<p>"My S did the equivalent of about a load per week. But he's been doing his own laundry since late middle school, so not laundry-averse. Of course, he still "files" the clean clothes in the basket (best case) or on the floor. At home, he lives out of the dryer until one of us "bumps" his clothes out for use on our own."</p>
<p>Hey that sounds like us!.....but my S is a rising sophmore in high school. My D, a soon to be freshman in college, is away as camp counselor for the summer and I am secretely taking her clothes a little at a time when she visits....she just can't seem to manage volume. I am considering a laundry plan at her school that takes dirty clothes and returns them cleaned in little plastic wrappers......nahhhh.</p>
<p>I do laundry once in a week, and it's - believe it or not - one of my favorite times of the week. I get to have ~2 hours all to myself (can't really go anywhere if I'm waiting for the laundry), and it only takes a couple of minutes to set up a load.</p>
<p>If you're thinking of getting a laundry service, besides the price, you should look into how the clothes are washed (e.g. warm or cold water, whether they separate things or not, whether they separate delicates). This might be more important for girls, though.</p>
<p>A lot of laundry services handle your clothes roughly (don't separate, throw them all in a bag and wash with others' clothes) and I've heard of many bad experiences with them - clothes getting torn, dyed, etc. so I would look into the specific service at the school and see what their reputation is.</p>
<p>I do laundry once in a week (one load per week), and it's - believe it or not - one of my favorite times of the week. I get to have ~2 hours all to myself (can't really go anywhere if I'm waiting for the laundry), and it only takes a couple of minutes to set up a load.</p>
<p>If you're thinking of getting a laundry service, besides the price, you should look into how the clothes are washed (e.g. warm or cold water, whether they separate things or not, whether they separate delicates). This might be more important for girls, though.</p>
<p>Riverrunner, $500 sounds really expensive, and except for the occasional waiting, doing laundry really isn't that time consuming. I personally feel like it'd be a bigger perk to have a couple hundred dollars to spend on entertainment with friends than to have a laundry service. But, of course, this depends on</p>
<p>I may be old school, but I think college is a perfect time for us parents to butt out of our kid's life when it comes to laundry. Let them find the laundry room, figure out where to buy detergent, wash and pay for it themselves. Think of the life skills they'll learn. Students too busy to do laundry? Won't real life be a rude shock. Forget the laundry service, give them a couple of rolls of quarters, or more likely put $$ on their student card.</p>
<p>On another note, my S showed me this cool website he found that shows all the laundry rooms on campus and which machines are busy, broken or available. He uses that site to decide which dorm to lug his laundry to.</p>
<p>I'm a guy and I do 3 loads of laundry every week at home! =) Sheets, lights, and darks. I've been doing my own laundry since late middle-school, as well. So college won't be a change at all in this respect!</p>
<p>S was an athlete and had his practice/competition clothes washed for him in the gym. He also found that he took most of his showers in the locker room and didn't use personal towels very often, so didn't have to worry about doing that kind of laundry. His first year, he washed his sheets only once and that was because somebody threw up on his bed! Strangely they weren't all that aromatic when he brought them home. I'm sure he's one of those who only washed when he could no longer stand the 'aroma' of his own clothing.</p>
<p>I've removed myself from what I perceive as his lack of personal hygiene as I am confident that I did my part as his mother--I taught him well, but he's made other choices. Maybe the next step of training will be up to his wife! He's on his own for now and VERY lucky to have a roommate who tolerates his sloppiness!</p>
<p>D did laundry about once every 10 days while in the dorm or apt without washer/dryer in the unit. </p>
<p>S does laundry when he runs out of clean underwear. Sheets maybe 2-3 times a semester. The fleece blanket was NEVER washed the entire school year. Yes, it did smell.</p>
<p>When S1 lived in the dorm as a freshman, he went as long as possible between washes (out of underwear..time to wash). He prob. washed once every 2 weeks. Never washed sheets (threw them away at the end of the year (had a loft bed..way too much trouble for getting sheets off and on according to him,lol). Once he moved off campus and got his own washer/dryer, the washings increased but he still refuses to sort colors..arrgh. </p>
<p>S1 will be a freshman (in two weeks!). His college does not charge for use of the washers/dryers in the dorm. I hope he'll do a little better than his older bro. but I'm not holding my breath.</p>
<p>D1 does laundry once a week at school, 3 loads...sheets and towels, lights, and darks. Her practice gear and uniforms are washed by the school after each wearing. (Thanks heavens they don't sit around the room!!!)Comforter, fleece blanket and futon cover washed at each break when she came home because they didn't fit in the small machines on campus.</p>
<p>Our older son was the same as PackMom--did laundry about once every two weeks when he ran out of underwear and never washed his sheets. The biggest obstacle was the idea of paying money to wash clothes. He does laundry frequently at home but sheets have always been done by the cleaning ladies so that never became a habit. </p>
