Estimate the total number of hours required for Americans to do their laundry every year.

CIsrification:

Is it at home laundry or both at home and laundromats? Both

Is folding and ironing a part of laundry : No

Formulae = ((total population) * (Family, individual split) * (having laundry at home and laundromat split) * (time taken for at home and laundromat))

Total population =  320 Million

Assuming equal split by age 0-80 years

Non families = 100 Million

Family population = 220 Million, # of families = 75 million approx

Non families = % having laundry at home/apartments = 75% = 75 Million, laundromats = 25 million

Families with laundry at home = 90%, 68 Million, 7 million without laundry at home

# of loads is assumed to be 1, certain occasions might be 2 but majority will be 1

# of times laundry - families once a week, non families once in 2 weeks

Time spent doing laundry at home: People put in laundry and change it to drier and go about doing their thing

While at laundromats there might be a waiting period and people might wait as their laundry is getting done

Time for putting clothes in laundry + taking it and putting in drier and taking it out = 3 minutes

Families = 52 * 3 = 156 minutes

Non Families = 26 * 3 = 78 minutes

At home time spent by families = 68 * 156 = 10,000 million approx minutes

At home time spent by non families = 75 * 78 = 6000 million approx minutes

Laundromats one cycle takes washing + drying = 2 hours

Families = 7 Millon * 156 + 25 million * 120 = 7 million * 276 = 2000 million minutes

Non Families = 25 million * 200 minutes =  5000 million minutes

 

total time spent = 10,000 + 6000 + 2000 + 5000 = 23,000 million minutes = 24 Billion Minutes

Assumption - Not taking into account homeless, and for laundromats they will be there in the laundromat waiting

Before we get started, I'd like to make sure I'm understanding the question correctly:

• I'm assuming "do their laundry" means doing it at home. Or does that also include dropping off and picking up from Dry cleaning? It includes only home laundry.
• I'm assuming "do their laundry" includes everything related to getting clothes ready for the next use i.e. piling them to prepare for washing, drying, folding, ironing, putting clothes away. Yes, it includes all of those.
• Does it include wait time while the machine washes or dries clothes? Yes.
• I'd assume the year 2019 works for this purpose? Yes.
• Does it include both clothes and bed sheets / towels? Yes.