Oh, laundry. There is no college frenemy like a laundry room. It cleans your clothes, but at the same time, it’s filled with terrifying buttons, it agitates your mildew allergy, and it ruins your self-esteem. I’ve been doing my laundry for a while now, but nothing could have prepared me for the horrors of college laundry day. Below are ten things I’ve learned make it a little bit more bearable. Good luck!
1. Put your socks and underwear in a lingerie bag.
Fact: dryers eat socks for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snacks. You’ll lose more socks in your first few loads of laundry at college than you have in your entire life. Those lingerie bags your over-prepared roommate brought are good for more than preventing your bras from getting tangled together: they’re also great for keeping all of your socks and underwear together through the washing, drying, (maybe) folding, and (probably not) putting your laundry away.
2. Use pods.
Bottled laundry detergent spills easily and is a pain in the butt to haul around. It’s also easy to use too much, which means you’ll have to restock more often. Do yourself a favor and invest in the pods, and take as many as you’ll need for your laundry trip. You’ll be glad you have one less thing to carry.
3. Set a timer on your phone when you start your cycle.
You know what stinks about doing laundry in college? What you might think is a great time to sneak in and get a load done, is also what at least another quarter of your school thinks is the best time for laundry. If your wash is has been done for an hour and is still sitting in the machine, I can guarantee that someone will move it. Prevent losing socks (see no. 1) and other articles of clothing by setting a timer when you start your cycle so that you can move it as soon as it’s finished.
4. Whistle while you work, work while you wash.
You know what else is great to to time? Study sessions. Laundry day is a great day to get some extra work done. If you’re working on speed, use the time on the previously mentioned timer to time how long your work takes you. You’re going to be waiting around for your laundry to be finished either way, so you might as well get some work done while you wait. Whether you do it in the laundry room or not, “I’m doing laundry, I can’t leave” is a great excuse for not going anywhere and just doing work.
5. Treat stains in advance.
In general, a dry stain is a permanent one. Even if you stick it in the washing machine after a few days, the stain will remain. If you tackle the stain early (with stain remover or a DIY remedy), it will fade much easier. Save yourself from the frustrations of stained clothing and find a stain-removing remedy to have on hand for emergencies.
6. Use as many machines as you need.
This is all at once very complicated and very simple. Use what you need. This means that you do not need to fill all of the machines in the laundry room for the sake of making all of your clothes extra-clean. This also means not jamming all of your clothes into one machine for the sake of saving money. For most people, 2-3 weeks of laundry means 2-3 washing machines.
7. Invest in a drying rack.
On a similar note, laundry is expensive. If you need to use several washers, cut down on drying costs by investing in a drying rack you can keep in your room. This is also helpful for clothes that can’t go in the dryer. Shrinking clothes isn’t fun.
8. When in doubt, wash with cold.
Colors bleed. Don’t turn your white shirts pink. The warmer the water, the more likely colors are to bleed. If you don’t know what temperature to wash your clothes in, wash them in cold.
9. Clear the lint out of the dryer before you start it.
A linty dryer is not your friend. At Kenyon, the lint collector is right in the front of the dryer; clean it before you start the dryer. Excessive lint will slow the drying time of your laundry, and no one wants to spend extra money on drying time.
10. Keep your laundry supplies in your laundry bag or basket.
This is a foolproof way to make sure you don’t lose them or forget them when you make the trek to the laundry room.
The laundry room may be scary, but that’s no reason to let your dirty garments fester. Bite the bullet and do your laundry — clean clothes are mega cool.
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