Is It Cheaper to Wash Clothes at Home or Laundry Service?

Sanity Saver

You’re frazzled, juggling household chores like a circus performer juggling flaming torches – it’s only a matter of time before something goes wrong! You’ve seen the influencers claiming that tidying up in five-minute increments will make your life a breeze. Newsflash: Life isn’t a perfectly filtered Instagram post! It’s more like a game of dodgeball where stress is the ball and you’re always in the line of fire.

Imagine if you could reclaim a chunk of your time each week – not just a couple of weeks of well-earned vacation, but every single week!

Picture this: guilt-free gym sessions, spontaneous coffee dates with friends that don’t feel like a crime, and movie nights that don’t involve laundry day drama.

We’ve been fed a story for generations that doing laundry yourself is a badge of honor and that outsourcing it is akin to hiring a butler just to carry your snacks. But hold your laundry detergent! How expensive is this chore really? 

Let me regale you with my tale of woe! A few years ago, when our washing machine broke (don't even ask), we ended up at the local launderette. The silver lining? We got our week's worth of laundry done in a couple of hours! The cloud? We were stuck sitting there, staring at the wall. The whole ordeal cost upwards of £50 a week—and guess what? We were still the laundry elves, washing, drying, and folding our stuff! 

Now, outsourcing your laundry sounds like trying to learn advanced quantum physics, right? But why? Maybe you’re worried folks will think you’re too fancy, sipping lattes while your laundry’s being done by someone else. Just the thought of it might bring on all sorts of guilt trips, as if you’ve hired a team to walk your dog too!

Here’s the scoop: there’s zero guilt in not doing your own laundry! Let’s break it down. Between work, kids’ activities, grocery runs, and just keeping a household from descending into chaos, laundry often gets the short end of the stick. What does laundry day look like at your place? Shouting at the kids to sort their clothes like it’s the Wild West? Sorting the mountain of laundry and discovering that red sock that turned your whites pink? The struggle is real!

Now, picture this: a magical laundry van arrives at your door, scooping up your week’s worth of laundry. In 24 hours, it returns, and voilà! Shirts are impeccably ironed, clothes are folded like they just came from a department store, and all you have to do is put them away. It’s like a fairy tale, but instead of a pumpkin carriage, you have a laundry truck! 

Let’s talk stats: the average person spends about 47 minutes a day on laundry. That’s roughly the same time it takes to binge-watch an episode of your favorite series! Laundry is the runaway leader in time-consuming household chores, right after cooking and cleaning—unless you count trying to make your kids do their chores. 

Now you’re intrigued! Yes, outsourcing your laundry saves you time, but what about the cost? It sounds daunting, but hold on! To save money and avoid the pitfalls of laundry debacles, here’s the pro tip: figure out what needs ironing and set it aside like it’s a secret agent mission. Weigh your laundry bag (because who doesn’t love numbers?), and remember that for every kilo of laundry, you’re looking at about £3. And, a typical load weighs between 4.5 to 9 kilos. 

Before you know it, you’ll be calculating laundry costs like a seasoned accountant. There’s a widespread myth that laundry services are just for the elite. Spoiler alert: it isn’t! It can be your occasional guilty pleasure or your saving grace when the universe throws you a curveball. 

So, ready to trade in laundry day blues for more free time? Accept that choosing a laundry wash and fold service is the best decision since someone invented coffee!