Laundry Lover

My clothesline

P&G spends a lot of time and money on developing their products. More than most companies, they pride themselves on being in touch with their consumers and spend vast amounts of money doing consumer marketing research. From that, they place their target consumers into representative groups. I was greatly surprised when I listened to the fabric care group talk about their consumers, only to discover that I was not included in their target audience!


How could that be? I love doing laundry. That, and vacuuming are my two favorite chores. I love smelling the detergents and fabric softeners, not only when I am deciding which to buy, but also when I’m doing the wash, folding the clothes, and wearing them.

I love the white noise of the washing machine as it chugs and rinses. I love to sit back on my couch and listen to the washer while I read a book. I prop my feet up, sip my coffee, flip through pages, and know that I’m cleaning the clothes at the same time. I mean, really, what cleaning task could be simpler than laundry? The machine does all the work!

I’m not a big dryer fan in general. I’d rather hang my clothes outside on the line. But in the winter, the dryer can bring me pleasure, too. The soft, warm clothes that you can heap across your lap as you fold. And the scented air that wafts out of the laundry room and out into the chilly winter air.

Someone at P&G argued with me that what I really like is the sense of accomplishment laundry gives me. I’ll grant that. But I like the process of washing clothes and hanging them outside, too. In fact, there have been days when the washing machine buzzer goes off and my husband announces he’s going to go get the clothes and hang them up. I’ve dropped whatever I’m doing to race him to the washer. I know this sounds incredibly geeky, but I love hanging each piece on the line and finding the perfect spot for each item to get maximum airflow. I shouldn’t admit that, but it’s actually fun for me.

The fun doesn’t stop there. After I hang the clothes on the line, I like to come inside and position myself on the end of the couch that lets me look out the window to where the laundry is hanging. I just lay back and watch the clothes sway in the breeze. It’s such a lulling feeling of comfort. Peaceful. I watch the clothes and daydream for hours when I can.

Folding laundry is fine. Putting it away is the part of laundry that I could do without, but the marketers and researchers at P&G aren’t really interested in that either. As one person described it to me, women hate doing laundry and P&G is trying to find a way to make it more enjoyable -- not such a dreaded task.

Dreaded task! Who are these women? According to the statistics, doing laundry ranks about as high on the pleasure scale as speaking in public. Okay, doing laundry probably doesn’t appear as a typical “favorite hobby”. It is, after all, a chore.

I guess what surprises me is that I’m such an anomaly. I love doing laundry, but that passion has excluded me from P&G’s lists of targeted consumers. Apparently they don’t need to go after me; they’ve had me all along. They’re trying to find a way to make doing laundry more pleasurable. Hhm…. maybe they should put me back into their consumer target groups. Me, and women like me who already love doing laundry. Maybe they could learn a thing or two….