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Original poster

Washing loathing mummies - would you pay for a home laundry service?

31 replies

lucielou74 · 20/01/2016 22:32

Hi all

I'm currently toying with an idea to start up a home laundry service after one of my customers (I do domestic cleaning) mentioned we didn't have any laundry service in our village. So my question is, would you pay for such service? I.e. to have your washing collected, washed, dried and folded, and dropped off again.What do you think about £15.00 per 7/8kg load - too much? Not enough? Ok?

I know there is a huge demand for domestic cleaning but no idea about laundry. Any opinions/suggestions most welcome.

Thank you xx

OP posts:
SixtyFootDoll · 20/01/2016 22:34

Laundry is one of the the few chores I don't mind.
If you've got a washing machine surely not that onerous?

usual · 20/01/2016 22:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

stealthsquiggle · 20/01/2016 22:37

Not for clothes, as that doesn't really bother me, but I would kill for someone to do that with bedding and towels. I keep meaning to get the guts to ask our lovely cleaners (I guess the way to do it would be to ask if they know anyone who would do it).

BackforGood · 20/01/2016 22:43

Like sixty, once you've collected it from round the house and sorted it (which you would presumably do for your service), you don't actually do much with washing though - the machine does it for you. It's not something that would save me time, tbh, so, although someone cleaning my house would be lovely (and it might be nice if you had a sort of 'housekeeper' role and put some washing in or put the clean washing in the drier while you were in the house) I would be surprised if many people would bother to outsource washing.
Of course, I could be wrong, I often am Grin

travailtotravel · 20/01/2016 22:46

My husband does the laundry and I'm not a mummy ....but I'd pay. And want to know about insurance etc for any damaged items etc. Eg stray red socks in the white wash etc. I'd want to know how you dry it. I'd pay £10 a load.

Tiggeryoubastard · 20/01/2016 22:47

No, especially not by someone who describes people as 'mummies'.

stealthsquiggle · 20/01/2016 22:50

Tigger - I was choosing to overlook that aspect, but you have a valid point.

LaurieFairyCake · 20/01/2016 22:56

I'm really surprised when people say it's not onerous. I hate it and think it takes ages. I do 4 lots on a Saturday, each lot takes two hours. Live in a town house so have to carry it all 3 floors down and sort it.

Then wash it a lot at a time. Take it out, tumble dry some, put some on the heated airer, peg up tiny delicates.

Then take the whole bloody lot back up, hang it up and put it away. Occasionally iron summat.

It probably take me 2 hours of actual 'work' and its shit work.

But no, I wouldn't pay to have it done as I have loads of delicates/cashmere/dresses that I don't like tumble dried.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 20/01/2016 22:56

Well I'm a mummy and I do most of the washing so I can't argue on that score. I can, however, get the point of the post.

I wouldn't bother outsourcing washing because let's face it, the machine does all the work. What I would be happy to pay for is ironing. I have so many things that constantly need ironing and I bloody hate the job.

Original poster
lucielou74 · 20/01/2016 22:56

Yes, true, some items not suitable for tumble drying. There are a few laundry services out there and usually they say to their customers either don't put any delicate clothes in the bag or leave a note to ask if it can be air dried. ..

I thought it may be useful for after holiday washing or for people who are poorly and struggling or super busy mums who just can't keep up?

Thanks for your opinions. I guess it wouldn't be as sought after as cleaning.

(P.s. How do I tag names in answers? First time on here so not sure)

OP posts:
Purplehonesty · 20/01/2016 22:57

I wouldn't - I used to send our ironing out when Dh wore a lot of shirts though.
I think as long as you do a little load every day and pop it away it's not too bad. It's when it builds up or you/one of the kids is ill that it becomes a real chore. So you might get one off business but maybe not regular iykwim
Seeing as I would need at least three to four loads a week doing that's £60 a week going on your pricing so £240 a month is a lot to spend. Unless you live in london maybe?

TheSpottedZebra · 20/01/2016 22:59

A laundry service with washing and drying but not ironing? No from me.
I think not ironing will put most people off.

annandale · 20/01/2016 22:59

I'd be more interested in a genuine housekeeper type role, where someone doesn't just clean but actually tidies up, does chores including all that laundry effort, runs errands and is at least there for older children (secondary age), with a basic responsility to call the parents if anything is wrong. Maybe also starts some dinner??

