About Laundry

For millennia, people have washed and dried laundry as part of their hygienic practices. Throughout the world, there were different methods used, but with the advent of electricity, powered washing machines and dryers became the main method of cleaning fabrics.

Function

When you wear clothing, the body's natural secretions come through the skin and cause the fabric to acquire odors, perspiration stains and oils. Additionally, everyday life causes clothes to get dirty, whether brushing against a filthy car, falling on the sidewalk or spilling food. Other fabrics also need to be laundered, such as towels, bedsheets and curtains. Doing laundry is the process of removing stains, odors and oils from the fabric with water and detergent, replacing it with a fresh scent, and then drying the fabric.

Types

Laundry can be divided by color and by fabric. Most of the time clothing is laundered according to whether it falls into the categories of whites, lights and darks, thereby assuring that fabric dyes don't bleed into a lighter-colored piece of fabric. Many washing machines can launder clothes according to the type of fabric it's made of, such as lace, polyester, cotton or heavier fabrics.

Time Frame

The time it takes to do laundry depends on the process. If using a washing machine, the time to soak, wash, spin and rinse depends on the settings but generally takes about 30 minutes. For a full load of laundry in a dryer, it can take anywhere from 40 minutes to more than an hour to get all of the moisture out of the fabric. If washing by hand in a sink and air-drying, the time frame is even longer--at least a few hours.

Features

Laundering clothes follows a typical process. First, the fabrics are soaked in water with detergent or soap in order to loosen dirt, and then the material is agitated to get rid of any remaining grime. Next, clean water is used to rinse the old water and wash away the dirt. Finally, the material is wrung out to remove the excess water, and the laundered items are dried.

History

Humans have done laundry for at least 4,000 years, a figure determined from a depiction on the wall of an Egyptian tomb. It shows one slave pouring water on a piece of fabric while another rubs the material to soak it. Initially, cleansing sources were streams, lakes and rivers, where people would soak and rinse their clothes and fabrics in the water, intermittently slapping them on rocks or using sticks to beat the dirt out of especially filthy materials. Eventually, laundry was rubbed on textured boards and hung or spread out on the ground to dry in the sun.

Resources

• A brief history of laundering
• A more in-depth history of laundry