![Laundry in the river](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Laundry_in_the_river.jpg)
Laundry refers to the washing of clothing and other textiles,
and, more broadly, their
drying
Drying is a mass transfer process consisting of the removal of water or another solvent by evaporation from a solid, semi-solid or liquid. This process is often used as a final production step before selling or packaging products. To be considered ...
and
ironing
Ironing is the use of a machine, usually a heated tool (an iron), to remove wrinkles and unwanted creases from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of 180–220 °Celsius (356-428 Fahrenheit), depending on the fabric. Ironing wor ...
as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with this universal human need are of interest to several branches of scholarship. Laundry work has traditionally been
highly gendered, with the responsibility in most cultures falling to women (formerly known as laundresses or
washerwomen
A washerwoman or laundress is a woman who takes in laundry. Both terms are now old-fashioned; equivalent work nowadays is done by a laundry worker in large commercial premises, or a laundrette (laundromat) attendant.
Description
As evidence ...
). The Industrial Revolution gradually led to mechanized solutions to laundry work, notably the
washing machine
A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...
and later the
tumble dryer
A clothes dryer, also known as tumble dryer or simply dryer, is a powered household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing, bedding and other textiles, usually shortly after they are washed in a washing machine.
Many dry ...
. Laundry, like cooking and child care, is still done both at home and by commercial establishments outside the home.
The word "laundry" may refer to the clothing itself, or to the place where the cleaning happens. An individual home may have a
laundry room
A laundry room (also called a utility room) is a room where clothes are washed and dried. In a modern home, a laundry room would be equipped with an automatic washing machine and clothes dryer, and often a large basin, called a ''laundry tub'' ...
; a
utility room A utility room is a room within a house where equipment not used in day-to-day activities is kept. "Utility" refers to an item which is designed for usefulness or practical use, so in turn most of the items kept in this room have functional attribut ...
includes but is not restricted to the function of washing clothes. An apartment building or student
hall of residence
A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...
may have a shared laundry facility such as a ''
tvättstuga
A laundry room (also called a utility room) is a room where clothes are washed and dried. In a modern home, a laundry room would be equipped with an automatic washing machine and clothes dryer, and often a large basin, called a ''laundry tub'', ...
''. A stand-alone business is referred to as a
self-service laundry
A self-service laundry, coin laundry, laundromat, or coin wash is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the Unit ...
(launderette in
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
or laundromat in
North American English
North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...
).
History
Watercourses
![Laundry 1806](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Laundry_1806.PNG)
Laundry was first done in watercourses, letting the water carry away the materials which could cause stains and smells. Laundry is still done this way in the rural regions of poor countries.
Agitation helps remove the dirt, so the laundry was rubbed, twisted, or slapped against flat rocks. One name for this surface is a beetling-stone, related to
beetling
Beetling is the pounding of linen or cotton fabric to give a flat, lustrous effect. Process
Beetling was a textile finishing method of obtaining an aesthetic finish i.e. lustre in cotton or linen based fabrics, the cloth was exposed under the ha ...
, a technique in the production of linen; one name for a wooden substitute is a battling-block.
The dirt was beaten out with a wooden implement known as a
washing paddle
The washing paddle (or washing beetle, battledore, laundry bat), known as ''thaapi'' in Haryanvi and Hindi languages, is a hand tool used to do laundry. It is made of wood, shaped like a baker's peel, but with a much shorter handle used as a gri ...
, battling stick,
bat, beetle or club. Wooden or stone scrubbing surfaces set up near a water supply were gradually replaced by portable rub boards, eventually factory-made corrugated glass or metal
washboards.
Once clean, the clothes were wrung out — twisted to remove most of the water. Then they were hung up on poles or
clothes line
A clothes line or washing line is any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points (e.g. two sticks), outside or indoors, above the level of the ground. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung along the line t ...
s to air dry, or sometimes just spread out on clean grass, bushes, or trees.
Washhouses
![Tanque das Lavandeiras - comunitario II](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Tanque_das_Lavandeiras_-_comunitario_II.jpg)
Before the advent of the
washing machine
A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...
, laundry was often done in a communal setting.
Villages across Europe that could afford it built a wash-house, sometimes known by the French name of ''
lavoir
A lavoir (wash-house) is a public place set aside for the washing of clothes. Communal washing places were common in Europe until industrial washing was introduced, and this process in turn was replaced by domestic washing machines and by laund ...
