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You have to admit the washing machine is one of wonders of the modern world, yet taken for granted. Until they were invented, a wife or servant essentially devo

You have to admit the washing machine is one of wonders of the modern world, yet taken for granted. Until they were invented, a wife or servant essentially devoted most of a whole weekday to washing clothes. A washing machine and dryer cuts this to a couple hours a week. Clever people seek to cut this time even further.

thaumasiotes 8y ago
> A washing machine and dryer cuts this to a couple hours a week. Maybe if you're doing a single person's laundry. Our family laundry is a job for more than a couple of hours.
- dallen33 8y ago
  I do the laundry in our home of 4 people, and not counting the time spent in the washing/drying machine, I probably spend (at most) an hour a week folding.
  - deleted 8y ago
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  - scandox 8y ago
    Yes but this is an argument about the whole job. Washing, drying, folding and ironing. It's basically the worst thing in the universe. I can be philosophical about death...but not about laundry. In my Utopia everyone wears a kind of biodegradeable body wrap...and slippers.
    - sgt101 8y ago
      Ah Ah! Solution --> stop ironing! Get "no iron" clothes. Avoid tumble drying sheets and duvet covers (if you can) but don't dry them to crispy dry if you can't do that - instead let them be just dry and then fold them. Ignore wrinkles.
  - new299 8y ago
    As far as I can tell, based on the statistics I can find, you are somewhat of an outlier: https://www.bls.gov/TUS/CHARTS/HOUSEHOLD.HTM https://www.bls.gov/TUS/CHARTS/HOUSEHOLD.HTM This data doesn’t break the statistics down by family size, but it still comes out at 2h a week for woman. The data includes all individuals older than 15. I suspect that the a average amount of time spend by families (particularly families with young children) would be much higher. Possibly up to an hour a day. I would be interested in seeing statistics on this.
    - JohnFen 8y ago
      I must be an outlier as well. When my children were small, I was doing the laundry for the household. Two adults, two kids. I certainly wasn't spending more than an hour a week folding clothes. (My total time doing laundry was much higher, of course, particularly when the kids were diaper-age).
      - new299 8y ago
        The parent comment seemed to suggest that they spent less than an hour was spent per week on all activities not including the clothes were in the washing machine. That’s what I was suggesting was low.
        JohnFen 8y ago
        The parent comment was talking about folding specifically: "I probably spend (at most) an hour a week folding."
        new299 8y ago
        “not counting the time spent in the washing/drying machine, I probably spend (at most) an hour a week folding.” This is unclear to me but implies that “folding” includes all laundry activities except “time spent in the washer dryer” (otherwise why mention it). I guess if you fold and put away everything, this could be the case.
- saiya-jin 8y ago
  2 people in their 30s, spending maybe 1h/week together - I don't count the time machine runs since that's cca free time. Just loading it, unloading, putting on dryer, putting back to shelves. Actually its probably less than 1h. And I do intense sports cca 1x/day on average, so plenty of stuff and fiancee is pretty active too. Who the hell does ironing these days? If you put it on the dryer properly, no ironing required. I work at the bank so formal dress 5 days a week, and the only requirement are self-ironing shirts (or whatever is the name). The rest can be achieved by drying/folding smartly. Unless of course you iron everything, including socks and underwear, then there is no help.
- krageon 8y ago
  I do the laundry for two people and it takes me about an hour per week (including folding). Truthfully, it heavily depends on whether or not your family tends to throw everything in the wash immediately after they wear it or not. Even wearing a t-shirt for two days instead of one will make a huge difference in wash load (perhaps a bit obvious, but still).
EliRivers 8y ago
Related, the late Hans Rosling on washing machines; "I was only four years old when I saw my mother load a washing machine for the first time ever. That was a great day for my mother." https://www.gapminder.org/videos/hans-rosling-and-the-magic-washing-machine/ https://www.gapminder.org/videos/hans-rosling-and-the-magic-...
DanBC 8y ago
But it turns out that washing machines didn't do much to save time. In the past people just didn't wash their clothes as often. Now people will wash their clothes after a single wear, and it's still mostly women who are doing the washing in families. https://twitter.com/TimHarford/status/1113123861602713600 https://twitter.com/TimHarford/status/1113123861602713600 https://twitter.com/DeconinckKoen/status/1054097445351776256 https://twitter.com/DeconinckKoen/status/1054097445351776256
- return1 8y ago
  "washing" is a euphemism for pressing a button, though
  - DanBC 8y ago
    No, for many people "washing" is a euphemism for gathering clothing from various rooms, sorting it into different loads (hot wash, cool wash, whites and colours), loading the machine with clothing, loading detergent (and buying the detergent), pressing the button (while selecting a program that doesn't destroy the clothing), taking the clothing out of the machine and putting it in the dryer or hanging it on the clothes line, taking it from the dryer / line and ironing it if needed, then folding it if needed, then distributing it back around the various rooms to include hanging if needed. The fact that we dismiss this work mostly done by women by saying it's just pushing a button is probably sexism.
    - belorn 8y ago
      Almost every single step of those are optional depending on the people in the household. For us everyone is responsible to bring their clothes to the wash baskets and sort based on temperature. Very few modern clothing require cool wash, and in my household we don't own any. Very few white clothes and discoloration from washing whites with colors is so minimal with modern clothing/washing machines so we don't bother. The only exception is when cleaning white table cloths in order to remove stains. Non-dryer clothes are avoided if possible. We don't work at places which require ironed clothes. Washing is thus for us: loading the machine (located in the apartment) with clothing from one of the two baskets when they are full, filling the detergent ball, selecting 40 or 60 depending on which basket is used, putting it in the dryer when the washer alarm goes off, taking it from the dryer when the dryer alarm goes off, and finally everyone collects their clean clothes. We could argue how common this is, and if there is a cultural difference here between US and Sweden, but I don't have any data beyond my own experience.

