Ask HN: How do you do laundry?

[magicjosh]

I don't like doing laundry (sorting, washing, folding). It's just a chore I never have time for. Even if I get things washed I don't fold them and they sit there and get wrinkled.

How do you handle this? Are there any tools or techniques you use? Can I get a folding robot?

[LinuxBender]

How do you do laundry?

I drink a can of Monster, put on some heavy metal and then fold aggressively.

Can I get a folding robot?

Probably if cost is not a limiting factor. Baxter [1] and others could probably be taught how to fold clothes. Baxter is said to be around $22K. It's probably cheaper to hire someone unless one was folding clothes non-stop.

[1] - https://robots.ieee.org/robots/baxter/

[metadat]

Find and secure a partner who likes doing laundry and gets mad if you try to help.

I still feel guilty, even though I help in many other ways.

[cblum]

Lol I’m that partner. I’m very particular about how clothes should be washed and dried. I care about things like sorting loads, proper machine settings for what’s being washed, etc.

[fogzen]

Reduce the laundry you need to do. I only own three outfits. Hand washing a single outfit every day takes less than 10 minutes. Costs nothing. Hang dry. No folding.

[speedgoose]

What about bed sheets? Do you have a stable temperature all year around? You don’t do sport? You don’t have young kids?

[mrks_]

Try the Trofast Laundry System https://twitter.com/hellobasak/status/1646950403911589893

[PaulHoule]

Robot folding is an active research area, see

https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.16898

https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.00323

https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.02832

https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.10149

[runjake]

I don't. My wife (a mother and homemaker) does it all. I should show her more appreciation for having clean clothes magically appear in my dresser.

Back in the day, you could take your bags of laundry to a laundry service and pay very little to have them washed and folded. If you're financially-comfortable, tip generously.

Laundry robots and lifehacks sound too complicated.

[dazc]

First world problem but I get the point, it's a chore but chores by their definition are supposed to be 'chores'.

Personally, it was the time sink that bothered me so I bought a washer and drier to put in my office. It is still a slight inconvenience but doesn't eat into my leisure time as it did before.

If you don't have a private office then, as comment below, you can simply pay someone at the laundry place to do it of you.

[8b16380d]

Wash clothes by type (delicates, light, darks, etc). Dry immediately after washing finishes. Fold immediately after drying is done. Repeat n-times until all laundry is complete. Scales moderately well with family size.

[yuppie_scum]

Adulting is hard, isn’t it? Yes, if you have more money than time you should just get a laundromat to do it.

[andyjohnson0]

Accept that it's a chore and it's ok not to like doing it, but also that you're an adult and it still needs doing. So promise yourself a reward when its done, then power on and jfdi.

[swah]

Laundry is ok but folding and ironing... luckily remote work also helped with that!

[qup]

You can just drive it to a laundromat and have them do it. It's not really that expensive.

[rajeshp1986]

How much do you spend monthly on laundromat?

[pjacotg]

I listen to podcasts while doing domestic tasks!

[frontman1988]

No laundry as a service app at your place?

[VoodooJuJu]

I got a girlfriend.