Work from home ruffles laundry services Drastic dip in income as demand for ironing plunges

Many of those involved in the laundry business in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad say their earnings have dropped drastically because of the work-from-home culture in vogue since March last year.: Shutterstock

PTI   |   Aurangabad   |   02.07.21,: Work from home may have smoothened the lives of professionals amid the pandemic but it has furrowed the brows of those providing laundry services.

Many of those involved in the laundry business in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad say their earnings have dropped drastically because of the work-from-home culture in vogue since March last year. They say that since many people no longer have to step out of home for work, there is no need for them to wear formal or ironed clothes.

Some laundry service providers say they used to iron nearly 200 clothes per day, but the number has come down to 40-50 now.

Shirkant Borude from Chikalthana attributed the downturn in his business not only to work from home but also smaller wedding gatherings necessitated by pandemic restrictions.

“Markets opened fully twice since the pandemic began, but the work-from-home policy has made employees use less number of ironed clothes. Earlier, I used to iron around 200 clothes a day. Now the number is down to 40-50 a day,” he said.

Roll pressing and dry cleaning of saris have almost come to a halt as only a small number of people are allowed to attend weddings, Borude added.

Sainath Hajare, who runs a laundry shop in Shivajinagar, said that “people are not ready to pay if we increase the charges”.

“Earlier, people would give us clothes for washing and we used to give back ironed clothes to them. For example, a man used to need at least five ironed dresses a week for going to office, now he needs just a couple of dresses as he is working from home. The number of customers who would give clothes to us in bulk has declined by nearly 75 per cent,” he said.

Now, people are washing and ironing clothes at home as they are less in quantity, Hajare said. Moreover, schools are shut, so there is no question of ironed uniforms, added Hajare.

Shriram Hajare, a laundry owner in Samarthnagar, said: “The number of customers giving clothes in bulk, as well as walk-in customers, have declined. In the past, I used to earn Rs 2,000 a day, which has now come down to Rs 400-500.”