# What's with Americans and laundry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 19, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237 "2008-09-19T00:43:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/41 "2008-09-19T14:10:30Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > The only thing I find weird about Americans and laundry is the antipathy towards line-drying. It seems like there’s an attitude that hanging clothes on a line is somehow “ghetto” and not at all the Done Thing. (I’ve heard many neighbourhoods actually have regulations prohibiting it!) > > Yeah, much better to use gigawatts of electricity every year tumble drying stuff, even if it’s 90 degrees outside and your washing would be dry and fresh in half an hour… There are only a few major reasons why I don’t hang my laundry out to dry in my neighborhood: [ul][li]I don’t have a fence, and the neighborhood kids have been known to run through the back yard. I’ve seen them move or knock over stuff in our yard before, and I don’t want anyone absconding with our laundry.[/li][li]There’s a lot of pollen and free-floating stuff coming off of the plants in our neighborhood. I’m not entirely sure that things would stay clean after they dried. [/li][li]If it’s summer, it’s going to rain sometime during the day, and I may not be able to predict when. In other seasons, the rain is even less predictable, as it doesn’t occur on a daily basis and can come out of nowhere.[/li][li]Our back porch is a mess, so there isn’t a clean place to put a laundry line that wouldn’t end up dirty if something accidentally fell. I could clean it up, but I don’t really have another place to put the gardening stuff that’s out there.[/li][li]The neighborhood HOA probably forbids us from having clotheslines, as I’ve never seen anyone with them. We’re renters, and thus we’re “not allowed” to know the rules we’re supposed to be following.[/ul][/li]I’d like to hang my clothes out to dry, but without us having a fence and a good line, I’d be reluctant to do it where we’re living now. I do my laundry once every two weeks or so, and it’s never consistent as to how much I’ll have to do, but it’s normally 2-3 loads, depending upon how messy we’ve gotten over that two week period. It takes a few hours, and I sneak it in between doing homework, cooking and cleaning the house on my days off. If I miss a week or two, it doesn’t pile up ridiculously, but it does take a little longer to finish than usual. I’m very lucky I can do laundry in the privacy of my own home; I remember living in apartments and dorms and having to drag the laundry down to the laundry room and hoping that there’d be a washer that was both free and clean. When I lived in one apartment complex, there was someone who’d do a load of laundry with shit still all over their clothes. When the washer was emptied, there’d still be shit residue and shit flakes all over the inside of the washer. What’s really, really bad is that they never used the same washer twice, so I couldn’t tell who it was. At least they never used the high efficiency washers, so I just bought a small container of HE liquid and started using those instead. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/42 "2008-09-19T14:10:53Z")
The first sit-com that comes to my mind with the theme ‘dreading laundry day’ is this one [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/BQUOwXbbG_4/hqdefault.jpg "the young ones laundrette comedy bone111") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQUOwXbbG_4) ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/43 "2008-09-19T14:11:35Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I should also point out that your urban laundry usually requires amassing large amounts of quarters. Yep that the issue for me. The Fates decide how often I will do my laundry by setting cigarette prices. $X.00-$X.20, a long Time; no quarters in change. $X.21-$X.25, disaster; I lose some of my supply of quarters. ☹ $X.26-$X.50, the sweet-spot, I get two quarters a day 🙂 🙂 $X.51-$X.75, One quarter back, a positive result. 🙂 $X.76-$X.99, No quarters again, might take a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/44 "2008-09-19T14:34:19Z")
> [@Silver Tyger Girl](#): > > I hate doing laundry and I’ll often go several weeks until I have no clean pants or underwear left. Part of it is that I have to either find quarters and take it to the laundromat (ick\*) or take it to my parents house. Okay, you know that banks will give you rolls of quarters, right? So will Trader Joe’s. I often get back ten bucks from my grocery purchase, walk over to customer service, and ask them if they will trade it for a quarter roll. They USUALLY will, although sometimes on a Saturday, they won’t, if they’re concerned they won’t have enough quarters to get through Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/45 "2008-09-19T14:45:25Z")
> [@anya\_marie](#): > > I have to go to the laundromat too. I come home and dry some stuff on the clothesline, larger things like sheets, towels and blankets because i hate using clothespins. > > Weird things happen at the laundromat, _like black dudes asking me to buy them sodapop_, strange women inviting me to random churches, and disgusting creepy men staring holes through my clothes for reasons I do not understand. So I’m another who dislikes the laundromat. > > I find that adding white vinegar to the rinse cycle removes crud and makes clothes cleaner. Just how often does that happen? And is it better if it’s a white dude asking for sodapop? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/46 "2008-09-19T14:46:52Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Okay, you know that banks will give you rolls of quarters, right? So will Trader Joe’s. I often get back ten bucks from my grocery purchase, walk over to customer service, and ask them if they will trade it for a quarter roll. They USUALLY will, although sometimes on a Saturday, they won’t, if they’re concerned they won’t have enough quarters to get through Sunday. That’s what I used to do when I did laundry through a “quarters only” machine. It was more annoying when I lived in the dorms and had to go put money on my student ID card via the “cash to card” machines and _then_ slog down to the laundry room with all my laundry stuff in tow. There was no guarantee that I’d use up all the money on the card’s chip either, so I’m sure I lost a few dollars in the process over the years. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/47 "2008-09-19T15:05:27Z")
