Endless Laundry
Laundry is part of my daily existence. I’ve been obsessing about it for some time, writing two years ago about the concept of Zero Laundry. I marvel at how my ancestors were able to get by.
With kids, as a household, we generate at least two load-fulls a day. While I’m hopeful that amount will come down as the kids grow older, in the meantime, it’s an endless battle. I practice bad habits with laundry. I don’t hang my laundry to dry despite ample sunshine — there’s just not enough time. I also use hot water when I probably shouldn’t.
I’m often thinking about how primitive the laundry machines still are, despite more than a century of evolution. While the devices I have can be accessed remotely, the application of this is mostly as a new interface or as notification system. Use the app and the device will let you know when it’s done.
However, there are many aspects of laundry that are difficult and time consuming that the current machines don’t address. Sorting, organizing, folding, and putting the clothes back in their spot. Some companies have tried to address this with little commercial success. Laundroid and FoldiMate set with the sun and there doesn’t seem to be any others taking their place.
With a huge amount of humanity’s time dedicated to this task, it seems there’s still meat on the bone for an opportunity to reduce time and effort on this task. Maybe we need to invite a Frederick Taylor style study to the problem and our washing machines and dryers can be the conduits for this advice.
