Laundry smelling because I take it to the laundromat in a laundry bag???

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I keep my laundry in a laundry basket and about once a week or so I take it to the laundromat in a bag.

My roommate just told me that my other roommate and I are smelly and dirty because we use laundry bags that aren’t mesh to transport our laundry. She said I’m stinking up the apartment and “cooking germs” in my clothes because I sometimes bag it up and let it sit in my bedroom for a day or two before I take it out.

She stated that it’s “basic theory” that not using a mesh bag is dirty/harmful/disgusting/whatever and reassured me that “not everyone knows everything” but I need to “stay clean” and “be considerate.”

I shower every day and wear my clothes once before they’re washed (pants will sometimes get one or two wears, especially jeans). It’s also the middle of winter so nothing is drenched in sweat. I know that people become accustomed to their own smells, but I can normally smell sweat on a shirt once I wear it (that’s why I only wear shirts once, because that bothers me).

I don’t know what to think. Does what she’s saying have any basis in truth? I find it hard to believe that my laundry is making the apartment smell, especially as I do it on a regular basis. She keeps the windows open for most of the day anyway. See above where I mentioned IT’S THE MIDDLE OF WINTER. The part about the germs makes absolutely zero sense anyway.

I accidentally typed “I don’t know what to think” twice because I’m seriously taken aback. On the one hand it makes me feel horrible, and I know I’m not the perfect roommate in the sense that I sometimes work 50 or so hours a week and am too exhausted to do more than a few basic chores. But on the other hand this reeks (pun partially intended) of batshit crazy. And the insinuation that I’m unclean is really insulting*.

I don’t want to move because it’s normally a giant hassle that involves my dad having to drive several hours to help me, the location isn’t terrible and my rent is ok. Normally I don’t even see my roommates- I just happened to run into her while she was doing her** laundry and she comment that she had tons of it and I was like, “haha, it happens.” and then she launched into what a disgusting human being I apparently am.

*I made a post a while ago about a crazy landlord who was upset because I had piles of papers and general clutter. I’ve since moved and have been making a serious effort to de-clutter and have been really good at staying on top of keeping my own personal space clean. It goes without saying that I do my dishes and so forth and don’t make a mess in the common areas. That’s another reason why this is so hurtful as I’ve made a serious attempt to break old habits.

This woman is not a neat freak though which is the bizarre part. She’s got tons of clutter of her own, leaves pots and pans in the kitchen sink and drops things on the floor and doesn’t pick them up. I looked under the counter once to pick up something I’d dropped and found grapes. Other food items have been spotted on other occasions.

2

What kind of bag are we talking about? Like, a plastic garbage bag, or a big canvas sack, or what? And (to me more importantly) what are you using to transport the clean laundry back home in? The same bag that held the dirty laundry?

Breathable vs. non-breathable material for the bag in question makes a big difference.

3

She’s a crazy person. No advice on fixing that part. The only way I could see your bag breeding germs is if you regularly tossed in wet swimsuits or gym clothes that might create that kind of environment. Still, if it is washable, it couldn’t hurt to wash the bag every few months.

ETA: I am imagining light canvas like this.

4

That’s really pretty weird.

I would be kind of ooged out if you were transporting the clean clothes home in the bag too, but that’s your problem, not mine.

5

I hate mesh bags. I found laundromats are breeding places for bugs, so they can crawl into a mesh bag and you could bring back roaches from a laundromat.

I have a laundry bag and when I go to the laundromat once a week, I throw the bag in the was with the rest of the laundry. I’ve done this for years and the bag is still holding up

6

Nothing is wet. I drop off my laundry and they send it back in a different bag which I then put dirty clothes in, take it back, and repeat the cycle. I guess I have no way of knowing though if the laundromat is re-using their bags without washing them. I’ve never noticed the bags being stinky or gross though. And yes, they’re cotton bags with the store’s logo on them. Maybe I should invest in a bunch of my own bags just in case? If I did that though then the laundromat would** send the clothes back in the same bag I brought (I would assume at least).

7

Your roommate’s a nut. Don’t change what you’re doing on her account.

8

Sometimes people pick up opinions from their parents that stick with them out in the real world, without knowing the backstory. You’ve probably heard the classic story of the woman who always cut a corner of her roast off without knowing why for years, saying when questioned that is was how HER mother had done it. When she eventually grew curious and ASKED her mother, it turned out her mom had done it to fit the roast into a too-small pan. (lamest explanation ever, btw)

So my first impression is that your roommate is just parroting back something she heard her own mother declare at some time, and now she regards it as gospel, never having observed any problems herself, but having been advised by her mom as to the “best” way to handle laundry. Or maybe she was prone to leave wet clothes in her own laundry bag, in which case they’d be less likely to mildew in a mesh bag so that’s what her mother advised her to do. Or maybe her mother had a prejudice about someone in her life who used an old ratty canvas bag instead of a new and trendy mesh bag, and she thinks the practice is nasty because THAT person’s clothing wasn’t pristine.