<p>I will be very interested to see what the younger one does. He perspires a lot and goes through 8 shirts on a typical day. He wears a t-shirt underneath his regular shirt and puts on an outfit when he get up (2 shirts), changes to work out (2 shirts), changes when he gets home (2 shirts), and changes again to go out at night (2 shirts). He will never wear a shirt twice (except what he sleeps in) and frankly they do get sweaty so I don't blame him. He will wear shorts and jeans over again but changes underwear with every change in clothes so goes through 4 pair a day (and three showers). Again, laundry is easy to do here. I think he will have a challenge at school. He does expect to go to school in a snowy climate which should help. It is pretty hot and muggy here.</p>
<p>I just asked S, who will be a soph in college this year. He said he did laundry about every 2 weeks (when he ran out of clothes), but it was more than one load each time. Conveniently, he said he usually ran out of socks and boxers about the same time his hamper was full (yes, he put his clothes in a hamper!)</p>
<p>So he said it would probably average to about 1 load a week (2 loads every other week). And he did occasionally wash his sheets.</p>
<p>BTW - S's college finally decided it wasn't worth collecting all the quarters, and starting last year the laundry is FREE. (Well, sort of free, I'm sure they boosted the room fees to cover it, and I wonder if they're as quick to repair broken washers now that they're not getting any cash out of them...)</p>
<p>"My daughter also hand drys most of her clothes too."</p>
<p>This one had me laughing-I had this image of a beautiful young lady fanning her wet clothes with her hand. I guess you mean "hang dries" her clothes?</p>
<p>My daughter will be in a dorm with air conditioning in the public areas, but not in her room. I imagine that doing laundry won't be that bad of a chore for her, at least for the first month!</p>
<p>Haha! Drying clothes for the girls is another story! In D1's dorm you had to dodge the drying racks down the hall and in the rooms! Many of the girls would not dry their lingerie, jeans and cotton tops in the dryers. D1 has a cool rack from Ikea that was borrowed out on the entire floor.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4 - yes, you were right (not the greatest speller or have the best grammar). But I have seen my daughter "hand dry" some of her stuff - must wear shirt before a big event.</p>
<p>I think it varies by student. Most people I knew did one load a week, and an extra load now and again for sheets and towels, but people who actually sorted their laundry and followed the washing instructions on the clothes did more. All of my experience is with girls; I have no clue what the boys do.</p>
<p>My son is severly laundry-challenged. I needed to come up with something for him that is as simple as it can possibly be.</p>
<p>He will have two large hampers. As his clothes get dirty they go into a hamper #1. When the hamper is full he will be out of clothes because he's bringing only a enough clothes to fill it. After he does his hamper full of dirty clothes I know for a fact that they will never be put away. So he will pull clean clothes out of the hamper (like dressing out of the dryer), when they get dirty he'll put them into hamper #2. When it is full, he'll do his wash and hamper #2 will now hold the clean clothes, hamper #1 will begin collecting the dirty ones. There will be no sorting of whites and colors. I will be shocked if he ever washes his sheets... well, maybe once a year or something. :/</p>
<p>My daughter was suprised at the large number of people she knew who did not know how to do their own laundry by the time they got to college.</p>
<p>She had friends who used laundry service and were not happy with it (things came back faded, ruined, some students were allergic to the detergents being used, etc). </p>
<p>If your child has allergies to different kinds of soap, it would be in yours and their best interest to teach them how to do their laudry so they know first hand how their clothes are being handled.</p>
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my S showed me this cool website he found that shows all the laundry rooms on campus and which machines are busy, broken or available. He uses that site to decide which dorm to lug his laundry to.
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<p>My D's school also uses this system and she would log in to see when was the best time to get her laundry done.</p>
<p>I hope that soozie chimes in (as she met her husband at college doing laundry ;) ).</p>
<p>That's a good point about possibly being allergic to the detergents that the cleaning service uses. Before my senior year of high school I developed an allergy that caused me to break out in hives pretty continuously for more than a year (luckily they were not really itchy so I was able to live with them without being miserable, but still). It was not until I went away to college and made a concerted effort to buy and use only hypoallergenic detergent AND hypoallergenic dryer sheets that the hives went away and stayed away. Later, my younger brother also had an allergic reaction that cleared up when my mother switched over to hypoallergenic dryer sheets. I was never allergic to anything before, so I was surprised when I developed the hives and probably never would have guessed before that even dryer sheets could cause such a reaction, but I suppose the chemicals in these sorts of things aren't to be underestimated.</p>