I should also point out that your urban laundry usually requires amassing large amounts of quarters.
I’ve mostly been fortunate to have laundry machines in my building, however it can pretty much be an all day extravaganza if you have multiple loads.
Folding and ironing can be pretty time consuming. I like to iron my shirts while they’re still damp from the wash, so it’s included in the overall laundry day experience. A week’s worth of shirts can take me an hour or so.
I recall that my European hostel-mates thought it a bit strange I would iron my shirts, and were mystified by starch.
It may also be a 30-year-old male thing. (hangs head in shame)
Agreed on the quarters thing too. And yeah, they have a machine, but I suck at procuring bills as well.
I have nothing to contribute other than the fact that someone in the administration at my college (I live on-campus) apparently had a stroke or something, and laundry is now free. As in, no longer need four quarters for the washer and another four for the dryer, but completely free.
The downside of this is that there is now even less of a chance of finding an empty machine, since people have less of a reason to put it off. (I still only do it when I run out of clean underwear, though, so it’s also a 22-year-old female thing.)
I’m terrible with my laundry. I refuse to take it to fluff and fold because I’m very particular about how its laundered, and I think they lose stuff too frequently. But, I also hate doing it. Over the years I’ve accumulated enough socks and underwear to go two full months if need be. I rarely go the distance, but I’ve come close. Sometimes the perfect storm hits and I run out out of clean towels and linens too.
Once I had no less than seven washing machines in my apartment building’s laundry room going at the same time.
I think I am the only person in the world that enjoys doing laundry. It doesn’t actually take any work, if you have a washer and dryer. And then at the end you have a basket full of nice warm clean clothes that your cat sits in and gets his hair all over. But that’s okay, because now the laundry matches everything else in the house.
Of course, I also spent two years washing my laundry by hand. You know what? It sucks. And it wrecks your clothes. And then you hang it to dry and your clothes don’t retain their shape nicely and the sun bleaches them.
So, yeah. Washing machines are awesome. (And let yours know how much you love it by buying it one of these.)
It’s a dryer cozy!!! I can’t believe it! Seriously Kyla, you’ve just totally made my day. Thanks.
What kind of wonderful world do we live in where people have enough disposable income and time to use dryer cozies?
I don’t mind laundry at all. I HATE doing dishes but I don’t mind laundry. My boyfriend much prefers washing dishes to doing laundry though, so if we get to a point where we are living together cleaning will suck a lot less.
I live in NYC so laundry is a bit of a haul. I have to load all of my dirty clothes, towels, throw rugs, shoes, etc. into my cart with my soap and softener and go half a block to the laundromat where only 2/3 of the machines work. I’ve learned to do laundry during their slow hours to not be overrun by children screaming and running around while they stuff their face with snacks from the Dunkin Donuts next door. But really, despite all of that, laundry is pretty simple and it is an excuse for me to load everything into the machines and then read for an hour. It is the least offensive of household chores.
True. I’ve had my very own laundry machines in the garage for almost 8 years now and I still optimize my purchases to get quarters back.
IRL if it’s reasonably clear to both people that the conversation is over, then it’s no big deal.
Person 1: OK, I’ll call you around six when I’m done.
Person 2: All right, talk to you then.
(Click)
AS long as nobody’s having the phone rudely hung up on them, it’s fine as far as I’m concerned.
I like laundry–it does itself, and then I can watch TV while I fold!
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.
*expensive, you have no idea how clean the washers and dryers are, but it’s probably not very, and you have sit there and wait.
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.
Three adults here and we all do our own laundry. We each do at least one load a week give or take. I don’t think any of us own enough clothes to go any longer than a week.
There is also one load of towels that is done once or twice a week. We all take turns doing those.
I feel the same way.
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…
I thought it had something to do with those ridiculous beehive hairdos that took forever to create. Once created, washing one’s hair would destroy hours of work.
I’m single and I do laundry the same time every week–Saturday after working all day. The day is already shot, laundry ain’t gonna make it any worse.
I do see people there with bags of laundry. How many do they wash for and how often do they do it?
And what’s more, on TV, when the phone rings in the middle of the night, why do people always turn on the bedside lamp to answer the phone? I don’t need to turn on the light to answer the phone. And they never need to shield their eyes from the sudden light, either.
I’m European as of last check, but there were times when I’d be away from home for weeks at a time, in hotels where they charge more for washing a single sock than I paid for 6 panties last time I bought panties. No laundromat handy, either.
So, I’d lug around a TON of underwear, handwash it mid-trip (if the hotel finds my drying bras offensive, they can lower laundry prices), send some of the other clothes to the laundry if I was running out (I’ve got no prejudice against rewearing outer clothes that aren’t stinky or too wrinkled) and, when I got home to an apartment with washer and dryer have enough for three loads.
The company for which I worked accepted “working from home” as shorthand for “compensation time doing laundry, running to the supermarket and recovering from the redeye from Sao Paulo” on the day back from any such trip.
I do mine every one or two weeks, and while it doesn’t ruin my whole day, it definitely eats up a few hours during which I can do little else. And it’s a not a 22-year-ild male thing. I’m more than double that age, and I see elderly women doing the same thing. It’s the reality of apartment living. At least I’m fortunate to have machines in my building.
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.