[pleb_nz]

I read somewhere modern people spend the same amount of time doing chores as someone before electricity. It wouldn't surprise me if it were that far off the truth. We own so much more and are told we need things when in reality maybe we don't?

[DetroitThrow]

Absolutely untrue. My mother's life was changed significantly for the better when she got her first washer and dryer. She actually had more time for herself and for working a part time job.

[adrianN]

I definitely don't spend as much time doing chores as my grandma used to do before she had electricity. Recall that not too long ago "sewing your own clothes" also was a chore you had to do, and washing clothes took a whole day. Modern appliances made it possible for women to join the workforce because they freed up so much time.

[harry8]

Yeah was a really, really interesting social change. From the point of view of the middle class (~10% of the population of the wealthier nations?) when the appliances came in the station of women of that class went backwards. Servants became expensive and women who, post-childbirth had high-status and important roles running charities, political parties and such no longer had enough time for it. The suffragettes now had to do the work (assisted by appliance) of the house as well as run it.

Not many of us would reverse the changes that came with widespread home appliance availability and adoption on either a personal or societal level but every significant change comes at a cost to someone to whom you might well be sympathetic is something worth remembering when looking forward.

[ClumsyPilot]

Have your ever seen what it's like to wash clothes by hand? It's like a 3 hour hour process. Its arduous, tedious, and keeoing the house in order used to be a full-time job

Washing machine has done more to liberate women than all political efforts combined.

[tootie]

I think the distinction is we have 50X more clothing to wash. And it's partly because washing is so easy. I have a family of four and spend a lot of time folding clean clothes.

[ClumsyPilot]

I am not sure how this works. Even if you have a million pairs of pants, you only wear, and hence need to wash, one at a time.

My grandma really spent a lot of time washing clothes, so i dont think this is a significant factor

[IlliOnato]

I grew up in Russia in 70th and 80th, and most people around me were wearing the same cloths all week long. On Saturday you would have a bath and done a fresh set of underwear at least, perhaps a shirt too.

Women typically would change a bit more often, and generally tried to have fresh panties every day (they would wash them separately from the main laundry). Men who considered themselves sophisticated would change _socks_ every day, but this was a minority. Nobody washed a shirt that they only wore once. Nobody washed pants until they had visible spots or smelled really bad.

And these were civilized XX century households, with access to hot and cold running water, gas, and electricity (but not always a bath or a shower, and rarely a washing machine).

Try wearing the same briefs and socks and shirt for a week, and you will show much you reduce your laundry load...

[Tade0]

My grandmother(aged 92) still washes by hand - both the clothes and dishes.

It takes a considerable amount of time.

And before anyone asks she raised five children like that and I'm not the one to try to convince someone who on top of that lived through WWII to change anything in their life.

[stjohnswarts]

Trust me it's not true. I grew up poor and we did lots of things by hand that would take hours more per week than all the automated stuff of today lol. I'm not going back willingly...

[psiconaut]

You might be referring to some of the studies associated with the "original affluent society" proposal. To think that all basic needs can be covered by a 3-5 hours of work a day is quite shocking for a judeo-christian that has been indoctrinated in the "work as a curse" tale.

For sure it all depends on how you define "basic needs", and how do you divide "work time" from "leisure time".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_affluent_society#%22W...

At some moment I've heard of more recent studies about the myth of the increase in leisure time, but I don't manage to find any good reference now. In any case, I suspect Graeber had a point.

[bluGill]

There are two variables, time and cleaning standards. People clean to a higher standard with modern tools in general (in general, but not in all specifics).

My grandma took a bath/shower once a week - she grew up when a bath meant bringing water in from outside by hand, heating it on a fire, and then you had to bring it back outside to dump it - I sometimes shower twice a day, and I still use less effort over a week to get clean than my grandma did back in the day.

[throwaway0a5e]

An hour of labor with modern tech is far more productive than an hour of labor with 1890 tech. The modern person can perform far more work in the same time or the same work in less time. Even if you split the difference the net result when applied to chores is a much cleaner household.

[tsjq]

I came across a similar line in a Podcast 3-4 years ago. I was baffled at that line, same as the reply commenters here. it was Hidden Brain or Planet Money or Freakonomics. They didn't elaborate on that. & I forgot to dig into it