Laundry day / see you there / underthings / tumbling

[serinde]

I've never had to use a laundromat before, believe it or not. I've been putting this confrontation off, Lord knows why, it's not actually that different from having coin-op-in-basement, and yet here was the avoidance behavior; but I need clean pants if I want to continue fighting evil this week, so.

This being the Upper East Side, there is a plethora of Chinese dry-cleaning/wash-fold-pay-by-the-pound establishments, but only one DIY location (as far as I can tell) in close range; it's one block down, one over. HOLY HELL, $2 FOR THE HALF SIZED WASHERS and $4 for the ones you can fit your comforter in. If it's not a big comforter. Oh dear oh dear. The dryers are 8 minutes for a quarter, as elibalin predicted, which might be okay depending on how sucky or un-sucky the dryers actually are; a question I will be able to report on in, oh, 20 minutes or so. Certainly the washers leave one's clothes more sodden than is quite right, which does not augur well.

It is possible (though I'm dubious) that it might not work out much more costly to take it all to the Here's My Clothes, Make Them Nice businesses, but the thought makes me twitch an awful lot. spride's recounted experience of "You drop off your clothes in a bag, they weigh them, they give you a form where you tick off temperature and whether you want bleach and whether you use fabric softener, and they toss it out and you get it all back nicely folded and two sizes smaller in a couple days" exactly meshes with my rampant fear-laden imagination, and I don't want people messing with my stuff. It could be argued that abandoning my unmentionables for forty minutes could also lead to unwanted results, but then they'd just be missing, not messed up.

I do not pretend this is a rational reaction, but it's what I've got to work with.

Comments

[sweh.livejournal.com]

If luxury means having a washer/dryer in your own space then consider me a sybarite!

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Maybe check out the Here's My Clothes places on BBB.org or something?

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

FWIW, the coin-ops here in NJ are the same price, roughly. Last time I went (a few years ago), it was $1.75 for a regular washer, $3.75 for the large comforter-sized ones. Dryers were the same.. $.25/8min usually taking about 3 or 4 quarters or so to dry things.

Some coin-ops have a super-spinner that costs like $.25 or so to super-spin your clothes dryer than the washers get them.

As for drop off your clothes, let me check on angieslist. What area are you in again?

[ilaine-dcmrn.livejournal.com]

Brian used to drop off our laundry and pay by the pound to have it returned clean. Worked fine. I did keep a separate hamper for delicates I insisted on washing myself - washable silk tops and the like. I'd accumulate them till I had a load then do them myself at the extra gentle setting and bring them home wet to hang dry.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

err that is zip code. I can haz zip code zearch on Angie's List. :)

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

I do make-them-clean bag wash service, and it works for me. I don't give them anything shrinkable though; mostly stuff made of cotton or other machine-washable-on-hot fabrics, and I go to a place where they keep my preferences in their system and know that I prefer X detergent, etc. I've done this kind of bagwash at 4 different locations now, and it generally costs me around $20/week (I run at around $15/bag currently, and do one dark load a week, and a light load every 2-3 weeks.)

[dagnycat522.livejournal.com]

Go with the drop off laundry option. You will never go back. It is the thing I miss the most about living in NYC.

(Ditto the idea about keeping a seperate basket for things you don't want ruined, but it works fine as long as you're not wearing lots of dry clean only stuff)

[fivetonsflax.livejournal.com]

I loved laundry.bz when I lived in NYC.

I did not give them anything which required especially gentle treatment.

[caelfinn.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is what I used to do before I became a sybarite :).

[shechameleon.livejournal.com]

I think that failing a recommendation from someone you trust, I'd try test loads at some of the area establishments and see if you can find one that seems good. And definitely save the more fragile stuff to do yourself. Hey, an excuse to buy MORE so you have enough to accumulate a load! :)

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

10065, though some things puke on it because the zip code is only TWO YEARS OLD ahem.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Hannah Rose company
390 5TH AVE RM 904
NEW YORK NY 10018
(212) 244-3263

Personal Touch Valet
561 10TH AVE
NEW YORK NY 10036
(212) 564-7701



Avoid:
Tower Cleaners
Aphrodite Cleaners
Westlake Cleaners

[lillilah]

Those prices are pretty much what they are in Eugene, too, except that we get 6 minutes on a dryer for a quarter. Anyway, Glen and I used the "here's a bag, make it clean" service and it worked quite well. They picked up and delivered. It was pricey, though. As others have said, I didn't give them things that needed special care or hand washing.