The ‘idea’ behind the washing machine was invented in 1797 when the first scrub board was created (by a man – no doubt). Then, another man, about 60 years later, invented an automated machine with an actual drum inside. From that point, the battle to end hand-washing clothes was on – and even today, companies somehow lure us into buying bigger, better, and newer machines that promise to end the laundry wars. In 1915, the first clothes dryer was introduced, probably as a ploy to keep people from drying their poop-stained underwear in the front yard for everyone to see. Today, the washer and dryer market is huge, and despite economic downturns, it continues to thrive in a volatile market.
When Will the Laundry Folding Machine Arrive?
But seriously, who really cares about all of that? What we want to know is who, pray tell, is going to invent a machine that actually folds and puts laundry away. We, as a society, have been working on washers and dryers for over 100 years – and yet folding laundry STILL sucks, and is definitely an unappreciated job that deserves a robotic solution too! We’ve figured out the internet and put people on the moon, but we can’t find a solution for one of life’s most mundane and unappreciated tasks?
If you’re like this author (who has several kids), there’s probably a load of laundry sitting on your couch right now that has been camped out there for a year or more. Not the same laundry, of course, but new loads. Whenever the kids can’t find clean underwear in their room, they know by habit that there’s a clean pair (albeit wrinkled) somewhere in the massive pile of towels and clothes on the couch. When the linen closet is out of towels or washcloths, clean towels can also be found on the couch. The missing sock? It’s probably somewhere in the couch cushions by now!
The reason this clean laundry pile sits and steadily grows is that the actual folding and putting away of laundry wastes so much time! Not only do you have to filter through all the clothes, make piles, fold, and hang things up, but you also have to carry it off to various rooms in the house where it belongs. And let’s face it… eventually, and always, it’s going to end up back in the washing machine, the dryer, and the couch. So really, why bother? Doesn’t it just equate to shoveling snow during a snowstorm? Or eating a candy bar while running on the treadmill?
If there are people in this world who have the inclination and time to fold clothes as soon as they come hot out of the dryer, then kudos to them (Psycho, OCD, Type A misfits), because the average person does not. The sad part is that if this laundry pile of doom sits idle for too long, rather than iron (because who does that anymore?), all of the clothes get rewashed and redried! With dryer technology being what it is today, most of us have clothes dryers that can press clothes better than our grandmothers could (and without the starch).
The reason new homes have built-in ‘laundry rooms’—besides the fact that we’re a spoiled society—is because of the aforementioned laundry pile. If you have a laundry room, you essentially have an extra place for all the clean clothes to hang out until someone needs them, without taking up a seat on the couch. This way, when people come over, you’re never scrambling to get the laundry picked up because you simply have a door you can close. Your spouse will never come home and wonder what you’ve done all day because the laundry room is spilling over with evidence of your daily laundry chores. And kids can easily take the clean stuff that their OCD parent spent time folding, try it on once before school only to decide it doesn’t look right, then heave it into the laundry room without worrying that mom will notice. She won’t, because the room is already full of clothes. One shirt isn’t going to push her over the edge at this point.
When The Jetsons first came on television, many of us who remember that show used to think how cool it would be to have video phones where we could carry on conversations and see one another. And look, we now have Skype! The Jetsons had tanning beds. They also had a mobilized vacuum eerily similar to the ‘I Robot Roomba.’ And, of course, The Jetsons had Rosey the robot. Rosey was a complete pro at not just washing and drying clothes, but folding them and putting them away in their respective places. So where is Rosey now??? We deserve a modern-day Rosey!
If you go home today and don’t have a laundry pile on your couch, then you need to thank someone! If you walk into your bedroom and see a pile of neatly folded clean clothes on your dresser or hanging in your closet, then you owe someone big time. This means someone in your life has provided you with one of the most unappreciated and time-consuming, not to mention sucky, favors that life has to offer—folding and putting away laundry!
