Laundry… So Time Consuming
A study performed on 4,400 mothers by the company Ecozone, reveals that the average mother spends five months of her life doing laundry by the time her child reaches the age of 18. She will typically spend 26 minutes per load on pre and post-wash tasks such as clearing pockets, picking up laundry that never makes it into the hamper, folding clothes and matching socks. And she does this approximately six times per week! That is 156 minutes of laundry each week. And that’s not all, the typical mother also spends 55 minutes per week ironing clothes. In total, this amounts to 3.5 hours spent on laundry each week..
With so much time working on the laundry, you would think that these mothers are experts on washing clothes. However, many of the mothers polled admitted they didn’t always use the washing machines correctly:
- 60% left the clothes in the machine overnight and had to rewash them.
- 55% used the wrong settings.
- 33% never cleaned the spinner on the washing machine.
How Much Time Should Be Spent On Laundry?
Let’s face it, laundry is a time-consuming and mundane task. What if we could outsource it? Think about all the things you could do with 3.5 extra hours each week. The possibilities are endless. More quality time could be spent with the children. If your kids are school age, you would have more time to volunteer at the school. Or you could spend some much needed time on yourself by hitting the gym, tackling one of those DIY projects you so diligently pinned or relaxing with a good book. There would be no guilt when you choose lunch with friends over the clothes left in the dryer (You know the ones – those clothes that end up so wrinkled from sitting in the dryer that you give up on trying to iron the wrinkles out and inevitably wash them, again.)
OR, what if you invested those laundry free hours in a new business venture? Perhaps you’ve always wanted to sell something on Etsy or write a blog. Maybe you have a friend who is super successful with her home-based business. She’s tried to recruit you, but finding the time has always been an issue that kept you from committing. Or perhaps you have your own “thing” going, but wish you had more time to work on it.
By freeing up 3.5 hours every week, the amount you spend on a laundry service could have a very large return on investment. Think of all you could accomplish!
Benefits Of Professional Laundering
Extra time is not the only benefit to using a professional laundry service. Clothes that are professionally laundered tend to look better. First of all, using your washing machine incorrectly can take a toll on the life of your clothes. If you use the wrong settings, clothes may end up in the spin cycle too long. This wrinkles and distorts your clothing. Leaving clothes in the washing machine overnight causes a musty, moldy smell. And if you use too much soap, bacteria can build up in areas that don’t easily rinse clean. Plus, professional laundry services use a machine press to iron out the wrinkles. It would take an extensive amount of ironing to even come close to this look. Who has time for that?
Is It Worth It?
Some mothers have a hard time justifying the cost of outsourcing laundry. Only you can decide what your time is really worth. Laundry tops the list of time-consuming household tasks. If you find yourself always short of time for the things you want to do, then it may be time to find a new solution for the things you have to do.
Take a look at our published blog post to learn more in depth about why laundry service is actually worth it!