So I had to go down to the laundry mat the other day to clean my bed comforter. (My washers not big enough) While I was there I saw a sign up on the wall that said “Clothes laundered x$ per pound”
I can’t for the life of me recall how much they were charging. I just remember it being dirt cheap considering they wash, dry and fold them for you. I was also quite surprized because for some reason I thought this was more of a northern thing.
Anyway, I’m a lazy bastard, I’m thinking about giving them a try.
As a single man who hates to iron, its essential to keep my shirts looking nice by having the service launder them for me. Cheaper than dry cleaning. Faster, too. I’ll do my own linen, scks, undergarments and some pants, but they get my t-shirts, dress shirts and dress pants everytime – when i can afford it.
Clothes weigh more than you think. We took our clothes to the laudromat once on vacation and dropped them off; it was $1 a pound (this was in 1997, in Estes Park, CO). A weeks’ worth of clothes for a family of four ended up costing us $20-something. $22 or $23, I think. :eek:
Yeah, $1 a pound sounds dirt cheap, but it adds up. Jeans are heavy. The place we were staying didn’t have a washer or dryer, and we’d done some dirty stuff (hiking, horseback riding) and wanted clean clothes, and I wasn’t in the mood to spend half the day sitting in the landromat washing clothes. Hey, it was my vacation, too!
If you can work it into your budget, go for it. Figure out where your priorities are. If you want to spend the money on paying someone else to wash your clothes, go for it. I don’t mind washing clothes at home.
That said, I take my husband’s dress shirts to the dry cleaner here at home. They charge $1 a shirt, and I get them back perfectly clean, lightly starched and pressed and hung on a hanger. My MIL thought it was a mortal sin that I did this - she saw no reason for me not to wash his good shirts. I hate ironing, for one thing, and could never get his sweat stains completely out. To me, it’s worth $1 to get them back all clean and pressed.
This is how we do our laundry here in Brooklyn. The rate at our local place is $.75 per pound, and for two adults, we spend about $12 twice a week. We pick up and drop off, but some places will deliver.
The pros – very time effective, as Mr. Del and I both work, and we don’t want to spend our weekend time sitting in the laundromat. We don’t have a washer/dryer in our building, so doing the laundry in a laundromat means sitting there with the clothes the entire time. The quality of the washing is pretty good overall. In the three years we’ve used this particular place, they have lost one sock, and one t-shirt came back stained with something mysterious that it didn’t have when it went in. This is better than my own track record with laundry in the previous three years when we did live in an apartment with a washer.
The cons – any “special wash” instructions are not possible. They do a load, wash and dry, and that is it. I have to make other arrangements for anything that needs line drying, or an individual wash (like new jeans so the dye doesn’t bleed). You are also a little captive to the business hours of the laundry, so you need to plan in advance if you need to wear something for a particular occaision.
I get all my shirts done, washed and ironed, at €1.50 each.
The rest of my clothes are done in a service wash for ~€10.
I only need to get my shirts done every 2nd week. I’m happy with it. I can afford it and couldn’t be arsed doing it myself. My washing machine is only used in emergencies as it’s quite loud and I can’t hear the TV in my apartment when I use it.
I just carry the bag home(a 2min. walk) and hang everything up/put in drawer.
I have have my laundry “done” a couple of times when I was far behind or overwhelmed with housework. It is 60 cents a pound in my area and cost about $10.00 - $12.00 for a large-ish basket.
It’s not something I would do regularly, but the few times I have had it done, it has been a distinct pleasure and a great big help.
Laundry is the house-job I hate most.
My friend recommended the service. They have everything but towels and underwear done weekly.
I own a lot of clothes. A LOT. Some of which need to be done special, some of which are dry-clean-only, most of which are just straight wash-dry-fold.
My schedule is cramped, so by the time I get around to laundry, a month can go by (and yes, I own enough clothes that I don’t recycle anything), so doing it all myself would take a whole day.
Sometimes the 150 bucks (yes, even that much) is a good price for having a free day.
Around here it costs a dollar a pound to have your wash done for you. That only works out to a few dollars more than we’d spend on detergent, quarters, and so on.
On the other hand it does come out nicer when you do it yourself and separate dark from light.
I forget what I was paying, but some years ago, I had a local laundry do my sheets regularly. Think it cost all of a quarter over the in-building laundry, but it’s worth 25 cents to have someone else fold fitted sheets!
Having only one washer and dryer for a six-flat also helped with that decision.
Here in Brooklyn, I, too, have my laundry done by at a local laundromat. The time and stress it saves me is well worth the money.
And, yes, clothes are heavier than you think, but I’ve gotten used to the cost. Where I live, it’s 1 block from my house, has hours from 6am to 10pm and costs $10 for the first 15 lbs. and .65 cents/lb after that.
It costs me about $24.00 every 3-4 weeks. It’s such a time-saver, I’ve even continued to do it when I’m sort of broke. A couple of times, they’ve even loaded it into my car for me! It’s one luxury I indulge myself in.
My neighbor hooked me up with the phone number to a local service (Tallahassee, FL) that calls itself simply “Pick Up and Delivery.” One guy with no teeth and a minivan comes by and picks up your laundry in grarbage bags. He takes it to his partner, who washes, irons, folds or hangs it up, and packs it all into produce boxes lined with newspaper. Then Mr. Dental Issues brings it back to you, only a few hours after handing it over. The whole service runs me 50 cents a pound. I’ve been doing my own laundry since I was old enough to get it in the machine, but now I’m a convert.
This is a service I majorly miss now that I’m in a city that doesn’t have it conveniently available. When it was, I used my washer/dryer to launder undershirts, workout clothes, towels, underwear, socks, etc., but ALL of my shirts and pants I dropped off.
As an aside, what is it about the cobra/mongoose relationship between testosterone and ironing? It’s a dislike that crosses boundaries of nationality, race, orientation and every other difference. We just don’t do it if we can possibly avoid it- the shirt has to look like I got it off of a corpse before I’ll heat up the iron.
I dunno if men hate ironing more than women do, but I have a theory that might help explain a unisex dislike for it. Aside from the unpleasantness of the work itself, with the heat, steam, and the fussiness of it all, I wonder if it isn’t also due to certain unpleasant associations formed in earliest childhood. Think about it – if you’re a pre-schooler or toddler, and your mother’s ironing father’s shirts, she’s 1) unhappy to be ironing; 2) unable to supervise you very closely; and you’re 1) bored or unhappy that she’s doing something that keeps her from you; 2) you can’t even go near her ironing board without her snapping at you to keep a safe distance away, and don’t reach for the cord, the iron is NOT A TOY, etc.