Kelly Lavery’s Strucket product is now in every Bunnings store and her eyes are set overseas

Six years after a Queensland mother of three thought there had to be a better way to deal with buckets of dirty nappies, her innovative idea is being sold through hardware giant Bunnings.

It was one encounter too many with a bucket full of nappies that convinced Kelly Lavery that there had to be a better way.

Six years later the result of the Sunshine Coast mother of three’s light bulb moment — Strucket, the world’s first strainer meet bucket product — is now stocked in Bunnings Warehouses across Australia.

With over 100 uses and counting Strucket was created out of a moment of desperation, after Ms Lavery searched far and wide but failed to find a product that would allow no-touch soaking of laundry items.

“We have two girls and then we had a `whoops’ baby. I was in my late 30s and thrown back into the trenches of motherhood and you forget how messy it is and you’re faced with buckets of baby mess,” she said.

“Putting my hand in a bucket of soaking nappies was like putting it in a dirty toilet! I hated it

and wanted a better way.”

Kelly Lavery with her innovative Strucket.

Ms Lavery said after failing to find a product like Strucket she decided to create one after doing a professional patent search and found that nothing what she envisaged existed.

In a costly exercise an industrial engineer created a prototype of Strucket and then the tooling machine was built to manufacture it.

Ms Lavery said they have connected with Crestmead-based Evolve Group to “bring the product to life.”

“In 2016 no one would look at us because the big companies like David Jones don’t want to take the risk on something they didn’t know would sell,” she said.

“So we started selling online and then to smaller retailers and the nappy industry has been very supportive.

“In fact we’ve done very well from the get-go and been in the black for the last couple of years.”

Strucket – a cross between a strainer and a bucket.

Since the product has hit the market it’s been a massive hit with over 150,000 Strucket’s now in Australian homes.

The award-winning product is designed to fit inside the laundry sink and has been built to handle the weight of wet clothes without users losing their balance.

It allows people to soak, separate, and drain and for those with sensitive skin, there’s no more worrying about getting chemicals on their hands – it’s all hands-free.

Ms Lavery admits to more than a few “pinch me” moments during the journey, especially in June this year when hardware giant Bunnings contacted her about stocking Strucket in their warehouses.

“It’s a funny feeling when Bunnings gives you a call,” she said.

“It’s quite a surreal feeling knowing that the store that I originally went to in search of a

Strucket some six years ago, now stocks the Strucket on their shelves.”

Ms Lavery said her Buderim Bucket Company was still expanding and she was now looking offshore.

“We’re deep diving into our export strategy,” she said.

“We sell in the US and UK and a little bit in Europe but we are looking at growing in the Americas in 2022.”