Who has time for hand washing clothes?
May 8th, 2012
Not Generation Y, apparently. A new national survey has found that almost half of Gen Yers would rather pass their delicate dirty laundry to dry cleaners than hand wash it themselves.
The figure – established in Canstar Blue’s latest washing machine survey – is four times that of baby boomers, who are more willing to use a bit of elbow grease.
Nor does the expense incurred through dry cleaners bother the younger generation.
“It seems hand washing may be a dwindling art for the Generation Y population, with 44 per cent of respondents from this demographic happily investing in dry cleaning over the manual art of hand washing despite tending to have lower salaries than Gen X and baby boomers,” Manager of Canstar Blue Rebecca Logan said.
“It was also interesting to see males were almost twice as likely to forgo hand washing, with 24 per cent of male respondents giving dry cleaning the tick of approval over hand washing compared with 16 per cent of females.
“However, overall the results show the majority of consumers surveyed make the time for hand washing which is reassuring given it is far gentler on clothes and kinder to the environment than dry cleaning.”
When it comes to cleaning non-delicate items in the washing machine, the survey revealed 40 per cent of respondents invested more than $800 on the appliance.
“It was interesting to see almost half our respondents going upscale by choosing to invest in high-end washing machines. It seems the battle to be king of the kitchen is alive and well,” Logan said.
The survey also showed that 68 per cent of respondents said energy efficiency was an important factor when purchasing a washing machine. 31 percent said that they made the time to recycle grey water from the washes.
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