Human error accounts for many accidents, mistakes and mysteries, particularly in the wash cycle and these fell into two main areas: The team’s work – which involved a survey of 2,000 people who were happy to discuss their dirty linen in public, plus a series of in-depth face to face interviews – revealed: Measured on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being ‘Strongly dislike doing clothes washing’ to 5 which represents ‘Strongly enjoy doing clothes washing’ Simply put, when a task is shared among a group, the tendency is for individuals to assume someone else will take responsibility – so no one does. This was a key theme emerging from many of the households interviewed. Calculated by multiplying the number of people in the household (p) with the frequency of washes in a week (f)