Every. Other. Time!!!

[Food Lady]

So I have a limited amount of quarters on hand and I needed to wash blankets/towels and sheets today (2 loads). I went down and OF COURSE the machine I picked doesn't work and ate my money and there was no out of order sigh*. I guess I'll do it. No one is in the office to give me back my cash today, so now I'm down a load of laundry. I pay rent and part of living here is having a laundry room. Is it too much to ask that they you know, KEEP THE MACHINES WORKING?? This is why I do laundry by hand, but I can't do big loads like that.

* sign There was, of course, an out of order sigh.

[Deserted]

When I lived in an apartment, I always had my own washer & dryer. I never trusted the complex's laundromat -- god only knows what other people run through those machines, and I don't want to have to sit and babysit the laundry because I don't trust the other residents.

[Catwoman2965]

When I lived in an apartment, I always had my own washer & dryer. I never trusted the complex's laundromat -- god only knows what other people run through those machines, and I don't want to have to sit and babysit the laundry because I don't trust the other residents.

I wish that was an option for me! Where I am, the only apts that have their own W/D are the very pricy so called "luxury" ones. I already pay over $1400 for a 650 sq foot 1BR, nothing special garden apt, which is standard for NJ. Moving somewhere with a W/D and other fancy stuff would run me 2K or more.

i hate the machines in my complex. people don't understand you dont' NEED half a bottle of whatever crap you use and they STINK because everyone and their mother does this and uses scented crap.

i go to the laundromat and use the top loaders wehre you pour the soap directly in, vs. a resevoir in a front loader.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I recall the months some years ago now where (due to the washer needing a new door boot, which was less than 200 bucks at the time) I had to make twice weekly trips to the laundromat just to get the laundry somewhat caught up. Each time would be between 2-4 loads (not including comforters or blankets) and, after trying several places on our side of town, I can tell you which ones are better to go to than others. Each of them have their good and not so good points but here's the ones I've tried:

Aggie Mat (so named due to it's proximity to the Big College) offers seating for customers (there's a row of booth seats up front at the windows - place used to be a small restaurant before the laundromat took over) and they have a color tv so you can watch tv while you're waiting for your laundry to finish (unfortunately stuck on E! and I learned more than I care to know about the Kardashians, since that's pretty much all I saw on that tv. )

Pros to this one: cheaper pricing on their machines, free dry with wash and open until midnight. Had an attendant who was always friendly and I've always felt safe when I would go there.

Cons: smaller place, not much parking. Does get busy during Saturdays and Sundays but attendant is always on site to make sure everything's okay.

Rainbow Laundromat (next door to the now gone Curb Market and ran by one of the ladies who worked the curb market next door): Larger and more spacious, tv inside, noticed a larger variety of larger washers (great if you have to wash a king size comforter) more folding table space than Aggie Mat.

Cons: Not very safe. My one time there was my last and that was due to some woman coming in (obviously drunk/high/whathaveyou) who decided she was going to harrass me for chatting with a former coworker that I ran into there. Had warned her several times to get away from me or I'd call police myself on her (had cell phone with me - never go anywhere without one.) No attendant in sight, had to walk next door and get Miss Jo and tell her either to get that woman gone or the cops would after I'd got through calling.

Within 5 minutes, the troublemaker was gone and I quickly finished up and never went back there.

There really needs to be an attendant inside, not next door.

Great Stops - my new favorite place to go, larger washers, decent pricing. Can walk into the convenience store (all in one building) to get a snack.

Pros: Free wifi, tv on site, plenty of folding table space and seating. Can use debit card if you don't have quarters on hand Open 24 hrs, so if you have to wait until after everybody's in bed to go do laundry, good place to go to. Security cameras on site as well for everyone's safety.

Cons: Machines costs a little more, busy on weekends (Sunday afternoons are ridiculous) Have to travel a few minutes more to get to this one

Hardware store: Mom's old friend reopened his laundromat, which is a couple of blocks from us (he moved the hardware store into part of the building) Easy to get to . . . can be there in just a couple of minutes.

Pros: Never busy, so I can get my laundry done and free dry with wash. Plenty of parking and good friends to hang and chat with while my washing is doing its thing. Also if I need anything from the hardware store, I can just walk thru the doorway and browse to see if Larry has what I'm looking for.

Cons: no wifi, no snacks. Bring your own quarters and laundry supplies (which I do anyway - buying stuff out of the machines is pricey compared to buying at the grocery or dollar store. Not open on Sundays or evenings (closes at 5 Mon-Saturday.)

Aside from that, I'm so glad I rarely go now. Having your own washer and dryer makes a huge difference.

[Slave to the Phone]

An option that many apartment dwellers overlook is stacked apartment sized washer/dryer combos. Back in the day, I had one. It had a 4 foot by 4 foot footprint and was on wheels so I could roll it out of the way when I wasn't using it. It hooked up to the kitchen sink and used a regular 110 outlet.

They are small and very inefficient. (Well, they were very wasteful water and electricity wise 30 years ago, they have probably improved since then.) You can't wash comforters in them and only small loads of towels. It would be hard to impossible to use one to keep up with a family or even just 1 small child, but for a single adult who doesn't get covered in oil and grime at work, they are great.

