A Casual Wear Suggestion

It ranks as one of America’s least favorite chores, it’s taking more time than ever and the results are getting worse.

“It” is doing the laundry — sorting, washing, drying, folding, ironing. Professional cleaners have the solution, but they need to get the word out. A new brochure from IFI aims to do that by illustrating the difference between home washing and professional cleaning not only in terms of how much better professional cleaned garments look but also how much time professional cleaners save.

The problem for American consumers was starkly illustrated by the Wall Street Journal last month: Americans have 35 billion loads of laundry to do each year, 1,100 loads of laundry are started every second in the U.S. and each person generates one-quarter ton of dirty laundry a year.

But that’s not the worst of it. The Wall Street Journal notes:

“While technology has made most tasks less time consuming, the American way of doing laundry remains a tale of progress foiled. Not only do Americans appear to be spending more time doing their wash then they did four decades ago, but industry research shows that their clothes are coming out dirtier and more worn than in other developed countries.”

Leading the list of antiquated technology is the top-load washer, still the washing machine of choice for more than 90 percent of American households. Top-loaders use more water and are more damaging to clothes than front-load machines, but they remain popular in America for the simple reason that they cut down on the chore of doing laundry — you don’t have to bend over to put clothes in the top loader.

Procter & Gamble, which employs about 1,800 scientists to research fabric and home-cleaning products, rates the cleaning power of the top-loaders favored in America at 65 percent, compared to 85 percent for the front-loaders that prevail in Europe.

America may lag in laundry, but Americans lead the world in wardrobe. Ruth Schwartz Carson, a history professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, told the Journal, “Americans own more clothing than any culture in history. We require more clean clothes than anyone on earth.”

That’s due in part to the seemingly unique American notion that clothes are dirty after one wearing.

As a result, the average American spends seven to nine hours a week doing laundry, according to P&G estimates.

They can use a little help, but first some attitudes must change.

“We are creatures of habit. In America, people believe they’re the only who know how to wash clothes,” L D Metcalfe, director of strategic global alliances for Whirlpool Corp., told the Journal. “Their mothers taught them, It’s handed town like folklore from generation to generation.”

It has been frustrating for companies like Whirlpool and P&G to get people to change their habits and adopt new technology. They’ve come out with washers with more than a dozen specialized cycles and detergents for all kinds of specific purposes. Apparently, people don’t want to increase to the time they already spend on laundry by studying machine manuals and wash chemistry, so they continue with “the way we always did it” even though the time spent is resented and the results are unsatisfying.

Could this be an opportunity for professional cleaners? Could they capture some of those 35 billion loads of laundry that are now being down at home? Could they help people save time and look better?

IFI answers “yes” to those questions with its new brochure. On the inside of the brochure, a series of photographs illustrate the home cleaning process while a clock shows the passing of time as a woman works her way through the home cleaning cycle. The implied question: “Do you have time for all this?”

The front and back panels of the brochure show the difference between the professionally cleaned and pressed look and the results that home washing and drying yield. Contrasting photos of the same man, one with the “slept on a park bench” look and another where his clothes are professionally cleaned and pressed, tell the story. The front panel of the brochure shows three people casually dressed, but professionally cleaned and pressed, and the message “You will look your best when your clothes are professionally cleaned and pressed.”

“Casualwear can be big money for your business — as long as people bring it in,” IFI said.

IFI hopes its new brochure will stimulate cleaners to go after that business “in a market with a decreasing number of drycleanable garments hitting the racks in stores, and more and more home washable clothing.”

A copy of the brochure will be included in the June issue of IFI’s magazine Fabricare. All IFI consumer brochures are available for order by calling (800) 638-2627, ext. 135.