raised wooden sides instead of the cable clamps permanently attaching so that I can lift the bin down to the wheels when it’s laundry day. The rest of the time the wheeled platform should be able to live under my dresser I think. Perfect! Thanks so much!
Oh, that sounds like the perfect fix! I’m so glad you found this helpful – good luck!!