''. Water was channelled from a stream or spring and fed into a building, possibly just a roof with no walls. This wash-house usually contained two basins – one for washing and the other for rinsing – through which the water was constantly flowing, as well as a stone lip inclined towards the water against which the wet laundry could be beaten. Such facilities were more comfortable and convenient than washing in a watercourse. Some lavoirs had the wash-basins at waist height, although others remained on the ground. The launderers were protected to some extent from rain, and their travel was reduced, as the facilities were usually at hand in the village or at the edge of a town. These facilities were public and available to all families, and usually used by the entire village. Many of these village wash-houses are still standing, historic structures with no obvious modern purpose.
The job of doing the laundry was
reserved for women, who washed all their family's laundry.
Washerwomen
A washerwoman or laundress is a woman who takes in laundry. Both terms are now old-fashioned; equivalent work nowadays is done by a laundry worker in large commercial premises, or a laundrette (laundromat) attendant.
Description
As evidence ...
(laundresses) took in the laundry of others, charging by the piece. As such, wash-houses were an obligatory stop in many women's weekly lives and became a sort of institution or meeting place. It was a
women-only space
A women-only space is an area where only women (and in some cases children) are allowed, thus providing a place where they do not have to interact with men. Historically and globally, many cultures had, and many still have, some form of female sec ...
where they could discuss issues or simply chat (cf the concept of the
village pump
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. T ...
). Indeed, this tradition is reflected in the
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
idiom "''fer safareig''" (literally, "to do the laundry"), which means to gossip.
European cities also had public wash-houses. The city authorities wanted to give the poorer population, who would otherwise not have access to laundry facilities, the opportunity to wash their clothes. Sometimes these facilities were combined with
public baths
Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
, see for example
Baths and wash houses in Britain
Baths and wash houses available for public use in Britain were first established in Liverpool. St. George's Pier Head salt-water baths were opened in 1828 by the Corporation of Liverpool, with the first known warm fresh-water public wash house be ...
. The aim was to foster hygiene and thus reduce outbreaks of epidemics.
Sometimes large metal cauldrons (a "
wash copper
A wash copper, copper boiler or simply copper is a wash house boiler, generally made of galvanised iron, though the best sorts are made of copper. In the inter-war years they came in two types. The first is built into a brickwork furnace and was fo ...
", even when not made of that metal), were filled with fresh water and heated over a fire, as hot or boiling water is more effective than cold in removing dirt. A
posser
A posser, ponch or a washing dolly was historically a tool used for ''possing'' laundry by pumping the posser up and down on the laundry in the dolly tub or directly in the wash copper, copper, or mixing laundry while hand washing it. Possers com ...
could be used to agitate clothes in a tub. A related implement called a washing dolly is "a wooden stick or mallet with an attached cluster of legs or pegs" that moves the cloth through the water.
Washing machines and other devices
The
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
completely transformed laundry technology.
Christina Hardyment
Christina Hardyment (born 1946) is a British writer who has written on a wide range of subjects including parenting, food, gardens, children's books, domestic life, and British history.
Personal life
Hardyment lived mainly in England, save f ...
, in her history from the
Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...
of 1851, argues that it was the development of domestic machinery that led to
women's liberation
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...
.
The
mangle
Mangle can refer to:
* Mangle (machine), a mechanical laundry aid consisting of two rollers
* Box mangle, an earlier laundry mangle using rollers and a heavy weight
* Mangled packet, in computing
* Mangrove, woody trees or shrubs
* Name mangling, ...
(or "wringer" in
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
) was developed in the 19th century — two long rollers in a frame and a crank to revolve them. A laundry-worker took sopping wet clothing and cranked it through the mangle, compressing the cloth and expelling the excess water. The mangle was much quicker than hand twisting. It was a variation on the
box mangle
The box mangle is said to have been invented in the 17th century. It consisted of a heavy frame containing a large box filled with rocks, resting on a series of long wooden rollers. Damp laundry could be laid flat under rollers, or wound round th ...
used primarily for pressing and smoothing cloth.
Meanwhile, 19th-century inventors further mechanized the laundry process with various hand-operated
washing machine
A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...
s to replace tedious hand rubbing against a washboard. Most involved turning a handle to move paddles inside a tub. Then some early-20th-century machines used an electrically powered
agitator
Agitator may refer to:
Politics
*A person who carries out political agitation; see agitation
*A member of the Agitators, political movement and elected representatives of soldiers during the English Civil War
* Levellers, also called Agitators ...
