Saturday, October 3, 2015

He knows all your dirty little secrets


One of the adjustments for city life as a professional is that I no longer have a washer and dryer in my house at my disposal.  Some apartment buildings have them in apartments, some in the buildings, and mine not at all.

My solution for laundry?  I am not one to spend hours each week at a laundromat.  Instead, I have decided to take advantage of the wash by the pound service that my local laundromat offers.  


There are challenges with that for me.  As a child, when I was taught to do laundry, I learned to not only separate colors, but also fabrics.  This meant doing many smaller loads of laundry instead of one large one.  I don't have control over that, or stain treating when I drop off my clothes.  I try to remind Ken, the guy who does my laundry, if something can't be dried or put things with stains on top (I treat stuff as I put it into the laundry bag).  

Now Ken is a very nice guy.  He always has a smile (except when I asked to take his photo below).  When I asked his name, I couldn't tell if he said Ken or Kim.  He said it was like the character from street fighter.  Ken's not wearing my favorite jacket of his today.  It's a jean jacket with a British flag on the back covered in Japanese characters.  I asked Ken what it said.  He explained that he just thought it looked cool and he is Chinese.  We both laughed at that.  Ken has a rainbow rubber bracelet on his wrist that says pride.  I got one too at pride and wore it for a while.  I pointed his out and he smiled and laughed.  I'm still not quite sure if he is wearing it because he likes the colors or is actually gay.  Not everyone understands that a rainbow bracelet that says pride is for gay pride.  Still, Ken is always pleasant.  There is a very pregnant lady who also works there sometimes.  I'm not sure if she is his sister, wife, a friend, or relative.  She isn't always as pleasant as he is.  She is all about business and moving you in and out quickly.  


For those of you that are new to this, you fill your laundry bag with laundry and bring it to the laundromat to be weighed.  They write out a receipt for you.  This week was close to 30 pounds of laundry (two weeks worth).  


You have to pay extra for soap.  They don't have any soaps that I like, so I just bring my own in a bag of fragrance free soap. 

Almost every time I go to drop off my laundry, there are pennies on the floor.  Today, there was also a guitar pick.  Both will come in handy at some point.  



In addition to dropping my laundry off, I also decided to dry my pillows today.  My mom reminds me to do this weekly, but with the added cost and inconvenience it only happens when I remember and have time.  This is to kill dust mites that apparently live in your pillows and mattresses.  I guess it doesn't hurt.  




I have to remember to check the dryer for candy wrappers next time.  Fortunately it didn't melt all over my pillows.  

Now here is the thing about dropping your laundry off to be done.  The person who does it does know quite a bit about you.  They can figure out that I most likely wear a clean white undershirt every day under my clothes.  They can also guess that I use two towels each week, change my sheets weekly, and most likely wear the same pair of pajamas for a few nights in a row.  They know what my favorite underwear is because it is in the bag every week along with the fact that I like bright colored socks.  They'll soon notice that as it gets colder I switch to black wool or brown wool socks almost daily and don't have any colorful or fun socks that are thick for winter.  

The sad part it that they also probably know that I love pizza and chicken wings since I've been apt to have a stain here and there on my shirt.  Even worse, Ken knew when I was having digestive issues when a medicine I was taking didn't agree with me.  

Yes, the people who do your laundry know a lot about you, yet Ken still smiles and treats everyone nicely when they drop off their laundry.  Maybe it's precisely because he knows so much about each person, or, I'd like to think, it is because Ken treats everyone the way he wants to be treated.  


I noticed when I went to pick up my laundry that there were at least 20 other people who had dropped off their laundry.  



In a few hours, you can go and pick up your laundry all neatly folded.  In fact, I love getting the neat little squares back to put away.  





These neat little squares fit pretty neatly onto my shelves and in my bureau drawers.  It is definitely a worthy investment for me to spend my money getting my laundry done.  I can use the time and energy to do other things that I enjoy more.  I'll never be able to fold a fitted sheet, so for now I'll appreciate that along with these other neatly folded clean smelling clothes.

Today's lesson - choose your investments wisely as some things are worth the money you spend on them.  

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