Citaat:
Chapter 12: Laundry
From College 101 by Guy Stevens
Laundry is one of the lows of college life. You've been given all this freedom and responsibility. However, at laundry time it's time to pay the piper. Avoid doing laundry as long as possible! It is my belief that you shouldn't have to do laundry more than every two weeks. However if you're one of those people who doesn't live all that far from home, by all means take it home every weekend!
When doing laundry always bring lots of quarters. The last thing you need is to run out of change! Find out ahead of time the cost of doing a load in the washer and dryer. Many campuses allow students to use debit cards for laundry, in which case, make sure you have ample credit.
Before even attempting to do laundry, find out when is the best time. Chances are that everybody else in your dorm has to use the same set of machines. There are going to be times when the laundry room gets really busy. Often the best time to do laundry is late at night and in the wee hours of the morning. Avoid weekends. Everybody does laundry on weekends. If a break or vacation is coming up, take the laundry home; don't bother giving the school any more of your money.
To do laundry, you will need to invest some time. It takes approximately 26 minutes to complete a washing cycle. It takes another 45 minutes for the dryer. Total time to do a load is about one and a half hours. Never leave clothes in the machines! People will remove them when they need a machine. You could end up losing clothing that way! Sometimes people even put the clothing on the floor and get them dirty again! (This happened to me!)
When you are getting ready to use the washing machine, put whites with whites. Set the knob to the position marked WHITES. Put colors in a separate load. Set the knob to PERMANENT PRESS. DO NOT MIX LOADS. Never overstuff the washing machine. One frugal student decided to put all his laundry in one load. He started the permanent press cycle and walked away. A few minutes later the machine began to buck and bolt like a bronco! His clothes were covered in smoke! The smell was horrendous.
When choosing a washing machine, keep in mind that these machines have been used and abused. Determine which machines are running better than others. I remember one washing machine that was so off balance that I had to sit on top of it to get my load finished.
Before even attempting to use a dryer, open it up and remove the lint from the lint guard. Otherwise you're going to spend significant time removing lint from your clothing! Spread out the load. Jeans take the longest time to dry. Never put more than two pairs of jeans in a single load in a dryer. Use multiple dryers with small loads in order to have your clothes dry quicker. If you end up putting larger loads into a single dryer, you may need more then one 45-minute cycle to get everything dry.
Fold T-shirts, socks, and underwear as soon as they come out of the dryer, then place them into your laundry basket. Take pants, and put them on a hanger immediately. Do the same with button shirts, this way you won't have to iron them.
As for detergents, I recommend using a liquid because liquids are easier to measure than powders (you just fill the cap). Also liquids come concentrated, so you can do more loads with less detergent.
