Washing Machines
Jul. 15th, 2026 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meanwright"Did washing machines make household labor 'more productive,'*" she asks, obviously continuing to answer in the negative. Someone said no in 1983, says she, because now people felt the need to always wear clean clothes. Not just on alternate Sundays. To reduce the stench, we increase the labor.
Doing all of our washing, drying and folding takes me about 15 minutes a week. Mostly folding while watching TV and going on sock hunts before turning the washer on. Another ten for the sheets. Two people's clothes for an entire week, including exercise and gardening. Twenty minutes of me actually doing stuff. This is much less time than would have been spent washing. How much time do you think this would take if I washed our clothes by hand every week?
I am afraid I have been in places where I was forced to hand wash all my clothes for three months, under extreme, military scrutiny. One person, two sets of clothes plus more underwear and stuff -- more than forty-five minutes a week, not including the ironing.
It's just not credible.
* I mean, really, if you want a vague idea, it's the "productivity" of uncompensated traditional maintenance tasks in a family compound in response to rapidly changing social standards.
Doing all of our washing, drying and folding takes me about 15 minutes a week. Mostly folding while watching TV and going on sock hunts before turning the washer on. Another ten for the sheets. Two people's clothes for an entire week, including exercise and gardening. Twenty minutes of me actually doing stuff. This is much less time than would have been spent washing. How much time do you think this would take if I washed our clothes by hand every week?
I am afraid I have been in places where I was forced to hand wash all my clothes for three months, under extreme, military scrutiny. One person, two sets of clothes plus more underwear and stuff -- more than forty-five minutes a week, not including the ironing.
It's just not credible.
* I mean, really, if you want a vague idea, it's the "productivity" of uncompensated traditional maintenance tasks in a family compound in response to rapidly changing social standards.
no subject
Date: 2026-07-29 06:21 pm (UTC)