Besides vacuuming, folding clothes is one of my least favourite household chores.
It’s tedious, time-consuming and comes after the already lengthy process of doing laundry.
Thankfully, just as robots have wheeled in take over vacuuming, there is now a robot for folding. The FoldiMate is expensive at $980 USD, but its functionality is extremely enticing.
All you have to do is feed in items at the top of thee washer-sized appliance and it folds the clothing, intelligently adjusting the method based on preferences, item type and size. Once an item is done, it deposits it in a stack at the bottom of the machine, which you can then pull out and put away.
According to FoldiMate, it can fold a full machine load in under four minutes and has unlimited capacity — as long as you continue to insert clothing, it’ll keep folding.
As for how large the items can be, FoldiMate says it takes any type of shirt, blouse, or pants from age 5 to adult size XXL and will also fold standard size towels and pillowcases.
The first shipment of the household gadget is set to go out in late 2019.
Verdict: Sticky — for large households.
To me, the appeal of the FoldiMate is not just that it folds stuff quickly — it’s that it has the potential to do it much better than me.
Right now, my laundry is in a big unfolded heap waiting to be folded, which is already disheartening, but my spirit grows even more weary when I consider the fact that when I fold it, it will be misshapen, loose and completely unimpressive.
FoldiMate is a robot; it can make things look professionally crisp. I could have an open concept closet where people see my sweaters all folded and colour-coded.
Essentially, what I’m saying is, this would change my life. But I don’t have change-my-life money, and I doubt many of my fellow millennials do, so it’s perhaps better recommended to a large household that can afford and get their money’s worth from such a machine.
In the meantime, though, I’ll continue to dream about that future self who has a robot clothing folder and colour codes her closet.
Note: This post is part of an ongoing series titled Sticky or Not in which Senior Reporter Rose Behar analyzes new and often bizarre gadgets, rating them sticky (good) or not (bad).
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