some blame Marie Kondo the clutter
banishing guru gave specific
instructions for proper folding in her
international blockbuster on tidying up
putting the chore of folding front and
center and sending manufacturers
scrambling a fresh to solve this
timeless housekeeping problem here with
the story is wsj reporter Ellen Byron
Ellen thanks so much for being with us
there been so many machines developed
through the years to make other parts of
housekeeping easier the vacuum cleaner
the dishwasher but doing the laundry is
still the same old manual drudgery it
always was yeah there's this growing
frustration why hasn't anyone fixed this
yet and when it comes to folding you can
only speed it up so much what is it and
what is it that manufacturers say they
struggle with is it because material is
so variable yeah for as mundane as we
find folding it's actually a somewhat
complicated process it needs a lot of
dexterity and a lot of problem-solving
you have to match socks you have to turn
garments inside out or make them right
and fabric is difficult for a machine to
hold on to because it's fluid right and
we should I should specify that we're
talking about folding here obviously the
act of doing laundry has gotten easier
with laundry machines but there are some
people you spoke to in your story that
hate folding so much they've resorted to
laundry piles tell us and they're
calling it the laundry chair the laundry
couch just throw in there people given
they throw in the towel so to speak they
pull out their clean laundry and put it
in a designated chair or couch in their
family room and then the family fishes
out what they need every day amen I love
that they admitted that to you by the
way that's wonderful so this could be
changing though tell us first of all
about the folding mate I find this
fascinating folding laundry is a holy
grail of some sort among certain
inventors and there's a company in
California that has created a machine
called the folder mate you clip about a
dozen garments to the machine it pulls
each one inside one by one it's about
the size of a washer a dryer and folds
it in about ten seconds fantastic where
can I get one how much does it cost
ok it will probably start taking
reservations and be available next year
it's still in development they're still
working out the kinks that's right and
it will cost somewhere between 700 to
850 about the price of a high-end washer
a dryer ok it's expensive but we could
be witnessing the birth of a whole new
generation and it happened household
appliances right this could happen now
there's also something in japan called
the laundry that's right that's also a
robotic machine that's about the size of
a refrigerator and that is expected to
come out next year and you can toss in
an entire load of laundry it can't yet
handle socks or oversized items like
sheets but you can toss them in and then
in a matter of hours or the company says
overnight you can wake up to a neatly
folded stack exciting it's like
Cinderella the birds came in and did
your laundry yet goes to show how much
consumers really don't want to do this
anymore that there is a market out there
it seems or some people are betting on
there is a market to have something do
it for you and there is that item the
QVC had you see the news retail stores
that helps you get old shirts yeah this
is the low-tech version that's available
right now usually around 2025 dollars
and it's a board with hinged sides that
you swing open and shut it's called the
miracle bowl right yes this thing cost
around twenty twenty-five dollars I see
it a lot in stores and I've heard the
people at work in stores say they have
to use it because they need to have
uniform folds yes you can buy it online
you can get in home furnishing stores
and QVC is bringing it back this summer
seems like a good idea but it still
takes a little bit of elbow grease your
effort there's still effort I'm gonna
save up for the folding mate that's what
I'm waiting for Ellen Viron thank you so
much for that