6 ms·

I'm happy to say good riddance. When I was young I had to carry the family's laundry to the laundrymat, wash and fold it there, and carry it back, every other w

by acabal 9y ago

I'm happy to say good riddance. When I was young I had to carry the family's laundry to the laundrymat, wash and fold it there, and carry it back, every other week at least. It takes hours, and at the time you couldn't do much while sitting there and waiting (nowadays I suppose you have smartphones and laptops). The whole thing was just an exhausting, dreaded hassle. Now I can put laundry in, it's OK if I don't attend to it immediately, and finally I can hang-dry my laundry at home, which is not just hugely more climate-friendly but also helps prevent shrinkage. An undeniable win all around. If you need a quiet few hours, a walk is just as fulfilling and much less obligatory :)

freetime2 9y ago
I think this article is less about the benefits of laundromats vs. in-unit washing machines (most people would choose the latter), and more about the struggles of people who are unable to afford apartments with in-unit hookups and who now have to walk an extra couple of blocks to do their laundry.
- tener 9y ago
  Interesting. For a generally rich country the economics seems odd. In contrast, my grandmother was definitely not a wealthy person and she could still put aside the money for the washing machine in the height of the communism. There were no laundromats anywhere. I do wonder where are the differences coming from.
  - gpvos 9y ago
    I guess government is sometimes better able to provide basic services (a place to connect your washing machine) than private landlords. A failure of the market.
    - woobar 9y ago
      These 'machines' were not connected to anything. On your laundry day (yeah, you will spend a whole day doing laundry, and not just loading and unloading a machine), you will pull it in your bathroom. Then connect one hose to the faucet, run another into the bathtub. They were absolute crap. Laundromat is a big step up compared to that. In fact, building the network of government owned laundromats would be better fit for centrally planned economy of the USSR. My guess the only reason it never happened is the inability to build a reliable heavy duty automatic washing machine.
      - tener 9y ago
        There are things that benefit from the economy of scale (e.g. factories) and then there are those that don't. Laundry is clearly in the second league: all the machines are independent of each other so the whole thing can (and usually is, nowadays) split apart (everyone has a washing machine at their place).
    - tener 9y ago
      This statement is, again, surprising to me: to connect a washing machine all you really need is water, sink and electricity. I can't imagine a kitchen without these things and indeed, a washing machine was often put in kitchens. The other popular choice was bathroom (my grandmother didn't have one, so they have to use kitchen). I get it that additional, large appliance may be somewhat unwieldy, but I don't think more than having to haul your clothes to get them washed.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- CalRobert 9y ago
  Laundromats are expensive, though. I used one for a while and spent nearly ten bucksa week, even though I brought clothes home to air dry. After buying a used haier hlp21n it paid for itself inabout 3 months.
- greggman 9y ago
  Unless it's gone up, the cost of fluff and fold service in the mission is cheap enough that it's not much more than doing it yourself. Especially when many laundromats where is > $2 for a wash load and similar for a dry load. If you have to separate your loads it can easily be $12 to do your laundry yourself. You can probably get it done for $15 and have several hours of your life to do something else.
- int_19h 9y ago
  It's really weird, because this is literally lower quality of life than USSR circa late 70s. Sure, we had really crappy and tiny in-unit washing machines (http://pics.rbc.ru/img/cnews/2007/09/04/41a.jpg http://pics.rbc.ru/img/cnews/2007/09/04/41a.jpg) - but most people did have one. We didn't have anything like a laundromat.
  - gpvos 9y ago
