Doing laundry isn’t the most glamorous of activities. In fact, if you’re doing laundry for more than just yourself it can be downright painful. Here are a few laundromat tips that can make doing coin laundry a lot easier to do.
#1-Avoid carrying an entire container of detergent
Rather than lug the big box of detergent, or a jug that weighs a ton, bring exactly what you need for the loads you’re about to wash.
Detergent pods are an economical option. You need only count out a few and throw them in your purse (or man-bag). Surfs Up! sells individual pods as well as bottles of liquid detergent to make things easy and accessible.
If you use powder detergent, another option is to measure out the scoops you need and use a small plastic bag to take it with you.
You’ll obviously need to know how many loads you’re going to do, to estimate how much laundry detergent to use. If you’re not sure, take a couple of loads extra. It beats carrying the entire container. Your back will thank you in the long run.
#2-Check every surface before putting your clothes down
Before you rest your clothes on a table or on top of a washer, check the surface for any spilled liquids. It’s possible that someone may have splashed bleach or fabric softener.
Fabric softener can stain clothes when contacted in concentrated form. In the event someone left some residue on a folding table or a washer, don’t put your clothes on any surface without first checking.
This may not make the process of doing laundry easier, but this will definitely make your life easier if you avoid bleaching or staining clothes you don’t want to change colour.
#3-Get a jump on sorting your clothes
One of the major time sucks that goes into doing laundry is sorting clothes into darks loads, light loads and white loads. You can nip that in the bud by making your hampers at home colour co-ordinated.
There are a number of different options you can choose from depending on the system you have for collecting dirty clothes.
We sell laundry bags of different colours which could be used as a sorting method at home and are easily transported to the laundromat.
An alternative option is to have two baskets or hampers for each person in your household. This way your laundry gets sorted before you’ve even left the house.
Here is an example of the baskets one mother used for each of her daughters in their room.
Another example is having bins for each colour in a central place in your home.
#4-Fold as you go
If you’d like the feeling of being done with your laundry when you get home, try folding your clothes as you take them out of the dryer. You can save a bit of time by getting this part of your routine finished on the spot.
Folding your clothes fresh out of the dryer also reduces the amount of wrinkles that will set in. If you like wrinkle-free clothes, this is an option you may want to consider.
#5-Eliminate the time spent on matching socks
Do you spend a chunk of time matching pairs of socks? Or even worse, do you lose the second sock somewhere in the mix of doing your laundry?
One of our laundromat tips to save time is to use a mesh bag to wash socks.
Give each of your family members a mesh bag to put their dirty socks in. When laundry day arrives, zip it up and throw it in the wash.
You can wash and dry your socks in the bag and eliminate the possibility of any socks going rogue during one of the cycles.
The beauty of this laundry tip is that since everyone has their own bag, they also get to fold their socks themselves.
One less thing you have to worry about.
#6-Empty the lint trap
Not everyone remembers to do this after they dry their clothes, but emptying the lint trap will put less strain on the dryer and dry your clothes more efficiently.
Be the bigger person and make the move to save energy and time for you and the environment. Apart from reducing the hydro bill for your laundromat you also reduce your wait time as clothes will dry much quicker with better air circulation.
#7-Treat yourself to some time off
Why not allow yourself some luxury and drop off your laundry to have our staff do it for you! Our wash and fold service is at your disposal whenever you feel like taking laundry day off and letting us do the dirty work.
#8-Ask one of our friendly staff for advice
You are always welcome to ask the staff member on duty if you are unsure which size washer to use or to what level to load your dryer.
Small things make a difference. For instance, the dryer should be no more than half-full to effectively dry a load; conversely, you don’t want too few items in the dryer, as the tumbling of clothes helps to distribute the heat evenly.
Feel free to ask us for any laundromat tips that will help make your experience as pleasant and efficient as possible.
#9-Overcome boredom by assigning “me time”
It’s easy to get caught up in everyday distractions that take time away from the simple things. One of our laundromat tips to make laundry more enjoyable is to assign something leisurely to the time you spend waiting.
Use the time you spend waiting for cycles by listening to a podcast, reading a book or learning a new language on Duolingo. Get caught up on world events, local news or make it a point to call family and friends you don’t get the chance to talk to.
Whatever your fancy is, give yourself the opportunity to enjoy the downtime. The phrase “glass half empty, glass half full” can give doing laundry a whole new spin.
You might even start looking forward to laundry day. Make it the day where you give yourself the time to enjoy a few small pleasures.
Related reading: Is Coin Laundry Safe During the COVID-19 Pandemic?