Drop off laundry

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Started 1 year ago by charmed2482
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charmed2482
Member

So i used drop off laundry services for the first time yesterday and I think I'm in love.

I'm totally caught up on laundry right now, and they folded everything for me. I haven't got it all put away yet, but I am so happy that i didn't have to spend several hours at the laundry mat listening to screaming kids and getting hit on by weird creepy men while I'm trying to read!

It seems like it costs a lot, but I wouldn't probably only need to go maybe once a month, if I kept using it. I wash my underwear at home in this http://www.laundry-alternative.com/wonderwash.htm b/c I don't like the idea of some guy I don't know messing with my undergarments. but everything else is fine, they will even bleach the whites.

and I won't have to buy much detergent either, I was thinking about changing up my closet so I don't have to hang things after they have folded them all. I have to think about it and plan it our a bit more and decide what I want to do. I just wish I had tried it sooner!

I don't have a washer, and don't have space for one even if I got one. I can only do really small loads in the wonder wash and they have to hang dry on a small drying rack I have. i like using it in the winter when i don't feel like going to the laundry mat or for small loads when I really want/need to wear something that is dirty way before I would normally go do laundry.

My boyfriend thinks its lazy, but a Facebook friend of mine said her whole family uses drop off laundry and she has a husband and two kids, she's paying a lot more than me, she must really think its worth it. i know i do.

Posted 1 year ago #
lucy1965
Member

Is your boyfriend volunteering to take over the job for you? Contributing to the laundry fund? Then he can go whistle: it's your money and your time, and you're the one who gets to decide what's a good use of both.

Posted 1 year ago #
pkilmain
Member

I've only used drop off laundry on vacation, but I can totally see its appeal!

Posted 1 year ago #
nws2002
Member

FWIW, I have a washer and dryer at home and I still use the local fluff and fold, ends up being $20 a week or so for all my laundry. Drop it off in the morning and its ready to go on my way home from work. Well worth the cost because it is folded or on hangers and ready to be put away when I pick it up.

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

it sounds like an absolutely marvellous service to me!
if i lived in town/had kids....i'd lose my washer and dryer and just use the service.
this idea of doing it all yourself at home is kind of new anyway. post-ww2 perhaps? (something to do with synthetic detergents becoming readily available for the first time, not to mention the technology for the machines)
before that, people had laundry-women who came around or they sent their laundry out.

as for the boyf....i agree with what lucy said!

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

+ 1 on the boyfriend. If he ain't helping, he can shut it!

My DH does our laundry. I hate using the shared machines in (the basement of) our building. So if something gets a bit shrunken or the detergent doesn't wash completely out ... I don't say a word. :-)

If it were just me, I have a feeling I would be a regular user of the cleaners in our office building. Working people shouldn't feel guilty for paying for services. You can use a service for a long time before you hit what a washer/dryer installed in your home, plus the water & power/gas over their lifetimes, would cost.

Posted 1 year ago #
klutzgrrl
Member

Oh I'm jealous. I wish I could access a service like that to get on top of it all.

+1 for it being perfectly fine to use any service like this - laundry, cleaning etc - if you can afford it. Why not? That's why I'm giving away my sewing machine. There's a seamstress in town who can do any repairs we need. I've fixed the family computers more times than I can count - why should I be expected to do the sewing too, just because mother-did-it?

I'll stop now before I start a division-of-labour rant.... :)

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

the great thing is that we get to choose nowadays.
i choose to do the laundry (we are all-natural-fibre kids who work at home, so our laundry is simplicity itself)....but i happily and gratefully palm off the cleaning and gardening to paid professionals.
i could spend that money employing someone in our business instead.....but we love our work, so we do the vast bulk of it ourselves.
the gardeners and cleaners get to work for themselves, the money goes round the local community, we get spend our time and energy on what we love and we don't spend our time off polishing the furniture....i cannot see a single downside to outsourcing whatever chore you least like.

Posted 1 year ago #
charmed2482
Member

He said it was lazy and I said i needed to get caught up, b/c i hadn't been caught up since my last vacation in July. He asked why and I told him it was b/c i was doing HIS laundry too, and I hate hauling more than one bag/hamper to the mat at a time. So I would put all his in and then whatever could fit of mine. He said he didn't ask me to do his, but every time I SAY I am going to do laundry or need to he asked me if i can take some or all of his. So I just did it anyway to help him out, and he did actually ask me the first time, I did laundry after I came back from vacation(visited friends in another state and he wasn't with me). So then he said I don't need to do his laundry if its such a burden in a snotty tone. I told him it wasn't a burden but I wasn't carrying my full tote and his full plastic hamper(which is hard to carry down our stairs anyway).

So he can go back to doing his own laundry all the time then, But i am going to keep using drop off services while I'm in school. if I had my own washer, I wouldn't mind b/c I can throw a load in and then do whatever and then just switch it over when it was don't.

he seems to have a problem paying someone to do something he can do himself. But its not like he likes doing laundry or cleaning, he just doesn't want to spend money to let someone else do it. I'm totally for paying people to do stuff I'd rather now. If I had to clean the bathroom(i don't he does that) I would totally pay someone to do the deep cleaning maybe once or twice a month, I hate cleaning bathrooms. I even suggested we pay someone once and he said no. That's fine with me, but I know he doesn't enjoy it and doesn't do it nearly as often as it needs to be done. but I keep the kitchen clean so I'm not touching it.

and no he's not paying for it, I paid for it with my own money. and when I helped out with his clothes before I paid for that too, so he has no room to say anything to me. He spends his money on electronic toys, I will spend mine on laundry services.