Another data point: I generally do my laundry once a week. (Basically as I run out of clean socks.) Since I live in an apartment I have a choice of using the building’s laundry facilities: three washers, three dryers (one of which works - the other two suck ass), going to a laundromat, or using my parents’ facilities. Now that I’m doing home health aide duty with my father, I generally do laundry at my parents. A sort of recompense for my time. But in the past it was either doing all my laundry in my building’s facility - hoping no one else needed it, and that I’d get the good dryer, or getting my sea bag filled with laundry, and heading out to a laundromat, where I’d have to deal with _people_. (shuddering) -Loki, who really ought to change his name to **[Gossamer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_(Looney_Tunes))**. (That, and dye my hair red.) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/48 "2008-09-19T15:11:21Z")
I have laundry envy. If I waited two weeks to do laundry I would have an overwhelming number of loads to do. I’m not sure I could get them all done in one day even if I ran the washer and dryer continuously all day long. I do one to two loads a day. I don’t stop my life for my laundry. FWIW, I find that most people I know have a lot more clothes than they really need and think it’s revolting to wear even a pair of jeans more than once without washing. That creates a lot of laundry. (I do wear jeans more than once without washing. I’m not going to go around creating excessive laundry on purpose. That’s just crazy.) ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/49 "2008-09-19T15:19:28Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > So, yeah. Washing machines are awesome. (And let yours know how much you love it by buying it one of [these](http://www.collectionsetc.com/Item21064.aspx).) I once mentioned to my wife that I might like to take up the tuba again after 20 some odd years. She said it sounded like a good idea so I looked up a few songs on YouTube and played them for her. She changed her mind and called 4 hours of tuba practice a day reasonably legal grounds for divorce. It’s good to know where she stands on the issue. If I ever saw a dryer cozy in our laundry room I also think it should also be legal grounds for divorce. I don’t mind pink and frilly stuff but… damn. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/50 "2008-09-19T15:26:38Z")
In the kinds of places commonly featured in sitcoms – such as Manhattan apartments – it’s very common for one to have to go to a laundromat to do laundry, because there are no facilities in the building. Having to take your laundry out _is_ a big time commitment. While you’re at the laundromat, you can’t really do much else. This annoyance also causes people to put off doing the laundry, which means that when you do get around to doing it, there’s a lot of it to do. In the days when I didn’t have my own washer and dryer, I would routinely put off the laundry for 4 to 8 eight weeks. So, when I got around to doing it, it would take _hours_ to do. Add up the folding and the ironing, and we’re talking a whole day. (I amassed dozens of sets of underwear and socks just to be able to get through such periods.) And consider also that in Manhattan, you can’t throw the laundry in the car and drive there. You have to get there by foot, which limits how much you can take with you and might thus require multiple trips. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/51 "2008-09-19T15:28:01Z")
I have done laundry in England and in Canada and I found the experience to be quite different. Critically, English people tend to have washers that are small, free, and in their kitchens. Therefore it’s no big deal to do a load if you’re already doing kitchen chores. They also often have fewer clothes so they need to do it more often. In contrast, Canadian people usually have washers that are huge, often expensive, and either in the basement or in a separate building altogether (which is often down the street). This is a whole lot more work to begin with, and it’s not worth doing just a small load. Also, the fact that it’s usually out of sight means that it’s easy to throw your dirty laundry at it, and forget about it until the pile of dirty laundry grows enormous. You can see how this can quickly get out of hand for one of those Canadians with lots and lots of clothes. Most houses have laundry rooms and most laundry rooms are filled with laundry. I don’t think I saw a single laundry room in all of Europe. ETA: that washer/dryer cozy is the funniest thing I have ever seen. “Sorry, I can’t come out tonight - I have to iron my dryer cozy.” ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/52 "2008-09-19T15:30:42Z")
