Unilever knows a lot about how you do laundry—or don’t.
For example, you know that pile of clothes draped over your bedroom chair? It’s the one made up of stuff you’ve worn once, that isn’t quite dirty yet. It doesn’t need washing, but it’s too much of a hassle to put away, so it’s all sitting there, getting slightly wrinkled.
It’s known as the “chairdrobe,” and research by Unilever finds that there’s one in about 60% of millennial bedrooms, Reuters reports. To target that time-starved clothes re-wearer, the consumer-goods company has developed a laundry product to let you keep wearing your chairdrobe with confidence.
Day2 is an aerosol spray that does three things: gets rid of odors, removes creases, and softens fabric—sort of like wrinkle-release spray meets Febreze, except specifically for clothes. It’s not a substitute for washing if your clothes have gotten grimy, despite saying “dry wash spray” on the bottle, and doesn’t remove stains. But it freshens up garments enough to let you postpone the full soap-and-water treatment.
So far, the product has launched in the UK, where it costs £7.50 ($9.75) for a 200 ml bottle. A spokesperson for Unilever says it will soon also be available on Ocado, the British online supermarket, and on Amazon.
About 10 months ago, according to Reuters, Unilever tasked Day2’s cofounder and marketing head, Nathan Olivieri, with creating something to let millennials rewear clothes that aren’t totally fresh but aren’t soiled enough to need washing. Millennials, the company found, approach laundry differently than previous generations. They show less loyalty to leading brands and want time-saving products that are also environmentally friendly. Unilever, which makes Omo—the world’s second most popular detergent, behind Procter & Gamble’s Tide—wanted their business, too.
On its site, Day2 claims each bottle can save a full load of washing and the 60 liters of water it would have required. And Unilever says the bottles are powered by air, so they’re carbon neutral when they’re sprayed, unlike a traditional aerosol bottle. That said, producing the can itself will cause some emissions.
“We know the chairdrobe is a universal concept,” Olivieri told Reuters, “but as we move into a modern age where we’re more time-poor than ever, that’s becoming an even more relevant consumer problem.”
This story has been updated to note the carbon emissions of producing the Day2 can.