an investigation of domestic laundry in europe - habits ... - SIFO

24An investigation into the domestic laundry habits in Europe1008060409380 8049 52 51307433819565Newly washedBody odeurWhite anyway200Greece Netherlands Norway SpainFigure 2-1. Percentage who fully agreed with different statements concerning how textilesare presented in a social context.To summarise, the respondents in Greece and Spain were more concernedabout how textiles present themselves in a social context than respondents inthe Netherlands and Norway, and this is most prominent when it comes tosmell. Almost everyone in the Spanish sample fully agreed that body odour isembarrassing, while only about half of the people in the Netherlands andNorway fully agreed that clothes should smell as if newly washed.2.3.2 Attitudes on cleanness and hygieneClothes should look clean and not smell, but what about cleanness and hygiene?Earlier we mentioned that people have many reasons for doing theirlaundry the way they do. Laundering is a process performed to get textilesclean. Clothes with dirt and stains or residuals of detergent many constituteboth aesthetic and health problems. But what is considered dirt and what isnot differs from one culture to another. Laundering has also a hygienic aspect.Dirt can spread infectious disease, and soap residue in clothing can cause allergicreactions. We wanted to investigate whether people are concernedabout hygiene when laundering. Two statements should give some indicationof this:- Clothes hygiene is important to me- Today’s detergents are so good that clothes get clean even whenwashed at low temperatures