No doubt you have to pay an enormous amount for that, I would pay £20 an hour if I could afford it and would hope someone would do it for £15 an hour, but you probably have to pay £60 an hour or something.

Reality is that I can't afford any of it [puts pennies in long term saving account for a Roomba]

Original poster
lucielou74 · 20/01/2016 23:00

Apologies if I offended anyone. Didn't mean to...

OP posts:
Wossname · 20/01/2016 23:00

Bedding- washed, dried, ironed & returned the same day. That's the dream.

And towels. Returned de-greyed, fluffy and smelling lovely. I'd love that.

SmallGreenBouncyBall · 20/01/2016 23:04

only for big items like duvets.
or when I've had loads of guests and loads of bedding towels to wash
or when the washer breaks and delivery takes 3 weeks because I wanted a fancy pants mashine

15 for a large load sounds reasonable to me, paid 17.50 just a couple of months ago. ironing would have been extra. and non-tumble extra as well.

stealthsquiggle · 20/01/2016 23:06

You and me both Wossname. I wasted happy hours trying to find someone a while ago...

vvviola · 20/01/2016 23:11

For bedding and towels, absolutely. Doubly so if the sheets etc were ironed. Even the lovely woman who does my ironing hates ironing sheets (when I worked in a B&B years ago I had a mangle type iron which was amazing for doing the sheets, so it wouldn't be like you'd have to do them by hand)

For the rest, not so much.

ExasperatedAlmostAlways · 20/01/2016 23:12

I HATE washing, it's one of my least favourite chores. But it's not the actual i or drying but the putting away I'm crap at. Would be good if you offered that service too 😂

Seriously though, I probably wouldn't pay it. Iv got a machine with a big drum so could actually wash more than a bag that size in one load and save fifteen quid. Its a no brainer for me really sorry op.

Definitely try do a bit of market research in your own area though..Maybe post this question on your local buy and sell page on Facebook to see if there's any interest or what the consensus it. Good luck.

HerRoyalNotness · 20/01/2016 23:14

Not for washing as that bit is easy, but I would for ironing. It takes H about 5hrs to do the ironing, in between watching shows and pratting about. That's valuable family time on the weekend.

JeffreySadsacIsUnwell · 20/01/2016 23:14

I wouldn't pay anyone to do the washing. Way too expensive, I do 3 or 4 loads a day most days - and it's hardly onerous. The effort/time is in the sorting, which you'd obviously expect customers to do. TBH, my 3yo DS loves laundry chores so I just sit there with a coffee and supervise his sorting/answer his queries if an unusual symbol is on the label. He loads the machine and selects the programme, I help him with the detergent and he starts it. He is also obsessed with defluffing the dryer filter. I'm afraid I wouldn't pay £15 for something that a 3yo can do and take pleasure in!

Ironing though... Our cleaner also irons for us, usually between 30-60 mins a week out of the 4hrs she does for us. I hate ironing.

Original poster
lucielou74 · 20/01/2016 23:17

So it seems bedding and towels, ironed, could work. Thanks all.

OP posts:
BackforGood · 20/01/2016 23:25

Thing is Laurie , you say

{I} Live in a town house so have to carry it all 3 floors down and sort it well you'd still have to do that to give it to a service like this

Then wash it a lot at a time. Take it out, tumble dry some, put some on the heated airer, peg up tiny delicates - yup, you'd save some time here

Then take the whole bloody lot back up, hang it up and put it away Once again, you'd still have to do this.

Occasionally iron summat You'd also still have to do this - OP was talking of 'drying and folding'

Pico2 · 20/01/2016 23:30

We don't mind washing, even though we seem to do huge amounts perhaps a wash a day. We hang quite a lot out and increasingly more as I am learning that tumble drying shrinks most stuff. What we hate is ironing, folding and putting away. We pay for someone to come in and do that for us. Inevitably that has to be in our house as you can't put stuff away if you aren't here. We'd also need to be really organised to send stuff out as we occasionally do a quick wash and dry in the airing cupboard for the next day. That wouldn't work if our washing was out of the house. So it wouldn't work for us, even though we outsource some washing.

GrillPanEddy · 20/01/2016 23:33

Putting it in the machine and hanging it out to dry is the easy bit. Putting it all away once it's clean is the bit that gets us eyes up huge pile on spare bed