    This may explain why Poland doesn't seem to understand the concept of a laundromat. As a tourist, this can be quite annoying. (Hotel laundry service is usually per-piece and thus way too expensive.)
    - striking 9y ago
      Yeah, plenty of people in Poland would just wash their clothes either by hand or with a really cheap washer. And dryers were rare and land was plentiful, you'd just air dry. Not that people don't own them now, but what they own now is a straight-up upgrade from what they had before. At this point I'm sure there will soon be a market for laundromats in Poland, at least in the more urban areas. But it'd be a hard sell for the vast majority of Polish folks.
    - jessaustin 9y ago
      When I've lived in hotels longer than a week at a time, I've sent just collared shirts and slacks to the laundry. Everything else can be satisfactorily washed in the bathtub. One place I stayed in Tokyo had this really long shoehorn in every room, which was ideal for stirring the tub.
  - woobar 9y ago
    > We didn't have anything like a laundromat. They were called 'prachechnaya'. And the situation in the USSR wasn't that rosy. Only 70% of the population owned these tiny machines.
    - int_19h 9y ago
      They may have existed somewhere, but I'm not aware of any in my home town. As with many things in the USSR, it may well have been regional and time-dependent. My memories are from mid-80s, although I know that my family had one before then. I didn't know anyone whose family didn't have one, and we weren't a nomenklatura family or anything like that - just a regular Soviet family with boring everyday jobs (teachers and engineers) - and neither were our neighbors and acquaintances.
- martinald 9y ago
  I find it really odd the US doesn't have washing machines in apartments. Even the tiniest studio apartment in the UK would come with one. You very rarely see laundromats in the UK (usually in areas with a very high concentration of students, as halls of residence provision can be poor for them). Why don't they have them in the US? You have water and electricity, so I can't understand why this is a big deal.
  - philh 9y ago
    The London bedsit I lived in a few years ago didn't have one, I had to use the nearby laundromat. (Aside: as it turns out, I didn't know how washing machines worked, and I spent like a year washing my clothes without soap before the attendant told me. I now know that a "pre-wash" is... exactly what it sounds like, and it's not compatible with putting detergent tablets directly in the drum.)
  - EADGBE 9y ago
    More insurance claims for water damage? When the washer/dryer set is owned by the renter than the renter's insurance will cover damages, vs the property owner. Also, a lot of landlords will rent out washer/dryer sets to tenants for another monthly fee if they don't have their own to hook up.
  - csydas 9y ago
    Many of the apartments aren't designed well for such a set up, or have other strict noise rules, concerns over water problems and maintenance costs, or just simply the landlord doesn't like the idea of the units having the machines as even with more modern washers with good locks/seals, people still manage to misuse them and cause water damage. Or they just don't want to manage the maintenance for such units. It's also possible that there's an expectation that you always have a washer/dryer combo, whereas having just the washing unit isn't uncommon from what I've seen in the EU/other parts of the world and then just having an air drying rack for drying. I was a little surprised when I first moved abroad at not having a dryer (and annoyed admittedly), but I got used to it pretty easily and just adjusted my laundry schedule. Likewise, the size may be a difference in expectation, as many people expect full sized units installed, not compact units.
et-al 9y ago
Sounds like you have more of an issue with your upbringing than the existence of laundromats. For most people, going to a laundromat is a necessity, not a choice to make their children build character. One "chooses" to go to a laundromat as much as one has chosen there place to live; which, in San Francisco and New York, can be limiting.

