its marketing and expectations.

I soak my clothes soak with soap in a 5gal bucket, rinse in the same bucket by pouring the water out in the tub, and spin them nearly dry in a motor+drum and hand and dry over the tub. I can easily throw in a little soda or peroxide, and I rinse it until the water is clear.

its sounds terribly manual and regressive but really its very little work, just filling up a bucket and dumping it out. the clothes come out cleaner (no extra soap and lint), and it doesn't really take any more time. the only hardware, the spinner, is cheap and fantastically straightforward.

I think people have been deceived over generations to consider what goes on inside a washing machine as some kind of arduous and complicated magic.