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I hate Laundromats


Little Miss Sunshine

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I am truly sorry but I really need to rant.

Apparently some people can't do their laundry without shouting at their husband/wife. Or letting their kid play with the token machine (pushing the buttons and jamming the bill slot with a voucher paper) even though it was fixed literally 10mins ago by the maintenance guys. And instead of taking the kid away from the machine, just shouting some more.

And also those people who interfere with the way you choose to do your laundry, as if you also didn't have to wait for other people to be done.

I live in the "de facto" student city of this country and it's very rare for flats to have washing machines installed (or even the space for it, in fact) even if you aren't a student. Saturday afternoons at the nearest laundromat make me yearn for the day we can have our own washing machine...

Thank you for your attention [emoji12]

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Omg i went to the laundrette for the first time the other day and its SAVED MY LIFE. i have a washing machine but my student flat gets damp and and i cant really dry my clothes outside because it's not dry enough really. And my clothes pile has been building up slowly but surely but now THE MAJESTIC LAUNDRETTE can tumble dry my clothes and make them warm !!! Im not exaggerating when i say im so excited by this place i cant believe i let stupid things get on top of me like clothes when there is such an easy solution!!!

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I only started to not hate the laundrette once I could afford to get the service wash. No more hanging around waiting for the cycle to finish, could just drop off my bag and collect nice clean folded clothes a few hours later. Still prefer having my own machine (not even sure if my town even has a laundrette now) but the service wash almost made me not resent the laundry-laden trek into town.

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Honestly, it's too confusing for me. I went in there once, like some reluctant explorer. Jam-packed with people, machines of all sorts and sizes, confusing, tricksy costs, everybody looks like they know what they're doing, me with my pathetic trash bag of clothes... I looked around, as if I was an official inspector, gave an approving nod, and left as fast as I could.



Glad I have a laundry machine that works... most of the time.


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I feel like it's some kind of rite of passage into adulthood when I start fantasising about having the money for whitegoods. At my parents' house and in the share house I lived in we had our own washing machine and dryer; this is the first year I've had to share with the rest of the apartment building and it's often quite inconvenient. Not as bad as having to go to a public laundromat, since I can put my stuff in and then leave for however long the cycle is without needing to worry if someone's going to nick my clothes, but still.


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Its been a while since I've had to use a laundry-mat, excepting when either our home washer or dryer is done. I remember it being a huge inconvenience, especially once I had children to account for while dealing with it. At the same time I remember it being a good time to get some reading done. This was especially true once I was a parent if I could arrange it so I wasn't directly responsible for the whee ones when I was taking care of getting the clothes clean. Once I got the washer started, it would be a good 25 minutes with a book, followed by another 30 after moving the load over to the dryer. Yeah, laundry-mats generally have some of he most uncomfortable chairs one can imagine that don't involve spikes or electrodes or aren't currently on fire, and unless one is very lucky they can be load, full children only marginally supervised by frustrated and distracted adults, and generally not a relaxing environment. When one has small ones of their own at hoe as well as the thousand and one issues that come with taking care of a family and home, that nearly hour was some some quality time with me and whatever I was reading. So I have not unpleasant, if not exactly fond, memories of the laundry-mat.



Of course, I wouldn't want to have to go back to using them with any regularity.


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It has been many years since I've been to a laundromat and I will admit that I would not want to have to rely on doing laundry outside my house. A few things come to mind though -



  1. They have a unique, universal and kind of yummy smell. I could be waxing poetic but I feel like anytime you go into one they all smell the same and it is usually pretty good.
  2. Its all about timing. Someone up post mentioned going at midnight which is what i used to try to do during college and even when I was starting my career and living in Boston. Don't go on a Saturday or Sunday morning. In the US everyone would rush to get laundry done before the football games.
  3. I may be showing my age but back in the early to mid 90's it was a great place to meet girls. Not sure the reason but it was one of the few places I ever found that it was easy to speak with girls I did not know. So many openings - forgot my detergent, do you think this shirt is safe to put in the dryer?, can i borrow a dryer sheet?, ooops, sorry i thought that was my load :) Not sure if I was unique but I met way more random girls at the laundromats than I ever did at bars.
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[*]Its all about timing. Someone up post mentioned going at midnight which is what i used to try to do during college and even when I was starting my career and living in Boston. Don't go on a Saturday or Sunday morning. In the US everyone would rush to get laundry done before the football games.

I wish I could go during the week but I commute everyday to Brussels - that means waking up at 6am and arriving home around 8pm (if I'm lucky and I don't have to stay extra hours due to workload/trains aren't late/platforms aren't switched at the last minute so you lose all trains except the local one that stops everywhere), more dead than alive.

The weekend is kind of the only time I have right now to go shopping and do laundry. I'd rather do laundry on Sunday afternoons because it's less crowded and insane, but this week I couldn't do it.

And don't even get me started on supermarkets on Saturday morning [emoji12] I can't count how many times I've been pushed and almost ran over by elderly people and huge families in their quest for the freshest of all lettuces and the ripest of all bananas...

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And don't even get me started on supermarkets on Saturday morning [emoji12] I can't count how many times I've been pushed and almost ran over by elderly people and huge families in their quest for the freshest of all lettuces and the ripest of all bananas...

I love grocery stores and loathe other customers. I live in the burbs so all the stores are filled with people who are constantly in the way not so much because they're intentionally rude but because they are unaccustomed to the idea of taking up space and don't understand that being in someone's way is a thing that can happen.

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My washer died over the summer--it was over 25 years old--so I've been going to the laundromat. It's not so bad. I can do 8 or so loads that would take all day at home, and when you figure in how much you save on your water bill it's actually cheaper.

I'm seriously considering not getting a new washer.

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