The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

All Hail: A new approach to the laundry blues

Doing laundry always seems like such a project. It is the one dreaded chore that goes undone for as long as possible.

Recently, I have become increasingly aware of the problem when I have found myself becoming too lazy to do laundry once a week, which I was doing last semester. I am now in the same rut as the rest of the population.

Clothes get scattered around the room and bulges out of the drawers. Clothes that do make their way into the hamper sit there for days at a time, slowly becoming infected with bacteria.

Instead of doing one load of laundry when the hamper becomes full, I found myself only cleaning clothes when I run out of the “bare necessities,” like socks and underwear. But even this necessary chore takes upwards of a week or more to complete.

My new motto is “If it’s not THAT dirty, I’m going to continue wearing it.” I no longer wash clothing after every individual wear unless we are talking about the outfit I wore to the gym.

By the time I actually make it to the laundry room, this inconvenient chore will cost me anywhere from $6 to $15. Forcing myself to do laundry is a huge project because it controls my life for hours.

But the worst part of actually doing laundry is the room itself. I am the number one Laundry View user. When the system was offline the other day, one would have thought my life had ended. I walked all the way from the my room on the fourth floor to the laundry room on the bottom floor with all of my clothes and laundry detergent, only to find there were no available washing machines.

So I had to lug my clothes all the way back upstairs (since there was no way I was going take the infamous “White Hall Sketch-a-Vator”). About a half an hour later I made my way back downstairs. Nothing bugs me more than when clothing sits done in the washing machine and no one comes to put it into the dryer. But I am not one of those rude individuals that move other people’s clothing for them. I hate it when other people touch my clean clothes and I would not dare to touch theirs.

So I wander around the bottom floor, hoping that every person who walks by is on their way to the laundry room to claim their clothes. Finally, a girl put her clothing into the dryer, freeing up a washing machine. This allowed me to throw my clothes in.

I went back up to my room to waste 38 minutes. When I returned down to the laundry room, I did my best to transfer my now clean clothes into the nearest dryer without any articles of clothing falling onto the disgusting floor. Most of my clothing made it safely, except for a few stray socks. Then I cleaned the lint trap, finding more lint than it seemed possible to hold. (Please people! Remember to clean the lint trap!)

Then, I put a second load into the washing machine and found myself with more time to waste. I never have a difficult time finding a dryer to put my clothes in, but that’s because there are twice as many dryers as washing machines. Has anyone else ever wondered why that is?

I continued to change over my clothing until all of my clothes were clean. Three loads later, I finished. I spent too much money, walked up and down the stairs so much I didn’t have to hit the gym and lacked fresh air from being stuck indoors all day.

All one ever hears while in the laundry room are gripes about how everyone hates doing laundry. I guess if you want to wear clean clothes and not smell, then doing laundry every now and then is unavoidable.

But remember that everyone hates it just as much as you do. So be considerate and actually switch your clothes when they are done.

– Ashley Traupman is a freshman journalism major and member of the News staff.

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