In this area at least, it used to work correctly, a few decades ago. Now, it doesn’t.
It may have to do with the use of recycled paper, with shorter and less predictable fibers. Same principle as cardboard cereal / cracker / cookie boxes whose closure mechanism doesn’t work well nowadays because they’re not as rigid / strong as they used to be.
How about a dryer that won’t roll your sheets and/or blankets into a big ball, with the inner items staying wet? This drives me crazy.
The invention you’re looking for is right there for all to see, if the manufacturers of these dryers will only look.
Front-loading washers (at least the big ones I see at laundromats) all do this. They run in one direction for about a minute, then reverse and run the other direction for a minute, reversing direction every minute or so.
The big dryers that I see at laundromats don’t do this. If only they would, the problem is solved.
Instead, when I wash large items (like blankets) at a laundromat, I have to open the dryer every few minutes and rearrange stuff. PITA!
I do the same thing - IF I remember. I usually end up drying it as a big ball and then after taking it apart, I dry the items again separately. It is a PITA!
Or someone could invent some sort of system involving cords that would suspend your laundry and have it dry in the wind. Some sort of paired cord design that would hold the stuff without the need for additional hardware.
Brilliant ! You could call them “Garment-cords” ! Of course, in practice, you’d need a windmill to generate electricity to power the fan to generate the wind.
I have long thought that “home bots” (or house droids, if you prefer) could be the next big thing.
Remember when it was novel for a house to have a home computer? Then, people couldn’t imagine not having one. That’s the same thing that would happen with your bot.
What does it do? What doesn’t it do?!
I’m thinking it looks sort of R2-D2 shaped. When you aren’t home, it can communicate with your phone. You can access its camera to see around. It is mobile, so it can go wherever you need. It would serve as a motion detector, but it would also have a roomba function. Or dispense pet food.
When you’re home, it’s your personal assistant. It’d be designed to come to you when you needed it to, but could also navigate the house. I imagine a trash compactor compartment, a dry storage compartment, and a refrigerator compartment.
You want a snack? “Bot, come here.” You have trash. It’ll take it.
If it could have a maneuverable arm and the requisite programming, imagine it retrieving something for you from across the house!
It’s also a router. It’d have a spotlight function, and maybe an extendable ladder.
It notifies you of emails, and let’s you make hands free calls. It’d be able to record video, too. It’d store your music and play it on demand. Your phone provides those services when you’re on the go, but you don’t have to dig into your pocket while relaxing at home.
I’d certainly want to work on the hologram ability, if only so people can start sending messages that evoke Princess Lea’s plea for help in Star Wars (we’d probably need the tie in if House Droid is the name the marketing department goes with).
And I’m certain that the technology would spawn innovative uses and ideas.
(And while I just know that you’re going to roll your eyes at this - my friends all do whenever I talk about it - it’s my favorite idea about future living, although at this pace it appears that is going to be in the field of Virtual Reality stuff - I can imagine people wearing goggles so that they can virtually “walk” through Facebook, like an actual neighborhood, soon).
You need a techie butler! Jeeves with a webcam…
Ooh, remember when Kramer got an intern from a local college for his newly-formed KRAMERICA?
That’d be cheaper.
I love your ideas, I’m just figuring out how you could have all that NOW, instead of waiting to invent a lot of different stuff (and become the next Elon if you did) (but hopefully saner).
When my son was a baby, we had a camera monitor that you could remotely move. Some versions connected via Wi-Fi. Roombas can already navigate rooms. There’s this gizmo that lets you interact with your dog remotely. That whole ring doorbell system lets you see the house from your phone. Cars can navigate autonomously. I’m sure we could put together a bunch of different existing technology to get us most of the way there.
I’m thinking the advanced locomotion is the biggest challenge. An ability to grab things is certainly another hurdle.
I’m thinking more of Rosie.
https://www.cavalierassociates.com/2018/05/10/is-amazon-building-the-jetsons-rosie-the-robot-maid/
I think I saw this in one of those “home handyman” magazines. You take two ropes and twist them around each other, then stretch them from one pole to the next. To hang something, just pull the two ropes apart at one point and insert a corner of the laundry. item.
They do have devices like these which are supposed to prevent sheets wadding up:
You attach the corners to this device and it prevents wadding. I’ve never used them, so I’m not sure how well they work. But until home dryers are improved, this might be a good alternative.
Oh, I use that new invention all the time except for the winter months. That’s my main drying method!
I’ve seen these. I wonder if they really work. I’ve also heard the hack of tying the corners of the sheets together (same concept). I tried and was unsuccessful. And it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. I should try it again.
They sell a clothespin-less twisted laundry cord thing in travel stores. I bought one for traveling once, since I am the kind of person who washes all my travel clothes in the hotel room sink.
It worked very poorly. First, the idea of gripping clothes using a space between two twisted ropes leaves a pair of stiff wrinkled ears in whatever clothing item you hung that way. Second, it was surprisingly hard to get the ropes to hold anything, and almost impossible to get them to not drop clothes already hung while you were hanging something else, or accidentally brushed the line. I couldn’t get it to work and threw it away.
Truthfully, nothing beats a good sturdy clothesline and nice wooden clothespins. I’ve been hanging out my clothes since the 1980’s and can say I have experience.
Not a new invention, but more of a, why don’t they do this kind of thing.
Dog treats come in resealable bags. Why don’t things like potato chips and breakfast cereal use resealable bags?
Ever try microwaving chips? I found that it can restore their crispness by driving out the moisture. Never tried it with cereal, but it would probably work pretty well.
I’m trying to train my son to bring stuff (dishes, trash) downstairs with him when he descends to get a snack or do his chores. Not working, but wow it would be nice.
The nice thing about this thread is that it feels like so many of these are “well defined problems” for which a solution might be fairly simple. As in, sure, I can invent the solution to this right now! Gets the creativity flowing.
The cereal I get comes in a resealable bag – brand name: Malt-o-meal.
There are electric blankets which will keep you warm while you’re sleeping. What would be nice would be some sort of cooling blanket for those hot summer nights. Maybe even matching cooling pillows.