by acabal 9y ago

freetime2 9y ago

I think this article is less about the benefits of laundromats vs. in-unit washing machines (most people would choose the latter), and more about the struggles of people who are unable to afford apartments with in-unit hookups and who now have to walk an extra couple of blocks to do their laundry.

tener 9y ago
Interesting. For a generally rich country the economics seems odd. In contrast, my grandmother was definitely not a wealthy person and she could still put aside the money for the washing machine in the height of the communism. There were no laundromats anywhere. I do wonder where are the differences coming from.
- gpvos 9y ago
  I guess government is sometimes better able to provide basic services (a place to connect your washing machine) than private landlords. A failure of the market.
  - woobar 9y ago
    These 'machines' were not connected to anything. On your laundry day (yeah, you will spend a whole day doing laundry, and not just loading and unloading a machine), you will pull it in your bathroom. Then connect one hose to the faucet, run another into the bathtub. They were absolute crap. Laundromat is a big step up compared to that. In fact, building the network of government owned laundromats would be better fit for centrally planned economy of the USSR. My guess the only reason it never happened is the inability to build a reliable heavy duty automatic washing machine.
    - tener 9y ago
      There are things that benefit from the economy of scale (e.g. factories) and then there are those that don't. Laundry is clearly in the second league: all the machines are independent of each other so the whole thing can (and usually is, nowadays) split apart (everyone has a washing machine at their place).
  - tener 9y ago
    This statement is, again, surprising to me: to connect a washing machine all you really need is water, sink and electricity. I can't imagine a kitchen without these things and indeed, a washing machine was often put in kitchens. The other popular choice was bathroom (my grandmother didn't have one, so they have to use kitchen). I get it that additional, large appliance may be somewhat unwieldy, but I don't think more than having to haul your clothes to get them washed.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
CalRobert 9y ago
Laundromats are expensive, though. I used one for a while and spent nearly ten bucksa week, even though I brought clothes home to air dry. After buying a used haier hlp21n it paid for itself inabout 3 months.
greggman 9y ago
Unless it's gone up, the cost of fluff and fold service in the mission is cheap enough that it's not much more than doing it yourself. Especially when many laundromats where is > $2 for a wash load and similar for a dry load. If you have to separate your loads it can easily be $12 to do your laundry yourself. You can probably get it done for $15 and have several hours of your life to do something else.
int_19h 9y ago
It's really weird, because this is literally lower quality of life than USSR circa late 70s. Sure, we had really crappy and tiny in-unit washing machines (http://pics.rbc.ru/img/cnews/2007/09/04/41a.jpg http://pics.rbc.ru/img/cnews/2007/09/04/41a.jpg) - but most people did have one. We didn't have anything like a laundromat.
- gpvos 9y ago
  This may explain why Poland doesn't seem to understand the concept of a laundromat. As a tourist, this can be quite annoying. (Hotel laundry service is usually per-piece and thus way too expensive.)
  - striking 9y ago
    Yeah, plenty of people in Poland would just wash their clothes either by hand or with a really cheap washer. And dryers were rare and land was plentiful, you'd just air dry. Not that people don't own them now, but what they own now is a straight-up upgrade from what they had before. At this point I'm sure there will soon be a market for laundromats in Poland, at least in the more urban areas. But it'd be a hard sell for the vast majority of Polish folks.
  - jessaustin 9y ago
    When I've lived in hotels longer than a week at a time, I've sent just collared shirts and slacks to the laundry. Everything else can be satisfactorily washed in the bathtub. One place I stayed in Tokyo had this really long shoehorn in every room, which was ideal for stirring the tub.
- woobar 9y ago
  > We didn't have anything like a laundromat. They were called 'prachechnaya'. And the situation in the USSR wasn't that rosy. Only 70% of the population owned these tiny machines.
  - int_19h 9y ago
    They may have existed somewhere, but I'm not aware of any in my home town. As with many things in the USSR, it may well have been regional and time-dependent. My memories are from mid-80s, although I know that my family had one before then. I didn't know anyone whose family didn't have one, and we weren't a nomenklatura family or anything like that - just a regular Soviet family with boring everyday jobs (teachers and engineers) - and neither were our neighbors and acquaintances.
martinald 9y ago
I find it really odd the US doesn't have washing machines in apartments. Even the tiniest studio apartment in the UK would come with one. You very rarely see laundromats in the UK (usually in areas with a very high concentration of students, as halls of residence provision can be poor for them). Why don't they have them in the US? You have water and electricity, so I can't understand why this is a big deal.
- philh 9y ago
  The London bedsit I lived in a few years ago didn't have one, I had to use the nearby laundromat. (Aside: as it turns out, I didn't know how washing machines worked, and I spent like a year washing my clothes without soap before the attendant told me. I now know that a "pre-wash" is... exactly what it sounds like, and it's not compatible with putting detergent tablets directly in the drum.)
- EADGBE 9y ago
  More insurance claims for water damage? When the washer/dryer set is owned by the renter than the renter's insurance will cover damages, vs the property owner. Also, a lot of landlords will rent out washer/dryer sets to tenants for another monthly fee if they don't have their own to hook up.
- csydas 9y ago
  Many of the apartments aren't designed well for such a set up, or have other strict noise rules, concerns over water problems and maintenance costs, or just simply the landlord doesn't like the idea of the units having the machines as even with more modern washers with good locks/seals, people still manage to misuse them and cause water damage. Or they just don't want to manage the maintenance for such units. It's also possible that there's an expectation that you always have a washer/dryer combo, whereas having just the washing unit isn't uncommon from what I've seen in the EU/other parts of the world and then just having an air drying rack for drying. I was a little surprised when I first moved abroad at not having a dryer (and annoyed admittedly), but I got used to it pretty easily and just adjusted my laundry schedule. Likewise, the size may be a difference in expectation, as many people expect full sized units installed, not compact units.

et-al 9y ago

Sounds like you have more of an issue with your upbringing than the existence of laundromats. For most people, going to a laundromat is a necessity, not a choice to make their children build character. One "chooses" to go to a laundromat as much as one has chosen there place to live; which, in San Francisco and New York, can be limiting.