The Story of an Ikea Laundry Basket turned Bassinet

As I packed up our things to head south and have our baby boy, two kind friends loaned me their bassinets. I quickly realized there just wasn’t enough luggage space for a long folding bassinet or a hefty woven Moses basket. Our three 30-pound bags and 2 carry-ons were already bursting at the seams. I was going to have to figure things out when we got settled in our Airbnb.
Fast forward to me scouring our country’s Amazon for anything resembling a bassinet. I was reminded of “the old days” when people just used a common drawer but we didn’t have any in the apartment that would work. I started searching for laundry baskets and the Ikea basket caught my eye. 1,049 rupees. Only $12.80. It seemed long enough to work for the first few weeks. Babies are so scrunched up at the beginning anyways that he probably wouldn’t need to be completely stretched out in it. I added it to the cart and it arrived a few days later.

I lined it with a normal towel and a soft hand towel I bought so it wouldn’t feel scratchy. It seemed as cozy as a laundry basket can be for safe sleep.

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We are now going on almost three weeks of the baby blue basket bassinet. If I need to set him down while we are eating dinner, doing dishes, or during the night, it’s a place I can put him and know he’s safe.

Eli crouches down over the basket to kiss him and touch his little nose and cheeks. We are still working on him leaving Micah’s paci in his mouth; taking it out is currently irresistible. Whenever Micah is crying, he runs over to look at him and motions for us to help. He’s already the sweetest big brother who watches out for his little bro.

We packed up our suitcases and left our Airbnb a week ago and I was even able to put the basket in a suitcase and pack around it as we moved to another location for this week. When we get back home (hopefully in the next few days), he’ll graduate to a real bassinet but this has worked wonders the past three weeks. Thank you, Ikea!

Photos taken by Durga.