Posted 1 year ago #
irishbell
Member

Good for you charmed 2482!! You just let him do his own laundry without making an issue out of it, and you can do yours by dropping off!
I know when my 5 kids were all fairly young, I used the local cleaners for my husbands ironable work shirts and pants.I dropped off about twice a month, it was $1 per shirt, 1 free with every dozen, I don't remember about the pants though. It was so worth it and WONDERFUL! He didn't complain one bit, said it was a super idea, actually.

Posted 1 year ago #
klutzgrrl
Member

Charmed, you guys need to have some SERIOUS discussions about this! It only gets worse. I don't know anything about your personal situation so this may be irrelevant, but when you 'settle down and have kids' the division of labour stuff can be a real problem, so you really need to be on the same page.

Possibly agree on a certain number of hours that you'll each spend doing chores, how often things need to be done, what chores you're willing to do, and anything outside of that will be outsourced without any quibble.

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

i agree with klutzgrrl.
if this is a boyf whom you are considering moving in with or even marrying one day...then these are topics that need to be discussed beforehand.
you are coming from very different places on this issue and he sounds...well..a bit judgemental.
and i am judging him for being judgemental, lololol.

Posted 1 year ago #
charmed2482
Member

we are already living together. cleaning isn't really a big deal right now since we uncluttered so much, it doesn't really get all that messy. He cleans up his own stuff, i don't usually mess with any of it. he does the bathroom(usually when people come over or he feels like doing it) and I do the kitchen most of the time.

I don't want kids so I'm not really worried about things getting harder if we buy a house or whatever. I don't have any intention on doing any more work than I feel my time is worth spending on. its not really a big issue, i don't really care if he thinks its lazy to pay someone to do my laundry, I'm gonna keep doing it anyway.

Posted 1 year ago #
irishbell
Member

It sounds like you have things under control as far as housework etc., which is great.
I wouldn't mind if others thought I was lazy,(I could care less, one of the wonderful things I've learned as I get older- not to care about what OTHERS think of me!)) but I would mind severely if my DH said he thought I was lazy!

Posted 1 year ago #
charmed2482
Member

I don't care if he thinks it's lazy, i have school work, and a part time job right now and I still need to keep the kitchen clean. Every time my boyfriend cooks it looked like a tornado went off in the kitchen.

Posted 1 year ago #
lottielot
Member

you are so not lazy! Laundromats are horrible places, they cost a fortune and the second I could afford it I bought a washing machine so I never had to go near one again. Outsourcing a job you hate isn't lazy, it's common sense! Your boyfriend is just being tight :) If you have no room for a washing machine, it's much cheaper to send out your washing than to have to pay for a place big enough to house a machine, maybe you could point that out to him.
My dh is always telling me I'm lazy, it is one of his worst characteristics and the one thing which makes me as mad as hell! I study full time and have 2 kids to look after pretty much unaided by him or anyone else, I do all the cooking, cleaning, washing (actually the biggest task for a family of 4!), ironing, DIY, gardening, shopping, errands, car-related crap, household admin etc etc etc. Which would all be a full time job even without the full time study, so for him to call me lazy is infuriating!! I'm actually asking around for a cleaner right now, because the house is looking much better now I've decluttered and I have better things to do with my time than clean the bathroom floor :)

Posted 1 year ago #
awurrlu
Member

Before I had access to free on-site laundry, I also used a drop off service and hand washed delicates myself. It was such a huge time saver! I did give them my preferred detergent, because some varieties cause me to get a rash.

If you calculate the money it costs to use the facilities yourself, and how much your time is worth, it might not be all that expensive in the end!

Posted 1 year ago #
Lori Paximadis
Member

Outsourcing all the way, baby! There is nothing wrong with hiring people to do stuff, especially when it's the stuff you hate to do and you can find someone to handle it well at a reasonable cost.

Me, I don't mind doing laundry one bit, but I'm looking seriously at hiring someone to come and clean this house every other week. Doing the basics takes me 3+ hours and puts me in a very bad mood, thus it doesn't get cleaned as often as it should. Even if it ends up costing me close to my hourly rate (which I can't imagine it would), I would still rather spend 3 hours editing a paper or up in the studio to earn the money to pay for a cleaner than scrubbing toilets or vacuuming. And feeding the local economy is a Good Thing.

Posted 1 year ago #
Charity
Member

My washer is currently broken, still waiting for the repairman to show up (he cancelled today, grr) and I'm really suffering. My 2 year old wets himself quite frequently still, and one of my cats was sick on the sofa the other day... I don't drive (poor eyesight means I'm not legal), and I can't take all the laundry on the bus even without the kids so I have to get DH to take everything. But we can't park by the laundrette, so kids and I have to go to and I jump out with all the stuff while he drives around the block to pick me up again. It's very stressful.

Posted 1 year ago #
HelofaMess
Member

I'm 100% behind the vote for outsourcing! I get that "you could do it yourself" at the laundromat but if you can afford to get someone else to do it for you then go for it! Especially when time is precious for earning money and study! This makes me think of the ebay-itis discussion... is it "worth" your time?

Totally agree that if your boyfriend disapproves he can do his own laundry!

Posted 1 year ago #

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