thaumasiotes 8y ago

> A washing machine and dryer cuts this to a couple hours a week. Maybe if you're doing a single person's laundry. Our family laundry is a job for more than a couple of hours.

dallen33 8y ago
I do the laundry in our home of 4 people, and not counting the time spent in the washing/drying machine, I probably spend (at most) an hour a week folding.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- scandox 8y ago
  Yes but this is an argument about the whole job. Washing, drying, folding and ironing. It's basically the worst thing in the universe. I can be philosophical about death...but not about laundry. In my Utopia everyone wears a kind of biodegradeable body wrap...and slippers.
  - sgt101 8y ago
    Ah Ah! Solution --> stop ironing! Get "no iron" clothes. Avoid tumble drying sheets and duvet covers (if you can) but don't dry them to crispy dry if you can't do that - instead let them be just dry and then fold them. Ignore wrinkles.
- new299 8y ago
  As far as I can tell, based on the statistics I can find, you are somewhat of an outlier: https://www.bls.gov/TUS/CHARTS/HOUSEHOLD.HTM https://www.bls.gov/TUS/CHARTS/HOUSEHOLD.HTM This data doesn’t break the statistics down by family size, but it still comes out at 2h a week for woman. The data includes all individuals older than 15. I suspect that the a average amount of time spend by families (particularly families with young children) would be much higher. Possibly up to an hour a day. I would be interested in seeing statistics on this.
  - JohnFen 8y ago
    I must be an outlier as well. When my children were small, I was doing the laundry for the household. Two adults, two kids. I certainly wasn't spending more than an hour a week folding clothes. (My total time doing laundry was much higher, of course, particularly when the kids were diaper-age).
    - new299 8y ago
      The parent comment seemed to suggest that they spent less than an hour was spent per week on all activities not including the clothes were in the washing machine. That’s what I was suggesting was low.
      - JohnFen 8y ago
        The parent comment was talking about folding specifically: "I probably spend (at most) an hour a week folding."
        new299 8y ago
        “not counting the time spent in the washing/drying machine, I probably spend (at most) an hour a week folding.” This is unclear to me but implies that “folding” includes all laundry activities except “time spent in the washer dryer” (otherwise why mention it). I guess if you fold and put away everything, this could be the case.
saiya-jin 8y ago
2 people in their 30s, spending maybe 1h/week together - I don't count the time machine runs since that's cca free time. Just loading it, unloading, putting on dryer, putting back to shelves. Actually its probably less than 1h. And I do intense sports cca 1x/day on average, so plenty of stuff and fiancee is pretty active too. Who the hell does ironing these days? If you put it on the dryer properly, no ironing required. I work at the bank so formal dress 5 days a week, and the only requirement are self-ironing shirts (or whatever is the name). The rest can be achieved by drying/folding smartly. Unless of course you iron everything, including socks and underwear, then there is no help.
krageon 8y ago
I do the laundry for two people and it takes me about an hour per week (including folding). Truthfully, it heavily depends on whether or not your family tends to throw everything in the wash immediately after they wear it or not. Even wearing a t-shirt for two days instead of one will make a huge difference in wash load (perhaps a bit obvious, but still).

EliRivers 8y ago

Related, the late Hans Rosling on washing machines; "I was only four years old when I saw my mother load a washing machine for the first time ever. That was a great day for my mother." https://www.gapminder.org/videos/hans-rosling-and-the-magic-washing-machine/ https://www.gapminder.org/videos/hans-rosling-and-the-magic-...

DanBC 8y ago

But it turns out that washing machines didn't do much to save time. In the past people just didn't wash their clothes as often. Now people will wash their clothes after a single wear, and it's still mostly women who are doing the washing in families. https://twitter.com/TimHarford/status/1113123861602713600 https://twitter.com/TimHarford/status/1113123861602713600 https://twitter.com/DeconinckKoen/status/1054097445351776256 https://twitter.com/DeconinckKoen/status/1054097445351776256

return1 8y ago
"washing" is a euphemism for pressing a button, though
- DanBC 8y ago
  No, for many people "washing" is a euphemism for gathering clothing from various rooms, sorting it into different loads (hot wash, cool wash, whites and colours), loading the machine with clothing, loading detergent (and buying the detergent), pressing the button (while selecting a program that doesn't destroy the clothing), taking the clothing out of the machine and putting it in the dryer or hanging it on the clothes line, taking it from the dryer / line and ironing it if needed, then folding it if needed, then distributing it back around the various rooms to include hanging if needed. The fact that we dismiss this work mostly done by women by saying it's just pushing a button is probably sexism.
  - belorn 8y ago
    Almost every single step of those are optional depending on the people in the household. For us everyone is responsible to bring their clothes to the wash baskets and sort based on temperature. Very few modern clothing require cool wash, and in my household we don't own any. Very few white clothes and discoloration from washing whites with colors is so minimal with modern clothing/washing machines so we don't bother. The only exception is when cleaning white table cloths in order to remove stains. Non-dryer clothes are avoided if possible. We don't work at places which require ironed clothes. Washing is thus for us: loading the machine (located in the apartment) with clothing from one of the two baskets when they are full, filling the detergent ball, selecting 40 or 60 depending on which basket is used, putting it in the dryer when the washer alarm goes off, taking it from the dryer when the dryer alarm goes off, and finally everyone collects their clean clothes. We could argue how common this is, and if there is a cultural difference here between US and Sweden, but I don't have any data beyond my own experience.