You probably don't think much about laundry while you're doing it. You throw in a load, switch it to the dryer, fold it, put it away, and move on. It feels like a small thing. But what if you added all of that up? What if you looked at how many hours of your life disappear into sorting, washing, drying, folding, and putting clothes away every single year?
The numbers are more surprising than most people expect, and once you see them laid out, the case for handing laundry off to someone else starts to make a lot more sense.
How Much Time Does Laundry Actually Take?
Estimates vary depending on your household size and habits, but the data paints a pretty consistent picture.
According to the American Time Use Survey, the average American spends about 10 minutes a day doing laundry, which adds up to over an hour a week and more than 62 hours a year. That is nearly three full days every year spent sorting, washing, drying, and folding.
That is the baseline for a single adult. For families, the number climbs significantly. Each load takes about 26 minutes of hands-on time when you account for clearing out pockets, picking up laundry, loading the machine, switching to the dryer, folding, hanging, matching socks, and putting everything away. For a household running six loads a week, that works out to 3.5 hours every single week before you even think about ironing.
At that pace, you are looking at over 180 hours a year just on laundry.
The gender breakdown is striking too. Women average over 87 hours of laundry annually, while men clock just over 29. Laundry ranks as the third most time-consuming daily activity for women, sitting right behind cooking and cleaning. And roughly one in four people admit to intentionally doing a poor job on the laundry at least once just to get out of doing it again. That says everything about how people really feel about this chore.
What Could You Be Doing with That Time Instead?
Think about what 62 to 180+ hours a year actually looks like in real life. That is enough time to learn a new skill, read 15 to 20 books, get an extra week of sleep over the course of the year, or simply spend more evenings doing something you actually enjoy. It is not a small number. It is a meaningful chunk of your life going toward a chore that never fully goes away.
What Does Laundry Cost You Beyond Time?
Time is only part of the story. Doing laundry at home carries real financial costs that most people never fully add up.
According to Procter and Gamble, the average American family washes 300 to 390 loads of laundry per year and spends between $180 and $600 a year on detergent alone. When you factor in the cost of running your washer and dryer, fabric softener, bleach, and the ongoing wear on your machines, the average American household spends at least $1,500 a year on laundry. And that does not even include your water bill.
Breaking it down by load, the average cost of doing one load of laundry at home sits around $1.27. If you are doing four loads a week, that comes out to roughly $264 a year. Eight loads a week puts you closer to $530 a year, just in direct running costs.
Is a Laundry Pickup and Delivery Service Actually Worth It?
This is the question most people have, and the honest answer is that for a lot of households, the numbers work out better than expected.
When you add up what you are already spending on detergent, supplies, energy, water, and machine maintenance, the gap between doing laundry yourself and using a professional service is smaller than most people assume. What you gain is all of the time back, plus the peace of mind that comes with knowing your clothes are being handled properly every single time.
For families spending 3 to 4 hours a week on laundry, that is roughly 150 to 200 hours a year. If your time is worth anything to you, whether that means more time with your kids, more time for work, or simply more time to rest, handing off laundry quickly becomes one of the easier decisions to make.
Let Get FreshStart Laundry Take It Off Your Plate
At Get FreshStart Laundry, we pick up your laundry, wash it using our state-of-the-art Ozone sanitizing system that kills 99.9% of bacteria, mold, and mildew, and return it to you clean, folded, and ready to put away the next day. Every load gets professional care, and you never have to think about it again.
We serve families and individuals throughout Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT with flexible weekly, bi-weekly, or on-demand scheduling. No contracts, no hassle. Schedule your first pickup and get 20% off with promo code TAKE20.
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