AI-powered laundry-folding robot company has filed for bankruptcy

Post by pnutjam » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:02 PM UTC

clothes wrote: post #13

sonnyblarney wrote: post #2

Joking aside, a truly admirable goal. My god it would help everyone alive.

I don't fold my clothes, and haven't in 20 years. Which is to say, my clothes do not get folded by anyone. No one folde them for me, nor do I fold them myself. You don't have to fold most clothing. You can just toss it all in a basket and let it be. Most cotton wrinkles will disappear after being worn for about 20 minutes. Movement, body heat and ambient humidity removes wrinkles automatically from a lot of clothing.…

Post by sjg007 » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:05 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #64

peter303 wrote: post #16

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.

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/DeconinckKoen/status/1054097445351776256

Post by glenneroo » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:08 PM UTC

solarkraft wrote: post #106

DanBC wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/DeconinckKoen/status/1054097445351776256

We still saved a ton of time in comparison to how clean our clothes are.

Post by telchar » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:14 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #71

jfk13 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At last modern fabrics don't require ironing anymore. Would those "modern fabrics" be the ones using synthetic fibres that contribute thousands of plastic microparticles to the water each time they go through the wash?

I guess GP is talking about "poly cotton blends" rather than pure polyester or acrylic. But yes, poly-cotton blends do release microplastics. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/27/washing-clot... > They found that acrylic was the worst offender, releasing nearly 730,000 tiny synthetic particles per wash, five times more than polyester-cotton blend fabric, and nearly 1.5 times as many as polyester. People ha…

Post by glenneroo » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 2:17 PM UTC

korm wrote: post #102

tropdrop wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a gross oversimplification, especially washing in a family (> 1 person). 1. Sorting - when you buy clothing, do you take handling instructions into account? Accounting for handling is very hard! Good luck shopping online, hunting through instruction tags hidden on sides of clothes, all while keeping price reasonable. I do not like shopping, so I choose the first thing that looks ok and is comfortable - I am o…

Step 1 becomes progressively easier after each wash. Steps 2, 3, 4 are completely eliminated by having an in-unit washer as you said, like most families in western Europe do at least. Step 6 is also pretty quick with practice.