If every time you pick a crumpled t-shirt out of your drawer, you feel a sharp intake of breath because you know you’re going to have to get the iron and ironing board out, you could be a perfect customer of the FoldiMate robot.
The robot does exactly what its name suggests – folding clothes to make sure the garments stay crisp in storage, while also maximising space.
This $800 (£600) robot claims to be able to fold clothes in 10 seconds, going through your entire clean laundry pile and sorting up to 30 items at a time.
It connects to Wi-Fi and can be controlled by your smartphone. The standard fold is included in the companion app for free, but if you want FoldiMate to use a different method of folding, you can download additional configurations for a fee.
However, before you stump up the cash to make your morning routine seamless, note that it can only currently be used for shirts, trousers and towels, so any complicated items like dresses, jackets or other tops can’t be folded, steamed or de-wrinkled. Neither does it tidy large items like sheets or small items like socks or underwear.
Although ten seconds is a pretty lightning service for such a complicated task as folding, de-wrinkling can take between 20 and 30 seconds depending on the item’s complexity.
“FoldiMate is like having a friend that folds the laundry for you,” the company explains on its website. Even if you fold faster than clipping, folding a full load of laundry is akin to using a dishwasher over doing the dishes by hand.”
The FoldiMate will go up for preorder next year and will start shipping in 2018, which gives you plenty of time to perfect your folding technique and cancel your order when you realise spending £600 on a robotic laundry mate really is the height of laziness.
