![]() ![]() It wasn’t until cotton became the fabric of our lives - in part because it was so easy to clean - that American women entered the era of perpetual washing. Until the 19th century, most outerwear, made from wool, leather, or felt, couldn’t be washed, and while linen underlayers could, they often weren’t, explains Suellen Hoy in her history of cleanliness. There was a time before laundry, although it was less romantic than one might hope. And if we are in a multi-decade stalemate, the only option is to change ourselves. Laundry is instead an intractable condition. It has not been elevated to the status of a wholesome “hobby” (cooking), nor has it been successfully captured by the wellness market (washing your face). In the years after World War II, automatic washing machines and accompanying in-home dryers became suburban household staples, and laundry now looks more or less as it did then. ![]() Laundry defies the rules of lifestyle innovation and the promises of capitalism. ![]() But what makes laundry special is that it has also not improved. Like so many basic functions of life maintenance - eating, showering, cleaning, sleeping - laundry has yet to be hacked out of existence. We have outsourced it and insourced it and mechanized it and developed apps for it, but while we have made it easier, we have not made it less. We have been doing what is recognizable as modern laundry - using soap and water to make what was dirty clean - for 200 years now. “Laundry defies the rules of lifestyle innovation and the promises of capitalism” ![]()
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