<p>Is anyone signed up for St. Michael's laundry service? Apparently they come to your dorm and pick up your dirty laundry and return it folded and packaged for $398 a year. I was told to expect to spend about $10 a week if I was doing my own laundry, and with 32 weeks in the school year it's only $80 to get it done for you. Sounds like a deal to me.</p>
<p>Trust me, it isn't that good of a deal unless your parents are willing to pay for it. It costs about $1.25 to do your laundry (plus soap which isn't much) and that lasts me for over three weeks! Trust me, it isn't $10 a week!</p>
<p>Do it. Doitdoitdoitdoit. This is one of the views things I would tend to disagree with Mike on. It might be expensive. It might cost more than 80 bucks a year over doing your own laundry. But the CONVENIENCE! Oh, I can't tell you how much easier it made my life - coming from home, where I did my own laundry, and going to school, where I dropped it down a chute and it came back a few days later, it's wonderful. While the other guys in my hallway were lugging bags and bags of laundry every week, up and down stairs, waiting for machines, scrounging for quarters, worrying over whether it was a problem that they forgot to separate whites and colors, I picked my bag up and put my laundry in the drawer, and then was able to relax, do my homework, and not stress.</p>
<p>Ok, so I might be overemphasizing it. But I say that if you have the money to spend, it's worth it. Trust me. </p>
<p>(Ironically enough, I'm off to go get my laundry out of the dryer in my basement right now... one of the more inconvenient parts of being home)</p>
<p>Son also says Do It! However, if you are concerned about performing a life skill, you could always do what son does--Laundry service does his clothes (no worries about sorting!) and he does his own towels and sheets. This does not involve more than 1 machine at the most and really does not use up his "time". Just a thought, but I think he thinks its worth it as did his roommate and other friends around him in his dorm.</p>
<p>You are one lazy individual if you purchase laundry service. Don't believe any sort of nonsense about a laundry service being cheaper. Because you pay for not only the laundry itself, but for the SERVICE of having some lost soul do it for you. </p>
<p>Doing laundry is a small step towards being a responsible, full-fledged member of the adult world. Some people criticize Notre Dame for being an institution of the "privileged" - which isn't a totally true perception - but it doesn't help that so many students can't even clean their own clothes.</p>
<p>You have a few minutes a week to take your clothes to the laundry room and run the machine. Plus, you also don't have to worry about the St. Michael's people screwing it up. That'd be the last thing you need.</p>
<p>Back in the stone ages, when co-education was still quite fresh and new, the university's policy was that all male students were compelled to get and pay for St. Michael's laundry service--whether they wanted it or not--and no female students could get the laundry service, even if they wanted it. Sexist? You make the call... There was a different room and board rate for male and female students to reflect this...</p>
<p>In any event, none of the guy's dorms had laundry facilities, so pretty much all the guys on campus who wanted to do any of their own laundry had to go to one central laundromat located in the basement of Badin Hall--or, they snuck in with a girl friend or a girlfriend and used the machines in women's dorms. I can't tell you the number of guys who were irate at St. Michael's laundry service for screwing up some of their very favorite clothes--or losing them. </p>
<p>St. Michael's would come and pick up the guy's laundry in huge bags. I remember when the Morrissey stairway closest to Lyons would be cluttered with piles of bags stuffed with dirty socks and laundry once a week. I am convinced the stench remains in some of these guys' dorms from this practice many decades later. </p>
<p>Personally, I think doing laundry is a life skill. I get a kick out of the fact that when my son comes home, he gets a big charge out of the fact he can use our washer and dryer for free! :) That beats having a son come home, expecting that the "laundry service" (aka, Mom) will take care of his needs.</p>
<p>Last year I spent less than $75 on laundry for the whole year. That means I saved about $325 bucks. You can buy a Nintendo Wii for that...I think. That is a lot of money! You know how many Reckers shifts it would take to pay for the "convenience"? Laundry isn't bad, you aren't sitting down there with it, it takes maybe a half hour of actually doing something and the rest of the time you are doing whatever. Heck, dry your clothes during Mass, the timing is about right.</p>
<p>I did laundry about 10 times last year I think (once every three weeks, 15 or so weeks in a semester). Now if you take that times 30, it gives me 300 minutes. That is 5 hours, and given the $400 price tag, that is $80 an hour. Are you really going to pay someone that much to wash your clothes? Hell, if I was still there I would do it for $25 an hour.</p>
