We are truly living in the wellness age. Everything from what we eat and how we sleep to the way we fold our clothes has been rebranded as an opportunity to practice self-care. The wellness industry, estimated to be worth $1.5 trillion, or the GDP of Brazil, will sell you everything you need to live well. Yet washing clothes—a task so central to domestic life—stubbornly remains a chore. 

How has it resisted wellnessification? Perhaps it’s just because it’s so unpopular—doing the laundry consistently ranks in surveys as people’s least favorite household task. Or else it’s because the wellness hive mind has failed to market such decidedly unglamorous tasks as sorting lights from darks or hanging out damp washing as being a vital part of your personal care regime.

But there ...