<p>This thread is funny. Yesterday, I went through the house asking if anyone had any darks to wash as I was doing a load. My older son said he had nothing even though I was staring at a huge pile of dirty clothes on his floor (too lazy to even hand them over for me to wash?!); younger son handed over a couple of items. I then pointed to a (clearly worn) pile on the floor and said, "What about those?" He picked them up, gave them a sniff, and replied, "Nope, these are still good." So, my bet is he won't be doing much laundry at school, MAYBE every two weeks.</p>
<p>My son will probably have a system similar to rentof2's. Right now he uses two kind of defined piles on the floor. Hopefully, he can at least transition to keeping his clothes in baskets so the roommate doesn't have to jump over them.</p>
<p>hey Bessie,</p>
<p>I just read jym's thread wondering when will her son start packing. I am willing to bet $$ that that big pile of clothes in your older S's room is the stuff he will just have to through in a duffel bag and presto, he's all packed :)</p>
<p>My (20 yr old) son just ran past me and I asked him how often he did laundry last year - he said once a month. Oh my.</p>
<p>OP- now that you have the (disgusting for many) range of answers you can decide how many loads to buy on the card. Find out what happens to left over money, and how he can add money to the card, ie the cost per increment, during the school year. Son's public school charged a high amount for washers, but the dryers were free- no stealing of someone's drying time. Lofting of beds leads to less changing of sheets due to the trouble of changing them. The number of clothes used depends on your son's habits- his sweat producing activity level, such as running, and his grossness tolerance/ fastidiousness factor. This may not be the same as at home if you still take care of his laundry/towels/sheets there.</p>
<p>Laundry schmaundry...
I realize that some of you are only trying to ease the transition from home life to independence while keeping costs and frustrations to a minimum, however you are sending the best and brightest away to educate themselves and discover how to handle life in a place chock full of role models in the various stages of learning life skills. I say let them all discover and learn by jumping in. Hovering and advanced planning may save a few bucks, avoid some anxiety and frustration, but at what price? Some of the best moments in my life were seeing the smile and pride S had as he achieved milestones in his life using his own wits.</p>
<p>I don't know, bbkitty, how many pairs of underwear does he have? :D</p>
<p>I never heard of a prepaid laundry plan before.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the replies. I think he has about 10 pair of underwear :)</p>
<p>The college has brand new washers and dryers that use a card that you swipe. The card has to be loaded with a certain number of wash/dry usages. Naturally, the more you buy, the cheaper per wash/dry. You can reload the card in the student union bldg if needed, but the price is higher.</p>
<p>I was just trying to figure out what would last for the first year.</p>
<p>DD does her laundry once a week and washes the sheets each week. When DS lived in the dorm, he did his laundry once every two weeks and washed the sheets (or so he says...but why would he lie about that). Now that he lives in a apartment with a washer/dryer in the bathroom, he does his laundry once a week at least, sometimes more often if needed. It's convenient. He alternates sheet sets now...and washes whatever is dirty.</p>
<p>For both of my kids as freshmen, they took two full weeks of underwear with them...that was the deciding thing for the laundry.</p>