<p>We would pay you $25 an hour--but I still think that it was worth it to son, esp. since last year was his freshman year! He did own up to the responsibility of cleaning his own towels and sheets, however, which is something his roommate did only once every semester. In fact, son had to show him how to use the machines. I suspect that as time goes by, he may end up doing all of his laundry. But, I think that with all of the adjustments of freshman year coupled with a 17+ hour workload each semester, it was worth it. (I also have to wonder if son stayed well most of last year because of regularly cleaned clothes and towels and sheets--roommate did not!) And, by the way, have been teaching him this summer to sew on buttons and attempts at ironing. Those are valuable life skills as well. I say if it is affordable, do it!</p>
<p>Why is no one on this thread talking about the convenience of the laundry service as an option for their daughters? </p>
<p>Just a thought... Maybe things haven't changed as much as I thought they have...</p>
<p>I'd be curious to hear from current students on this one, or parents of current female students--are there many girls at all that use the St. Michael's laundry service? Given that the affordability factor, like the competitiveness of the applicant pool, is roughly equal between the sexes, then laundry as a convenience should be a service roughly equally used...</p>
<p>Just a little food for thought...</p>
<p>I hear what you are saying ddjones, but to be honest with you, I knew VERY few students at ND that use the laundry service. I think there may have been 15 or so students in Fisher who used it, but when you think about how many students are at ND, that isn't very much (keep in mind that includes RAs who get it free...and yes, girl RAs do get it!)</p>
<p>I think it is worthwhile for ROTC students because then everything is done right but other than that I just don't think it is worth it. However, if you feel like it is worth it, or your parents :), then by all means. </p>
<p>I really don't think there is a gender bias here other than perhaps girls are smarter than the guys and realize they are better off without it.</p>
<p>Don't know any females or parents of females at ND--however, in our household, I do the laundry. Husband does NOT! Is this because of our generation--is it naturally understood that females "know" how to do laundry? Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I would be curious as well! And, along those life skills lines, I am equally concerned about son cooking--there are no opportunities for cooking at ND, esp living in the dorms. Some college campuses have dorms that offer kitchenettes in the rooms for cooking instead of the wonderful dining halls that ND offers as a service. Do many of you guys know how to cook, a very important life skill? Or is that a female thing also?</p>
<p>I know how to cook, I just don't have time to cook most of the time. Every dorm has a really nice kitchen if your son ever gets the itch. I don't think it is as divided as it used to be, but I may be wrong.</p>
<p>DD I suspect back in the day girls had to do their own laundry because the St Michael's laundry was probably staffed by men and the female unmentionables may have been a near occasion of sin. In my household my husband and I and kids all do laundry.In fact when we had water problems it was my husband who went to the laundramat every week. Son irons his own clothes. My ND daughter wants to get the laundry service I told her maybe as a birthday present I would pay half . My kids ar amazed at how many life skills their counterparts are lacking laundry being one of them. My kids accuse me of making them all learn to cook clean and do laundry all by the age of two. (they had little stools by the washer) If daughter wants to use her hard earned money (has three jobs) and her birthday budget for laundry service well then that's ok with me. SHe deserves it</p>
<p>I think the laundry service is unneccessary. I know of a few girls who get laundry service in my dorm, but most don't bother. While I did laundry more frequently than Irish (usually every week or two, on a couple occasions I went almost three), it still doesn't take all that much time. I've been doing my own laundry since 10th grade, so it's not a big deal and I have better ways to spend $400.</p>
<p>I say do it , son says do it....
He loved it- fresh, folded laundry weekly. Did not take any time out of his busy engineering schedule.
And, when the dorm newsletter chastised students for leaving a pen in the washer, thereby ruining an entire load of laundry, and other complaints about kids moving wet clothes out of the washers, I knew we would continue this "decadent" service !!!!! Try it one semester--- you'll be hooked :)</p>
<p>I'm a girl and had the service for my first year at ND. I did my laundry occassionally if I needed something cleaned. I don't think it was worth it at all - it doesn't take that long to do, and the clothes come back poorly folded and I do not think they do a good quality drying because all my clothes would be stiff and smell "interesting". I'm not doing it again, especially because considering what dorm you're in, you may drop your laundry off on Thur, and not get it back until Tue which was my situation last year - it was annoying.</p>