Someday, They’ll Have This Down to a Science

Doing laundry can be distressing, given that there are so many factors in a particular load. Temperature, color, speed, fabric, weight. It’s a complex calculus.

In today’s laundry episode, I have lost a sock as well as somehow shrunk and created a hole in a sweater. Some thoughts —

In the year 2050, doing laundry will be revolutionized. After work, we will go through mechanized areas reminiscent of car washes (NB: by this time, cars will cease to exist, having been replaced by eco-friendly hovercraft) for a ten meter-long wash n’ dry walk. While doing laundry will be much more frequent, it will be faster and regularized.

Is it fair that I always close my eyes and cross my fingers before pressing ‘start’ on the dryer? Or that each time I open the door after a cycle, my heart finds itself in its own dryer, tumbling and kethunking, afraid of what it will find?