. Many of these washing machines were simply a tub on legs, with a hand-operated mangle on top. Later the mangle too was electrically powered, then replaced by a perforated double tub, which spun out the excess water in a spin cycle.
Laundry drying was also mechanized, with
clothes dryer
A clothes dryer, also known as tumble dryer or simply dryer, is a powered household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing, bedding and other textiles, usually shortly after they are washed in a washing machine.
Many dry ...
s. Dryers were also spinning perforated tubs, but they blew heated air rather than water.
Chinese laundries in North America
In the late 19th and early 20th century,
Chinese immigrants to the United States and
to Canada were well represented as laundry workers. Discrimination, lack of English-language skills, and lack of capital kept Chinese immigrants out of most desirable careers. Around 1900, one in four ethnic Chinese men in the U.S. worked in a laundry, typically working 10 to 16 hours a day.
Chinese people in New York City
The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest and most prominent ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, hosting Chinese populations representing all 34 provincial-level administrative units of China. The Chinese American population ...
were running an estimated 3,550 laundries at the beginning of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. In 1933, the city's
Board of Aldermen
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...
passed a law clearly intended to drive the Chinese out of the business. Among other things, it limited ownership of laundries to U.S. citizens. The
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) ( in the Western United States, Midwest, and Western Canada; 中華公所 (中华公所) ''zhōnghuá gōngsuǒ'' (Jyutping: zung1wa4 gung1so2) in the East) is a historical Chinese association ...
tried fruitlessly to fend this off, resulting in the formation of the openly
leftist
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (CHLA) is a labor organization formed in 1933 to protect the civil rights of overseas Chinese living in North America[civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...](_ ...<br></span></div> (CHLA), which successfully challenged this provision of the law, allowing Chinese laundry workers to preserve their livelihoods.<ref name=CHLA /> The CHLA went on to function as a more general <div class=)
group; its numbers declined strongly after it was targeted by the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
during the
Second Red Scare
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origina ...
(1947–1957).
South Africa
From 1850 to 1910,
Zulu men took on the task of laundering the clothes of Europeans, both Boers and British. "Laundering recalled the specialist craft of hide-dressing in which Zulu males engaged as izinyanga, a prestige occupation that paid handsomely." They created a guild structure, similar to a union, to guard their conditions and wages, evolving into "one, if not indeed the most, powerful group of African work-men in nineteenth-century Natal".
India
In India, laundry was traditionally done by men. A washerman was called a ''dhobiwallah'', and ''
dhobi
Dhobi known in some places as Dhoba or Rajaka, Madivala is a group of community in India and the greater Indian subcontinent whose traditional occupations are washing and ironing, Cultivator, agricultural workers.
They are a large community, ...
'' became the name of their
caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
group.
A laundry-place is generally called a ''
dhobi ghat
Mahalakshmi Dhobi Ghat is an open air laundry place in Mumbai, India. It is located at Mahalaxmi railway station in southern Mumbai, it is also accessible from the Jacob Circle monorail station. The washers, known as ''dhobis'', work in the ...
''; this has given rise to place names where they work or worked, including
Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat in Mumbai,
Dhoby Ghaut
Dhoby Ghaut () is a place in Singapore that often refers to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, a major interchange station on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit network connecting the North-South Line, North East Line, and the Circle Line. As a place, D ...
in Singapore and
Dhobi Ghaut in Penang, Malaysia.
Philippines
Manual laundry was done in the Philippines until the early 1980s which the role was assigned to women. A laundrywoman was called a ''labandera.''
Ancient Rome
The workers in ancient
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
who cleaned the cloth were called ''fullones'', singular ''
fullo
A ''fullo'' was a Roman fuller or laundry worker (plural: ''fullones''), known from many inscriptions from Italy and the western half of the Roman Empire and references in Latin literature, e.g. by Plautus, Martialis and Pliny the Elder. A '' ...
'' (cf
fulling
Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...
, a process in wool-making, and
Fuller's earth
Fuller's earth is any clay material that has the capability to decolorize oil or other liquids without the use of harsh chemical treatment. Fuller's earth typically consists of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite.
Modern uses of fuller's ea ...
