London’s families are losing out on 15 hours of fun to laundry, but luckily there’s a modern technology-enabled solution

Ham & High: The 240kg of extra laundry works out as the weight of an adult male lion, although we wouldn't recommend sticking one in your washing machineThe 240kg of extra laundry works out as the weight of an adult male lion, although we wouldn't recommend sticking one in your washing machine (Image: This content is subject to copyright.)

Is doing the laundry taking up the lion’s share of your time over your summer holidays?

A new study from Persil has discovered that the average British family has to do an extra 15 hours of washing over the summer holiday months.

The report calculated that as an extra 240 kg worth of dirty clothes to deal with – that’s the weight of an adult male lion.

Think of what you could do with an extra 15 hours of the Great British summer. That’s a lot of barbequing in the rain and fending off seagull attacks at the beach.

Upsettingly, the research also revealed that the extra laundry weighs on parents’ minds to the extent that a third of parents surveyed said they’d let their children do more messy activities like cooking and painting if only they weren’t so worried about the washing.

34 per cent also said they’d spend more quality time with their family if they lived the laundry-free life.

Your washing machines are feeling the strain too, with an additional 18 drums being filled over a six week period.

In order to combat stressed parents and sad children living under the tyranny of muddy knees, Persil have teamed up with ZipJet to provide Londoners with their new ‘Persil Wash and Fold’ service.

Like Uber for your dirty pants, ZipJet will pick up your lion-sized laundry load, wash it with Persil (naturally) and return it to you all neatly folded and all at the touch of a digital button.

We quite like the idea of returning from holiday and immediately shipping off a suitcase worth of unwashed clothes, effectively bypassing the post holiday washing and ironing blues.

Florian Färber, joint MD at ZipJet said: “More and more people are looking for a convenient, professional and fast way to clean their clothes, so they can spend more time doing the things they love.

So now there’s no excuse for letting London’s dirt and grime stand between your family and a cracking summer.

Wash the dirty clothes out of your hair at persil.zipjet.co.uk