<p>My mom brought up a question and I was wondering the same myself.</p>
<p>In regards to laundry, which is the best detergent for multicolored clothes? At home, I would do one load at a time (whites, colored, etc). I guess what I'm asking is in order to "save" money by doing everything at once, which detergent would be the best at doing that? I'm not really a laundry buff and I was hoping you all could help me out in that department.</p>
<p>Also, what is the laundry situation at Smith? When I visited Gillett, I know that they had like 4 washing machines set up and a drying rack. How much does it cost? When is the worst day for laundry? I read somewhere that you can use a OneCard as a debit card and it comes out somewhat cheaper? Can anyone validate that statement.</p>
<p>I always just used All Small & Mighty, or one of the other highly concentrated detergents because they are lighter and easier to carry from Target or the CVS (I almost always bought them at Target, much cheaper.) I don’t know that it really matters much which kind you use, just separate your wash into colors and whites (or colors and lights) and wash in cold water. Check the tags on your clothes before you dry them, a lot of clothes nowadays require to be dried on delicate if you don’t want them shrunk beyond recognition. </p>
<p>It’s possible that laundry prices have risen since I was at Smith, but by the time I graduated (2009) it cost $1.35 to wash and $1.35 to dry if you used your one card. If you use quarters it costs $1.50 for each (because the machines don’t take smaller change than quarters). </p>
<p>You can put money on your OneCard at stations all over campus and then you can use your OneCard for laundry, in the Campus Center Cafe, for the printers in the libraries and for the vending machines in the houses and around campus. You can also use the OneCard to buy things at various stores on around town. They work in the Campus Bookstore, the CVS, I think the Starbucks and a few other places too. But most of hte people I knew only kept enough money on their OneCard for laundry and printing costs and the odd coffee. If we were buying things in the bookstore or in town we just used plain debit cards. You can’t get cash OFF the OneCard once you put it on, like you can with a debit.</p>
<p>Sometimes I did one load a week - darks one week, lights the next week, because I wanted the loads to be as big as possible and that was the only way to get them big enough. </p>
<p>I also had way too many clothes, so that helped with waiting two weeks on some of my clothing.</p>
<p>(I use arm and hammer and I’ve never had a problem with a mixed load washed in cold water. That said, I don’t think any of my mixed loads have ever contained a brand-new red item.)</p>
<p>It pleases me to see a future Smithy asking this question. My D solved it by owning enough clothing to mostly avoid doing laundry except on vacations It is cheaper to do laundry using your one card plus you don’t have to collect quarters.</p>
<p>I definitely didn’t own that many clothes (it would be impossible to bring so many from the ohter side of the country). My roommate did. THere were clothes in her closet when we moved out first year that she had not worn/needed to wear in two semesters. It also took no fewer than four cars to bring all her stuff there and two-three to take it back. Personally, I prefer being more mobile with less baggage. </p>
<p>I did two-three loads of laundry every 7-10 days, usually with my OneCard but if I forgot to fill it up and I didn’t feel like schlepping to the Campus Center or the Library to add money to it, I’d scrounge some quarters together.</p>
<p>^ Some people do handwashing in the bathtubs in the bathrooms, using a plastic tub of their own and some detergent. That would be the most private place Though honestly, for most clothing unless it’s super super delicate (like lace for example), even the things that say hand wash only, you can almost always get away with just washing them on gentle cycle in cold water and then taking them out and hanging them up in your room. Some people bring small drying racks for that purpose. Or you can take them to the cleaners on Main Street.</p>
It is cheaper to do laundry using your one card plus you don’t have to collect quarters.</p>