A surefire way to welcome the advent of adulthood is to do your own laundry—and pay for it too. Not to worry though, you won’t break the bank! Ryan Hall RA Kelsey Weber is here to share her helpful hints in today’s issue of The Dorm Room Survival Guide: Laundry.
Laundry
Those of us with older siblings may think back to the Thanksgiving breaks when brothers and sisters would return home from college with a thirty-pound bag of dirty clothes tucked under each arm. “Hey, Mom! I’m home! Here’s my filthy laundry.” Don’t be that kid.
Getting into a steady laundry routine is not only essential to maintaining your wardrobe, but also to maintaining your health. As gross as it sounds, all of the sweat and oil collected by your bed linens will need to be washed out at least once a semester, and it’s no secret that clean underwear is a must. This is why Notre Dame requires freshmen to take two tests in the beginning of the school year: the infamous swim test, and a laundering skills aptitude examination. Additional points are added to a student’s score for every mention of the proper use of the LaundryView monitoring system app. I’m kidding about the laundry test (not the app, though. Check it out!), but it’s not a bad idea to get some practice in before moving to campus (By then, the process will be a “Fe-breeze!”). “Mountain fresh” scented dryer sheets in hand, and armed with a trusty bottle of stain remover, you’ll be ready for the days of sock-folding and stain-removing.
If you have never done your own laundry before, now is the perfect time to learn. Here are three quick tips you’ll need to know
1. Check it before you wreck it: Look at labels to check for any cleaning specifications, spot-treat stains, and empty your pockets
2. Assort and contort: Separate clothes into four different categories: lights, whites, darks, and delicates. To decrease the number of loads, wash lights with whites (unless you’re using bleach!) and consider using Color Catcher® dryer sheets. Wash delicate items (like lace) in a pillow case or mesh bag, and turn jeans and embellished shirts inside out.
3. Hot or not: Wash darks in cold water to prevent dyes from running; use warm water for lights and whites.
Most students tackle their laundry in one of two ways: either by sacrificing closet space in order to go longer between laundry days, or by sacrificing money in order to do laundry more often. Weber shares, “I found the busiest laundry days were on the weekend because that’s when most people are free, so I’d suggest doing it during the week… As for how often I’d say that depends on the person–if you don’t mind wearing things a few times before washing them as well as having enough of the essentials you probably only need to do laundry about 2-3 times a month.”
The happy balance between these options will be a matter of personal preference, and each student has a system that works best for her. Either way, you’ll want to be prepared for your laundry day. Brush up on your skills by offering to help do the laundry at home, and create at least a loose budget for yourself in order to fund your laundry expenses on campus. Each cycle of washing and drying costs about $3, and you can wash and dry a load for $2.50 by using Domer Dollars instead of cash. This means that if you intend to dutifully wash your clothes every single week, you can expect to spend anywhere from $95 to $342 between August 22nd and May 17th (including days spent on breaks and not including the cost of detergent, dryer sheets, or fabric softener).
Another option is to have your laundry done through St. Michael’s Laundry Service. While use of the campus laundry service is the less economic option for many students, others prefer to use this service because they can rely on having a set of fresh clothing each week without worrying about finding time in their schedules to wash their clothes. According to Weber, “Freshman year is when you’ll most likely be the least busy, so you can try and see how it goes doing laundry on your own and if you feel like later on you want to save on time then you can always switch to St. Michael’s.” Again, the choice is a personal preference. One selection is not necessarily better than the other; it’s simply a matter of planning ahead for whichever choice you make.
Read the last installment here: The Dorm Room Survival Guide: Roommates! And keep an eye out for the next issue of The Dorm Room Survival Guide: Organization!
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