[morgana]

One of the "must-haves" when I was moving here to Lincoln was an apartment that had *at least* hookups for washer/dryer. I flat refuse to use a communal apartment laundry room anymore. (I'll go to a laundromat if I must, but . . .)

And this one isn't any more expensive than some without in-place laundry equipment.

[notalwaysright]

Apartments do commonly have washer/dryers here but yeah they're more expensive. My current place doesn't have them, neither did my previous one. It's hard enough to find a place which will allow my cat, much less one that has a washer/dryer and is in my price range AND I manage to get there before every other damn person in this town.

Funny, last weekend when I was doing laundry I thought the machine ate one of my quarters and I was briefly unhappy because I also only have the exact amount I will need. But then my brain registered the "coin return" button and voila, got my quarter back. I assume that didn't work (or there is no coin return option) for Food Lady.

[Deserted]

I wish that was an option for me! Where I am, the only apts that have their own W/D are the very pricy so called "luxury" ones. I already pay over $1400 for a 650 sq foot 1BR, nothing special garden apt, which is standard for NJ. Moving somewhere with a W/D and other fancy stuff would run me 2K or more.

Typical over-under apartment combos use 110 VAC (normal US electricity, as opposed to the 220 VAC outlets used for most dryers), and the hose can be connected to a normal kitchen tap with an adapter available at many hardware stores. That's the route I took; mine was literally right next to the kitchen sink.

[Food Lady]

Some leases prohibit apartment washers. I suppose I'm not even supposed to be doing hand wash, if extra water usage is the problem. (Management company pays the water bill.) Most of my things get hand washed and run through my spin dryer but towels/blankets I need a regular machine for. What I should do is put it in my car at night and run to the laundromat that's 5 minutes from work. On weeknights a wash is 75 cents and there's a Tom's Burgers across the street as well as a Subway in the same parking lot as the laundromat. Plus there's my favorite convenience store on the other side of that parking lot.

[KuariKaydrith]

I love that my rental includes a washer and dryer in my apartment - the other two apartments have to make due with the set that is in the basement, which is only accessible from the outside. In my last place I hand washed and hung my laundry up to dry until I could afford a cheap used washer and dryer set, and it was really hard on my hands, wrists, and back. But you do what you must when you're a broke university student and single parent trying to make every dime you get stretch twice as far as it should!

[ladyjaneinmd]

I was an apartment dweller for a very long time, and I got around a lot of the laundry problems by getting up super-early on Saturday and be waiting at the Laundromat door when it opens at 6am. Frequently I was the only person in the place, maybe 1 or 2 others later on, but after an hour I was done, my car was loaded, and I took myself out to breakfast. Then home to put away the clothes, hang up the wet stuff, and go back to bed if I so desired.
ANYTHING was worth missing the Laundromat crowds. ANYTHING.
Now I own a home with my own washer and dryer. Never thought that would happen, but it did.

[freeatlast]

I recently moved into an brand new income based apartment. It is a 1 bedroom with a huge walk in closet and the washer-dryer hookups are in that huge closet. Very convenient as I can grab clean clothes from the dryer and hang them up - a real time saver.

[Teysa]

When this job ends next month, I am not looking forward to having to use the laundromat again. I've gotten pretty spoiled here.

[wordgirl]

When this job ends next month, I am not looking forward to having to use the laundromat again. I've gotten pretty spoiled here.

You are not spoiled, you are appreciative. Let me tell you a tale of spoiled.

When I worked off-site for a few months at a time, I always picked accommodations with washer/dryer units ... usually crappy little efficiency "executive" apts. with tacky furnishings, but laundry was a must.

One time they sent a co-worker up to help me out and he turned his nose up at the Complex o'Crappy Efficiencies. They OK'd a hotel for him, and he was being all smirky about it ... like "You could have this if you had negotiated hard enough" ... but then tThe Mothership found out he was sending out all his laundry and billing it to his room, along with several room service breakfasts a week. After the blast of "OH HELL NO" when they realized what he was doing, he came whining to me. I listened to his tale of woe, struggling to keep the smirk off my own face, and then when he finished he just ... looked at me.

To this day, I'm only 90 percent sure he expected me to offer to do his laundry for him (or least let him come over and use my washer/dryer). I told him he could ask at the front desk of his hotel about where the nearest laundromat was. (after about a week, I did take pity on him and told him about a few places to scrounge free bagels or donuts and coffee in the mornings.)

[Slave to the Phone]

This internet stranger is 99% sure that not only did he expect you to do his laundry while he waited, he is expected you to feed him for the privilege of ironing his shirts to perfection.

I know this because I once had a rather entitled co-worker who brought her laundry to work and left it by my desk. When I asked why I had a big bag of garbage sitting next to my chair, she told me in a very offended voice that it wasn't garbage, it was her laundry. Her washing machine had died and she couldn't afford a new one for a month so I had to do it for her.

Needless to say, her bag of garbage went next to her chair and she complained to our sup that I was being unhelpful.