BY ABIDGAIL MERTA GANGGANG
KUCHING: Having to do laundry can be tedious. Among my friends folding clothes tops the list of their most hated chores in the house.
But, as ritualistic as it is for some of us, from sorting sizes, types and colours, two women find it rather therapeutic and a way to generate income.
Originally from Kapit, 25-year-old Mimi Viviana has been engaged in a mobile clothes-folding service since March while selling food like ‘nasi lemak’ and ‘bomboloni’, Italian big round doughnuts jam-packed with an irresistible filling.
Mimi found most of her customers to be working people too busy to find time to organise their laundry. So they would rather use her service than spend hours folding clothes.
“Oftentimes, I come across a lot of people saying that folding their laundry is such a mundane and boring task at the end of their busy day.
“Most even wish they could just own a laundry folding machine instead of doing it themselves,” she said.
Mimi readily admits to a passion for folding laundry and finds the process therapeutic since she gets to decide her own style of folding them in order to make them look nice and neat.
“That sparked the idea of starting a clothes-folding service. So I did just that and surprisingly received a lot of support, especially from working mothers,” Mimi said.
She regularly takes orders from those who contact her on Facebook and WhatsApp. After getting their details, she will pick up their clothes at a meet-up location or the customers will send their apparel to Mimi’s house.
Her price range is based on the size of the basket. She charges RM6 for a small one, RM10 for medium size and RM15 for a large size basket. Overall, it takes less than 30 minutes for Mimi to do the job.
“It can take up to 5-6 minutes for a small basket, 10-12 minutes for a medium sized basket and less than twenty minutes for a large size basket.
“I would say the easiest clothes to fold are tee shirts and the trickiest are clothes made of slippy materials such as silk and satin. The biggest amount of laundry I have received so far is 13 baskets,” Mimi added.
She has also gained attention from people in the peninsula who wish to have a similar service and have expressed hope that Mimi can expand her business to their areas of domicile. Some have even requested if they could send piles of unfolded clothes to her.
But no everything is hunky-dory. Mimi is not spared from brickbats online.
“There are some Facebook users, which are not my customers, who urged people to avoid sending their clothes to a stranger for fear their clothes would get stolen and may not be returned,” she said.
To her, not all trust badges are created equal. There will always be someone out there who will always have their doubts. But Mimi doesn’t allow negativity from getting to her.
“If you have significantly more positives, the negative one will hold less weight and becomes irrelevant. I just let them critique, take the high road and walk away,” said the mother of one.
The story is about the same for housewife Magdaline Lucas, who has been providing home-based clothes folding service in Bintulu since last February. She too has had her share of poor publicity on Facebook.
“It saddens me to see how easy it is for certain people to make pre-judgements about my service to an extent of saying I might steal their expensive clothes.
“I almost gave up with this service but with the continuous support from family members and friends, I have been able to gain customers and secure some regular ones,” she said.
Having a tight schedule as a homemaker does not stop Magdaline from generating income through this way. It also helps that she used to do a part time job at a laundry during high school.
“I once saw an advertisement for this kind of service on the Internet, then I thought of doing it too because we rarely have it here. We only have laundry for both cleaning and folding,” she said.
Magdaline’s service now is a go-to option for everyone, from working parents, working professionals, travellers and students.
“My service is accessible and suitable for anyone. My customers can save time, energy and avoid the hassle with cheaper delivery. First, you’ll need to hand the dirty clothing over to me. Second, once finished, I’ll just drop them at your door,” she added.
Her prices range from RM6 to RM20 depending on basket size. Small (RM6), medium (RM10), large (RM15) and extra large (RM20). An additional RM5 will be charged for delivery to the customer’s house.
In a day, she usually sees to at least five baskets and can gain about RM100 a week.
“I will never get bored of doing this, it is a stress-reliever and helps me kill time. When I’m done with my customers’ orders, I will fold my children’s clothes because their drawer is always messy.
“As I fold theirs, I find their clothes are getting bigger in size, it takes attention to fold, patience to manage perfection and I’m filled with nostalgia as I fold each corner,” Magdaline said.
It is as though she is still folding tiny clothing for her grown children. Magdaline finds much joy in it.
And then some, especially when she has also made a business out of her caring nature.
