Monday, April 26, 2010

Are You Freaking Kidding Me: Laundry Edition

If you are easily afraid, you should look away now. What I am about to show you is sure to terrify; however, if you stay, I will perform an amazing magic trick: I will read your mind.

Are you thinking, "Dear God! That's a lot of laundry!"?

I told you it was an amazing magic trick.

Now I will attempt to justify the mountain of filth. Tragically, we don't have a washing machine in our apartment. There is a coin operated machine in the basement, but they raised the rates from a reasonable $0.75 per load to a whopping $1.75 a load to wash and $1.50 to dry. It's highway robbery.

Because I'm frugal, we go to the laundromat instead. Because the laundromat sucks, we go as little as possible. The above photo represents nearly every piece of fabric we own, not just clothes, but also towels, sheets, rugs, duvets, etc.

It took more than three hours to get everything washed and dried, and no, I haven't folded yet. Why am I telling you all this? It's simple; I want you to feel sorry for me because I am feeling sorry for myself.

How do you do your laundry? A little at a time or do you have a set laundry day? What are your thoughts on laundromats? Wouldn't you agree that they rank right up there next to "Long-Distance Bus Stations at Night" in the list of "Depressing Places Full of Weirdos"?

6 comments:

  1. When I lived in San Francisco I liked laundry. I went to a laundromat called BrainWash. it was a laundromat, restaurant, bookstore and had live music many days. Very cool place.

    Now I have to share three machines with potentially 50 apts. It is not an easy task and I hate the back and forth by the end. When I see moms with 2+ kids in the same boat I practially weep for them and their bazillion loads of clothes!

    I dont mind the l-mat. What I dislike is waiting if it v.crowded and I hate that it is almost double the price with a small machine to boot. But...there is something great about getting 5+loads done all at once, so I hoof it sometimes. Mostly though, I use the huge machines at home. It is empty in there in the middle of night.

    I hear your pain though.

    -FranticWoman

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  2. I do feel sorry for you! Before kids, I had to go to the laundromat too. It was 2 blocks away and I would take papers to grade. Usually I would bring the wet stuff home and hang it out to dry, though, so I wasn't there as long.

    Now I have a washer and dryer and kids. I do laundry in big chunks, 2-4 loads at a time when it's nice outside. I sort and start the loads the night before, hanging it out in the morning.
    In the winter, I wash a load a day and hang it to dry on drying racks for the humidity (it's not the most attractive thing, but it's also tucked away in the back so it's not the first thing people see - and we whisk it into our bedroom if need be).

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  3. What I did when I lived in buildings with coin laundry was to use the washing machine in the building and then hang the laundry on clotheslines across my bedroom (or, in one place, on the balcony). Even if the per-load cost comes out the same as washer+dryer at the laundromat, you are saving the time and depression of the laundromat AND saving money because your clothes will last longer not going through the dryer AND saving energy! I've written lots of tips on line-drying laundry.

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  4. I totally sympathize! I hate Mount Washmore. It's a never ending dreaded task. I think your laundromat idea is a good one!

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  5. I HATE laundry!!!!!!! I try not to say hate but in this instance it is true. I would rather set fire to the heap of clothes in my room than wash it. My fantasy goal in life is to make enough money to never wear anything twice just buy all new - NO LAUNDRY. We try to do laundry on Sundays and a load here and there throughout the week. It rarely all gets put away. If we wanted toget all laundry done in one week it would be about 10 loads no joke

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  6. I do laundry every flippin' day. When it asks for "occupation" on a form, I am tempted to write in "laundress". There are 5 in this house, plus a puppy. It's killin' me.

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