I’m another American urban laundry-doer. Only I don’t bother actually doing my laundry. I drop it off at my local laundromat, which has wash, dry, and fold service. Granted, I pay between $0.80 and $1.10 per pound of clothes (the exact rate depends on how much clothing I bring in each time), but the savings in time and annoyance are more than worth the extra cost. I drop off my laundry in the morning and pick it up again at night. It’s very convenient and remarkably easy. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/53 "2008-09-19T15:32:19Z")
WRT to line drying - it also makes your clothes all hard and stiff and wrinkly, plus they don’t smell as nice. I know it’s environmentally sound, but it’s nowhere near as nice. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/54 "2008-09-19T15:40:04Z")
You’re a sweetheart, **nd\_n8** > [@Colophon](#): > > The only thing I find weird about Americans and laundry is the antipathy towards line-drying. It seems like there’s an attitude that hanging clothes on a line is somehow “ghetto” and not at all the Done Thing. (I’ve heard many neighbourhoods actually have regulations prohibiting it!) > > Yeah, much better to use gigawatts of electricity every year tumble drying stuff, even if it’s 90 degrees outside and your washing would be dry and fresh in half an hour… You have heard correctly. My neighborhood prohibits clotheslines. And gardens! And backyard sheds that don’t match your house. Can you believe it. Several people ignore the ‘no garden’ rule; I mean, shit, what kind of a world is it if you can’t grow tomatoes in the summer? :mad: I do about 10 loads of laundry a week. I have three children, each of whom wear at least one outfit a day, sometimes two. You can’t let kids go a couple days in the same jeans; they spill crap on their clothes. With my husband and I, though, we wear a lot of things a couple days before it hits the laundry. Folding laundry is a bigger issue. I have no problem throwing clothes in the washer and either tossing it in the dryer myself or dispatching a kid to do it. But the folding! My God, the folding. We usually schedule folding parties in front of the television. I make the kids fold all our underwear if they’re not behaving themselves. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/55 "2008-09-19T15:41:24Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > I like laundry–it does itself, and then I can watch TV while I fold! This reminds me of a conversation I had with my husband. I asked, “what did you do today?” “Laundry, it took all day” “All day? Unless I am mistaken and you had to bring it out to the river and rub the spots off with a rock, the machines do the laundry.” Nice try though. ---
**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/56 "2008-09-19T15:41:58Z")
We hang dry everything except towels and jeans (line-dried towels and jeans are crunchy and icky), but we do it indoors. We have a line in our laundry area, a drying rack, and a line across the bedroom rigged up with twine. In the winter, we use the dryer, but the rest of the year it all gets hung up except towels and jeans. Our climate is so arid that everything’s dry in a few hours. One of the things I love about our flat is that we have a washer and dryer to use as we see fit (no need for quarters). When we lived in an apartment building we had to share two of each machine (coin-op) with the entire building (30 apartments) and it was awful and expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/57 "2008-09-19T15:45:58Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > My GF, on the other hand, is doing laundry 24/7. That’s her reality of having two kids, two pets, and a business that produces a lot of soiled linens. But at least she owns her own machines. Is your girlfriend a massage therapist? We go through TONS of sheets and towels. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/58 "2008-09-19T15:46:33Z")
I normally do laundry every 2 weeks. The humans in the household have sufficient underthings to go at least that long, and probably 3 if desparate. I go to a laundrymat. That means all 4-6 loads are done simultaneously. While they’re churning or tumbling I get some time to read This reduces the chore to about 90 minutes to two hours every two weeks. Although, yes, you do have to deal with some weirdos. For awhile we had a guy who was stealing women’s panties. Turns out he was a child molester looking for other kicks or something, but the police took care of that and we haven’t seen him since. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/59 "2008-09-19T15:52:55Z")
You know, I’ve thought about it and I don’t think I quite do 10 loads a week. Maybe six to eight. I just looks like 10, all stacked up in the laundry room waiting to be folded. \ ---
**Author:** ![taxi78cab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47c2d/32.png) [@taxi78cab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taxi78cab)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237/60 "2008-09-19T15:57:39Z")
I actually like doing laundry too. And I may be the only person who not only likes laundry, but preferred an in-building laundry room (not the laundromat) to having my own in-house/apartment washer and dryer. The in-building laundry room usually has many washers and dryers, and once you learn your neighbors’ schedules, you can find a time when enough w/d’s are empty to get all your laundry done at once. Now that I’ve got an in-house set, I feel like I’m doing laundry every other day. I much preferred when I could put ALL of my laundry into washers at one time and be done with the whole thing in a couple hours. (Plus, it was a secured building with generally honest residence so I would just leave it and go back to my apartment where I could do something else while the laundry was running so there wasn’t the same inconvenience of having to sit in the laundromat with your clothes waiting for them to get done.) I kinda miss that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-americans-and-laundry/464237.md?page=4)