Just tell her the laundry service requires you to use their bags, and leave it at that. There’s no need to fret about moving, especially since she’s not a neat freak in general anyhow. It was an idle comment based on something that has probably nothing at all to do with you.

9

Oh, I assumed it was a laundromat, as in a place where you go and do your own laundry. You can do that?

That sounds perfectly sanitary to me. I would expect the laundry to be boil-washing those bags with every use as a matter of course–bedbugs, lice, and whatnot. They’re probably required to.

10

The only time I smell that musty clothes smell is when I’m wearing something that sat too long in the washing machine. Adding a cup of white vinegar in with the detergent the next time I wash it clears it right up. Yeah, I don’t buy her theory that it’s your clothes.

11

Maybe it’s something like that. Or ignorance? She asked me if mice laid eggs. The thing is though, she’s older than the other roommate and I. I’m almost 23, the other girl is a grad student so she’s probably around the same age, but this woman is in her 30s I think based on her backstory.

Anyway, I just said “uh huh, uh huh” and “thank you” in response to her diatribe. What upset me the most is that she managed to say it in the most offensive way possible (telling me I need to keep clean, that I’m inconsiderate, etc) while maintaining that it’s a “basic theory” that I don’t understand and I can “ask anyone” (which I most certainly did).

I’ve put my laundry in an Ikea bag temporarily and hand washed both the store bag and some other bags of my own that I realized I had (I put them up to my face and smelled them though and smelled nothing- my clothes also smell clean when they come back and are freshly pressed and ironed). I suppose between washings I’ll hand wash the store bags in case the store is re-using bags without washing them.

12

Its primary function is a laundromat where people do their own laundry but they also have a drop off service. I normally drop it off in the morning before work and then come get it at the end of the day.

You’d think they’d be required to wash everything. That said, while they do a good job in the sense that everything seems clean and they’re amazing** at removing stains, it’s actually a really cheap laundry service dollar wise and the staff is incredibly rude, bordering on the hostile. They could be cutting corners.

I know I seem like a terribly lazy person, but honestly I get really overwhelmed by minor things like this. I’ve gotten a lot better at putting away clutter and whatnot, but doing my laundry at a laundromat just takes so much time. It seems easier to just drop it off, especially since it’s not significantly more expensive than doing it myself.

13

Listen, dropoff laundry service is amazing, don’t be apologizing for using it.

You could ask the laundromat if they wash the bags between cleanings but as someone said, they probably do.

Do not handwash the bags. You don’t smell, your laundry is perfectly normal laundry and you aren’t doing anything different from what any other people would do with their laundry. But you do have a somewhat crazy roommate who you have our (collective) permission to ignore.

14

Doing laundry at the laundromat is one of the crappiest chores ever. I think most people would envy you having the access, and you should absolutely take advantage.

15

I’m gonna vote for ignorance here, as just about everyone who’s had a primary school education knows that almost every mammal gives live birth (we always have to remember those weird monotremes, even if we never encounter them). At any rate, I think that smiling and nodding is probably your best option, if you can get away with it, because I think you are dealing with Grade A industrial strength ignorance here, and you’d need Cecil Himself to make a dent in this woman’s ignorance.

16

Second!

She sounds like a garden-variety intellectually incurious biddy. You can’t reason with people like that. I mean, mice laying eggs? What the hell barn was she raised in? Although I guess if she HAD been raised in a barn, she would know that mice are mammals.

17

Ask her for her resources on the well known scientific facts.

Ignore her. She is a dipshit. I think that this is some sort of power struggle, and she’s using this nonsense to antagonize/subjugate you. My best friend (can’t explain the dichotomy) was like this when I was his roommate. For different reasons, and they would come up at the most bizarre times. I used to try to reason with him, agree with him to mollify him, out argue him, etc…My final solution was to just ignore him as if he had not spoken. When he would say “Aren’t you going to answer me?” I would not answer. Sometimes, I would look at him to let him know that I had heard the question, but was not going to validate it. (I took this cue from him, amusingly enough!) It worked.

18

Experiment: transfer the stuff to a mesh bag just before you get home, walk in, and ask is that any better. If no, she may have a very sensitive sense of smell. If yes, she’s an idiot.

My money is on the latter.

19

I think you should invoke clause 209 of the roommate agreement.

20

Sounds like clause 409 instead.
Domestic bliss is important, but you may not be able to maintain it when dealing with ‘teh crazy.’ But rest assured, by your description I do not believe you are making a mistake doing the laundry the way you do.