Embracing Mama Fua, The Evolution In Doing Laundry

The unwritten rule within Nairobi is weekend is a general cleaning day. On Saturdays, balconies are always beaming with various colors of clothing, dripping with water as mother nature strives to drain water out of them.

In most households, they have a househelp whose major role apart from the many others is to ensure that laundry is done. They have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to start demolishing a mountain of dirty clothes. It is always a tiring task.

Some households rely on those ladies who often move from house to house looking for jobs, including doing laundry. But with Covid-19, it is becoming difficult to trust strangers to freely access and interact with the family. Nobody wants to expose their family to the risk of contracting the virus.

But times are changing. Doing laundry is evolving. Technology is sweeping across the world and Kenya, especially Nairobi has not been left behind. Doing laundry has gone digital and affordable than never before with thousands going for it.

Currently, people in major urban centers such as Nairobi are able to take their clothes to a laundromat across the street and have them washed, dried, and ironed within a very short time as compared to “traditional means.” It is no longer reserved for “wale wameomoka” alone.

Before, taking clothes to a laundromat was seen as for the “people with heavy pockets and lots of cash.” Not anymore. For now, anyone can have their clothes cleaned at a laundromat like everybody else.

Last week, I got an opportunity to pay a visit to Mama Fua Laundromat located on Freedom Heights Mall, Mezzanine Floor, off Lang’ata Road, behind Kobil (Rafikiz), and had a first-hand experience of just how doing laundry has been revolutionized.

The beauty about Mama Fua Laundromat is that customers don’t go to them; they go to customers. That is, a customer who needs his/her laundry done makes a call, then the fabric is picked, taken to the laundromat, cleaned, dried, ironed, and returned.

With Covid-19, people are expected to observe all the Covid-19 protocols, including and not limited to wearing masks, washing hands/sanitizing, and observing social distance.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a directive that showed the ability of Covid-19 to stay on surfaces, including pieces of clothes. It is advisable that clothes are washed from time to time with high levels of hygiene observed during the process.

Mama Fua knows this so well that their washing machines are always at a high degree of cleanliness, operated by smartly dressed attendants who treat clothes with the dignity it deserves.

Their prices are something to behold. That is why I said it is for everyone. They understand that doing laundry should not break your bank but be something that you will always look forward to.

All you need for these guys to come to you is to give them a call and they will be at your door.

Doing laundry is no longer a task that should worry you.