We’re a very focussed business. Laundry is our lane. Yet ten years in, it doesn’t cease to amaze me just how many conversations we find ourselves in that at their core have nothing to do with washing clothes.
One of the big ones lately has been around our demographics. We do not want to stereotype who does the laundry. Nor can we deny just how prevalent women are in our community.
We get hundreds of questions in our inbox every week but just a handful from men. 96% of the viewership of our content is women. And while our mentality is ‘we’re happy if you’re happy’ through these hundreds of thousands of conversations we’ve learnt one thing… there is a clear sentiment that women do more laundry than men, because there is a feeling that they're better at it.
Our experience is backed up in the data.
In November 2023, a study conducted by Starling Bank surveyed over 4,000 people in the UK to look at the division of household labor. It found that women are more than 6 times more likely to be doing laundry than men. We haven’t done this specific survey in Australia or NZ but ABS data does show that women in Australia still do much more housework than men.
This really got me thinking…
I love hearing from all the women who love Dirt and laundry, but it would be nice if it we could help everyone share the load a little. Laundry isn't a gendered skill, it's just a process. Once you know the basics, you can't mess it up.
So how to share our tid-bit sized basics with the rest of the community, given our content is not reaching their algorithms.?
Well, this is where a secondary bit of data became quite interesting.
The average man spends 14 mins on the toilet per day. The average women? 8 minutes.
Coincidence? Yes.
Opportunity? Also yes. Very yes.
Enter Laundry on the Loo… It’s a cheat sheet on laundry basics printed on a toilet paper roll. So it can sit somewhere where you tend to be bored with not much to do.
From the idea's inception I knew I wanted to work with Yarn’n. They’re Australian-made, indigenous owned, recycled, and they give 50% of profits directly to supporting First Nations students through Yalari. They genuinely tick all the boxes.
So does the artwork. Our laundry basics are wrapped in an artwork titled Wilambo Day, by Melissa Ladkin. She is a proud Awabakal, Wonnarua, and Bundjalung woman, as well as a land conservationist who specifically works with ochre and natural pigments.
The whole team is pretty proud of this one. We’re hoping this little toilet role can have a big impact. Because when everyone knows how to do all (or most of) the chores, each person feels less pressure to carry their domestic load alone.
So, for the month of October we’re giving away an extra special edition toilet paper roll with every single order. For free. You don't need to do anything, there rolls will automatically be included with every order.
Let's share the load.
