This machine will fold your laundry for you

Hiding in one of the halls at CES 2019 is the Foldimate laundry-folder, and it may just do what smart washing machines have failed to do so far – make cleaning your clothes fun.

You manually insert items of clothing into the Foldimate by clipping them in, but that's all you'll need to do. About five seconds later the machine spits them out at the bottom and makes a bell noise when it's complete.

The company estimates you can fold a whole load of washing in just five minutes.

We saw a demonstration at CES 2019 where a t-shirt was folded in around five seconds. For a t-shirt, you have to clip the two shoulders and the machine does the rest of the work.

We only saw t-shirts being folded but the company claims it can also do shirts, trousers and some sizes of towel.

A 2019 launch?

This isn't the first time we've heard about the Foldimate, but it's the first time the machine has been fully demonstrated at a tech show. That's because you'll hopefully be able to buy one by the end of the year.

The Foldimate we saw is still a prototype, but the company is hoping for a "late 2019" launch date. Unfortunately this laundry luxury won't come cheap though, at an eye-watering $980 (about £770, AU$1370).

It's not for everyone, but if you're sick of folding your clothes it's difficult to think of a better automatic solution. For those not wanting to drop close to a thousand dollars on this machine, however, you can always take some of the laundry life hacks in the video below:

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James Peckham

James is Managing Editor for Android Police. Previously, he was Senior Phones Editor for TechRadar, and he has covered smartphones and the mobile space for the best part of a decade bringing you news on all the big announcements from top manufacturers making mobile phones and other portable gadgets. James is often testing out and reviewing the latest and greatest mobile phones, smartwatches, tablets, virtual reality headsets, fitness trackers and more. He once fell over.