, used to clean). Clothes were treated in small tubs standing in niches surrounded by low walls, known as treading or fulling stalls. The tub was filled with water and a mixture of alkaline chemicals (sometimes including urine). The fuller stood in the tub and trampled the cloth, a technique known elsewhere as
posting. The aim of this treatment was to apply the chemical agents to the cloth so that they could do their work, the resolving of greases and fats. These stalls are so typical of these workshops that they are used to identify ''fullonicae'' in the archaeological remains.
Laundry processes
![Women laundering in Tampere lake](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Women_laundering_in_Tampere_lake.jpg)
Laundry processes include washing (usually with water containing detergents or other chemicals), agitation, rinsing, drying, pressing (ironing), and folding. The washing will sometimes be done at a temperature above room temperature to increase the activities of any chemicals used and the solubility of stains, and high temperatures kill micro-organisms that may be present on the fabric. However, it is advised that cotton be washed at a cooler temperature to prevent shrinking. Many professional laundry services are present in the market which offers at different price range.
Agitation helps remove dirt which is usually mobilised by surfactants from between fibres, however, due to the small size of the pores in fibres, the 'stagnant core' of the fibres themselves see virtually no flow. The fibres are nevertheless rapidly cleaned by
diffusiophoresis
Diffusiophoresis is the spontaneous motion of colloidal particles or molecules in a fluid, induced by a concentration gradient of a different substance. In other words, it is motion of one species, A, in response to a concentration gradient in an ...
carrying dirt out into the clean water during the rinsing process.
Chemicals
Various chemicals may be used to increase the solvent power of water, such as the compounds in
soaproot
The common names soap plant, soaproot and amole refer to the genus ''Chlorogalum''. They are native to western North America, with some species in Oregon but they are mostly found in California. Common names of the genus and several species deri ...
or yucca-root used by Native American tribes, or the ash
lye
A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. "Lye" most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but historically has been us ...
(usually
sodium hydroxide
Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions .
Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alkali ...
or
potassium hydroxide
Potassium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the formula K OH, and is commonly called caustic potash.
Along with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), KOH is a prototypical strong base. It has many industrial and niche applications, most of which exp ...
) once widely used for soaking laundry in Europe.
Soap
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...
, a compound made from lye and fat, is an ancient and common laundry aid. Modern
washing machine
A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...
s typically use synthetic powdered or liquid
laundry detergent
Laundry detergent is a type of detergent (cleaning agent) used for cleaning dirty laundry (clothes). Laundry detergent is manufactured in powder (washing powder) and liquid form.
While powdered and liquid detergents hold roughly equal share o ...
in place of more traditional soap.
Cleaning or dry cleaning
Dry cleaning refers to any process which uses a chemical
solvent
A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...
other than water. The solvent used is typically
tetrachloroethylene
Tetrachloroethylene, also known under the systematic name tetrachloroethene, or perchloroethylene, and many other names (and abbreviations such as "perc" or "PERC", and "PCE"), is a chlorocarbon with the formula Cl2C=CCl2 . It is a colorless liq ...
(perchloroethylene), which the industry calls "perc". It is used to clean delicate fabrics that cannot withstand the rough and tumble of a
washing machine
A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...
and
clothes dryer
A clothes dryer, also known as tumble dryer or simply dryer, is a powered household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing, bedding and other textiles, usually shortly after they are washed in a washing machine.
Many dry ...
; it can also obviate labor-intensive hand washing.
Shared laundry rooms
![24 Pesula Jyväskylä](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/24_Pesula_Jyv%C3%A4skyl%C3%A4.jpg)
In some parts of the world, including North America,
apartment building
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...
s and
dormitories
A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...
often have laundry rooms, where residents share washing machines and dryers. Usually the machines are set to run only when money is put in a
coin slot.
In other parts of the world, including Europe, apartment buildings with laundry rooms are uncommon, and each apartment may have its own washing machine. Those without a machine at home or the use of a laundry room must either wash their clothes by hand or visit a commercial
self-service laundry
A self-service laundry, coin laundry, laundromat, or coin wash is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the Unit ...
(laundromat, laundrette) or a laundry shop, such as
5àsec
5àsec (french: Cinq à sec ) is a franchising network specialized in cleaning and ironing clothes.
History
Founded in Marseille in 1968, the name "5 à sec" (literally "5 to dry") comes from the five pricing levels in use back then. The 5àse ...
.
