Part of growing up in college is doing your own laundry. What people don't warn you about is the communal aspect, which can be rough.
Without further ado, here are the ten pains of communal laundry.
1. It's Exhausting
Doing laundry is an absolute excursion. First, you have to bring your overflowing hamper down three flights of stairs, making sure no clothes fall out of the hamper. You also are in an absurd hurry because, in college, you have no time to do anything at all. After you put your clothes in, in their designated colors, you then have to walk up the stairs to grab your dryer sheets, which you have to come back down and throw the clothes into a dryer. You will also not be happy when you take your clothes out of the dryer a full hour later just to find them damp because you put way too many clothes in to the point where not all of them could get full exposure to drying capabilities. And if you forget anything, whether its your pod or a dry clean packet, you have to take a hike up three flights of stairs in order to get the job done.
2. Your white jeans will turn a tint of blue
This will be really upsetting because you put all of your whites together apart from the rest of your load but you put one white and navy striped shirt in with the whites because you figured it wouldn't hurt. But when you take your jeans out to find a slight bluish tint, you kick yourself for letting that striped shirt hang with the whites clique. You swear to yourself you will never buy a pair of white jeans again because they are borderline impossible to take care of.
3. You will find an absurd amount of hair on your clothes
When you take your clothes out of your bag to fold, you will be disgusted to find random freaking hairs lingering on your deeply loved possessions. You are even more disgusted when you realize that this hair is not yours. You then pay more attention in the washing machines, picking hairs you see out of there because you are one brave soul and you care for your clothes’ comfort.
4. Some of the laundry machines will smell concerning
Additionally, while you are stuffing your clothes in these machines, you will get a nice whiff of a moldy aroma. You question whether or not you should put your clothes in the machine to begin with, but you realize you are way too lazy to wait for the other machines to open up. You suck it up because time is of the essence and you actually have no more socks left and that’s a pretty desperate position to be in.
5. People are ruthless (even you)
There is nothing quite like walking down to put your clothes in the dryer to find them abandoned above the machine. Just freaking sitting there. You can't believe this person would personally offend you in such a way to put your clothes on top of the washer like they were nothing.
You also are upset to see that your clothes have been taken out of the dryer and placed onto that one table with all the other abandoned clothes and you feel mad but also grossed out because your clothes are touching the clothes of randoms and that table looks like it hasn't been washed in a couple of months.
But then you realize that you do the same to other people. Oh well.
6. You will get really flustered when your clothes are falling out of your hands and onto the ground on the commute from the washing machines to the dryers
You give yourself a quick pep talk before you scoop the wet clothes in your arms to bring them to the dryer. But you find that the rest of the clothes you’re leaving behind for the next commute have trapped one leg of a pair of jeans. But you still try to take them with you, which leads to most of the second-trip-clothes to slide out of the dryer onto the ground, and while you turn around to see this about ten pairs of socks and a couple pairs of underwear have fallen out and you are especially embarrassed because this guy next to you just saw your underwear.
7. You will find a random sock while putting clothes away
As you are taking your freshly dried clothes out of your bag to fold away in your drawers, you smile because you are so happy you actually accomplished something today. You think you are done with folding, when you find this bright green sock with the Under Armour logo and you think huh, I have never bought any socks from Under Armour. You realize this is someone else’s random freaking sock and you quickly throw it into your small trashcan.
8. The same will happen to all of your socks, to which you will lose
You will start the semester with a full drawer of socks, and at the end you will see a good five pairs that have fought and survived the laundry battles.
9. You will put a load in without any pod, but realize this only after the door is locked
You will almost start to cry because this is about one of the stupidest things you could do. You call your mom in a panic, which is what you always do when you need to solve a problem, as you watch the clothes twirl and twirl in the purposeless wash. She then convinces you to look for detergent in the room, to which you steal some detergent you see next to you and find this to be your saving grace. But then this guy walks up to you and says “uh, that’s my detergent” to which you apologetically explain this has been a really stressful experience for you.
10. You will make enemies, but on the bright side, you will make friends
You will have some great small talk with some people, but you also will fight to the brim to put your dryer sheet in a dryer before anyone else gets there. It is almost as if everyone is suspiciously looking at each other, fighting for the first washing machine or dryer they can get there hands on. This room brings out the inner tiger in all of us. However, some great conversations can come out of these rooms.
Among all of these pains, doing laundry is a huge transition of growing into adulthood. Being responsible for your clothes and the washing of them is a big step. You may never get used to the system of doing laundry, but you will most definitely be thankful for when you have a laundry machine and dryer of your own. That will certainly be the day.
Until then, you will continue to face the trials and tribulations of communal laundry.
