The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

Freshman Frolicking – “Laundry Lessons, $5”

It doesn’t matter whether you have never done laundry before or if you have been doing it since you were in elementary school. Laundry at college is, well, different.

Whether you are a novice still struggling to separate your darks and lights, an amateur who simply struggles with finding a machine that accepts CATscratch or a seasoned professional whose only mishap is failing to retrieve your laundry on time, laundry at college is a struggle.

To begin with, laundry is expensive. At $1.25 per load, I would just as soon wear the same sweatpants for three weeks until I could bring my laundry home for my mom to do. But then there are folks like my roommate, the Mine-Sweeper fiend Courtney, who washes her jeans after every wear. Our second week here, Courtney washed 15 pair of pants. (Courtney, mind you, is also the sort who forgets to put laundry detergent in the washing machine and needed two people to help her the first time that she did laundry).

Secondly, is it just me or does everyone do laundry on the weekends? Perhaps this is because by the weekend people have worn out their clothes or maybe they have to wash out the lingering stink of frat party.

Thirdly, I have friends like Ben and Kayleigh who live on my floor. These folks choose to do laundry at odd hours. Their time of choice for laundry is 10:30 p.m. on Thursdays. This means that their laundry isn’t even done until midnight. Whatever works, I guess.

There are others, like myself, who at first found the driers most challenging. The first time I used a drier, I ended up adding an hour to the top drier while wondering why the drier below with my clothes in it had not started. Along those lines, there was the time when I left my laundry in the machine for two minutes after the load completed because I was finishing off a textbook paragraph. On this mortifying day, I found my laundry sitting on top of the machine. My cheeks turned pink while people glared at me because of my flagrant irresponsibility. Touchy…

All in all, laundry at college is nothing if not challenging. The girls who put up the sign on the first floor of Millis offering “laundry lessons $5.00” are on the right track. The only thing is that Courtney and I are more partial to the advertisement on our calendar from King Street Laundry offering wash, dry and fold service with dry cleaning and pick up/delivery available.

More to Discover
Activate Search
Freshman Frolicking – “Laundry Lessons, $5”