SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Everyone hates doing laundry, right? Would you believe there's now an app to help you? Washio, which informally calls itself the "Uber of laundry," has quietly built a ...

Cleanly is a laundry-service app that’s been operating for over a year. But this week, Cleanly claimed it would change the way laundry-service apps do business.

Doing laundry has changed little since the automatic washing machine debuted in middle-class homes in the 1950s, but the Fertels believe the timing for an app-based laundry delivery service is right.