Right to dry movement
Some American communities forbid their residents from drying clothes outside, and citizens protesting this have created a "right to dry" movement. Many
homeowners' associations
A homeowner association (or homeowners' association, abbreviated HOA, sometimes referred to as a property owners' association or POA), or a homeowner community, is a private association-like entity often formed either ''ipso jure'' in a building ...
and other communities in the United States prohibit residents from using a clothesline outdoors, or limit such use to locations that are not visible from the street or to certain times of day. Other communities, however, expressly prohibit rules that prevent the use of clotheslines. Some organizations have been campaigning against legislation which has outlawed line-drying of clothing in public places, especially given the increased
greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...
produced by some types of electrical power generation needed to power electric clothes dryers, since driers can constitute a considerable fraction of a home's total energy usage.
Florida ("the Sunshine State") is the only state to expressly guarantee a right to dry, although Utah and Hawaii have passed solar rights legislation. A Florida law explicitly states: "No deed restrictions, covenants, or similar binding agreements running with the land shall prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources from being installed on buildings erected on the lots or parcels covered by the deed restrictions, covenants, or binding agreements." No other state has such clearcut legislation. Vermont considered a "Right to Dry" bill in 1999, but it was defeated in the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee. The language has been included in a 2007 voluntary
energy conservation
Energy conservation is the effort to reduce wasteful energy consumption by using fewer energy services. This can be done by using energy more effectively (using less energy for continuous service) or changing one's behavior to use less service (f ...
bill, introduced by Senator
Dick McCormack. Legislation making it possible for thousands of American families to start using clotheslines in communities where they were formerly banned was passed in Colorado in 2008. In 2009, clothesline legislation was debated in the states of Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Oregon, Virginia, and Vermont.
Similar measures have been introduced in Canada, in particular the province of Ontario.
Common problems
![NewBritainUnderwearWashingDirections](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/NewBritainUnderwearWashingDirections.jpg)
Novice users of modern laundry machines sometimes experience accidental
shrinkage of garments, especially when applying heat. For wool garments, this is due to scales on the fibers, which heat and agitation cause to stick together. Other fabrics (like cotton) have their fibers stretched by mechanical force during production, and can shrink slightly when heated (though to a lesser degree than wool). Some clothes are "pre-shrunk" to avoid this problem.
Another common problem is color bleeding from dyed articles to white or pale-colored ones. Many laundry guides suggest washing whites separately from colored items. Sometimes only similar colors are washed together to avoid this problem, which is lessened by cold water and repeated washings. Sometimes this blending of colors is seen as a
selling point
In marketing, the unique selling proposition (USP), also called the unique selling point, or the unique value proposition (UVP) in the Business Model Canvas, business model canvas, is the marketing strategy of informing customers about how one's ow ...
, as with
madras cloth
Madras is a lightweight cotton fabric with typically patterned texture and tartan design, used primarily for summer clothing such as pants, shorts, lungi, dresses, and jackets. The fabric takes its name from the former name of the city of Che ...
.
Laundry symbol
A laundry symbol, also called a care symbol, is a pictogram indicating the manufacturer's suggestions as to methods of washing, drying, dry-cleaning and ironing clothing. Such symbols are written on labels, known as care labels or care tags, ...
s are included on many clothes to help consumers avoid these problems.
Synthetic fibers in laundry can also contribute to
microplastic
Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than in length, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Chemicals Agency. They cause pollution by entering natural ecosystems from a v ...
pollution.
Etymology
The word ''laundry'' comes from
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
lavendrye, laundry, from
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
''lavanderie'', from lavandier.
In culture
![0 Bruxelles - Petit Sablon - Blanchisseur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/0_Bruxelles_-_Petit_Sablon_-_Blanchisseur.JPG)
In
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...
'', Princess
Nausicaa
Nausicaa (; grc, Ναυσικάα, Nausikáa, or , ) also spelled Nausicaä or Nausikaa, is a character in Homer's ''Odyssey''. She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia. Her name means "burner of ships" ( 'ship'; 'to b ...
and her handmaidens are washing laundry by the shore when they see and rescue the ship-wrecked
Ulysses
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature.
Ulysses may also refer to:
People
* Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name
Places in the United States
* Ulysses, Kansas
* Ulysse ...
.
See also
*
List of laundry topics
This is a list of laundry topics. Laundry is the washing of clothing and linens (e.g. sheets and towels). Laundry processes are often done in a business, room or area in a home or apartment building, reserved for that purpose; this is referred to ...
*
Laundry hygiene
References
External links
{{Authority control
Articles containing video clips