diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f18108
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+.*.sw?
+*.pyc
+*~
+.idea/*
+dist/*
+build/*
+*.egg-info/*
+.idea/*
+.coverage
+reg_settings.py
+MANIFEST
+.directory
diff --git a/cachecore/core.py b/cachecore/core.py
index 39e38d3..e8b0ee9 100644
--- a/cachecore/core.py
+++ b/cachecore/core.py
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ def get_sidebar(user):
 import os
 import re
 import tempfile
+from collections import MutableMapping
 try:
     from hashlib import md5
 except ImportError:
@@ -89,7 +90,7 @@ def _items(mappingorseq):
         else mappingorseq
 
 
-class BaseCache(object):
+class BaseCache(MutableMapping):
     """Baseclass for the cache systems.  All the cache systems implement this
     API or a superset of it.
 
@@ -98,8 +99,15 @@ class BaseCache(object):
     """
 
     def __init__(self, default_timeout=300):
+        super(BaseCache, self).__init__()
         self.default_timeout = default_timeout
 
+    def __iter__(self):
+        raise StopIteration
+
+    def __len__(self):
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
     def get(self, key):
         """Looks up key in the cache and returns the value for it.
         If the key does not exist `None` is returned instead.
@@ -108,6 +116,9 @@ def get(self, key):
         """
         return None
 
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        return self.get(key)
+
     def delete(self, key):
         """Deletes `key` from the cache.  If it does not exist in the cache
         nothing happens.
@@ -116,6 +127,9 @@ def delete(self, key):
         """
         pass
 
+    def __delitem__(self, key):
+        return self.delete(key)
+
     def get_many(self, *keys):
         """Returns a list of values for the given keys.
         For each key a item in the list is created.  Example::
@@ -153,6 +167,9 @@ def set(self, key, value, timeout=None):
         """
         pass
 
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+        return self.set(key, value)
+
     def add(self, key, value, timeout=None):
         """Works like :meth:`set` but does not overwrite the values of already
         existing keys.
diff --git a/test_cachecore.py b/test_cachecore.py
index 830bcd0..aa9563d 100755
--- a/test_cachecore.py
+++ b/test_cachecore.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import unittest
 import tempfile
 import shutil
+import collections
 
 from unittest import TestCase
 import cachecore as cache
@@ -78,6 +79,27 @@ def test_filesystemcache_clear(self):
         shutil.rmtree(tmp_dir)
 
 
+class MappingTestCase(TestCase):
+    def test_should_have_MutableMapping_methods_and_inherit_from_it(self):
+        self.assertIn(collections.MutableMapping, cache.BaseCache.mro())
+        my_cache = cache.BaseCache()
+        expected_methods = ['setitem', 'getitem', 'delitem', 'iter', 'len']
+        actual_methods = dir(my_cache)
+        for method in expected_methods:
+            self.assertIn('__{}__'.format(method), actual_methods)
+
+    def test_should_be_able_to_use_it_as_a_dict(self):
+        my_cache = cache.SimpleCache()
+        my_cache['python'] = 'rules'
+        my_cache.set('answer', '42')
+        self.assertEquals(my_cache.get('python'), 'rules')
+        self.assertEquals(my_cache['answer'], '42')
+        del my_cache['python']
+        my_cache.delete('answer')
+        self.assertEquals(my_cache['python'], None)
+        self.assertEquals(my_cache['answer'], None)
+
+
 # class RedisCacheTestCase(TestCase):
 
 #     def make_cache(self):
@@ -165,4 +187,4 @@ def suite():
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     # print suite()
-    unittest.main()
\ No newline at end of file
+    unittest.main()