Not another laundry post!

Oh yes, it is yet another post about how much I HATE having to use a public laundry building. Tonight only reinforced my not-so-wonderful opinion of this process.

I do my laundry every Wednesday night. I know there are people around here who like to truck everything to the laundry building more often, but I think that's a waste of time, so I only do ours once a week. Plus, it's nice to get it all done in one shot and not think about it for the rest of the week. (If there is one little thing that I even could possibly enjoy about the laundry building situation, it's that--I can get all 4-6 loads done in 2 1/2 hours.) I have never had a problem with the washers being full on Wednesday night. Tuesday night, I always had TONS of problems finding an open washer. That's why I switched to Wednesday.

It worked really well, until tonight. Last Wednesday, the smaller, closer laundry building I usually go to was completely full. So, I packed the few loads I had carried with me back into the car and drove the the much larger laundry building that was completely empty last week. When I arrived, I saw that several washers were full, but one couple was moving their 15 loads, so I figured something would open up pretty quickly. (And, unless the couple got a baby sitter so they could BOTH go do laundry together, it's just them. Don't even ASK me WHY a couple with NO children has 15 loads of laundry! Maybe they haven't done laundry all summer? That's the only thing I can think of...)

Anyway--I quickly unloaded my 4 1/2 loads of laundry from the car and took it all inside. When I walked back in, I realized that there were literally 2 open washers, besides the 2 HUGE washers at the back. (I think the 15 load people started second loads in some of their original washers.) So, I piled 3 loads into one of the industrial sized washers, then added baking soda on top of the clothes and put 3 cupfuls of detergent into the detergent receptacle at the top. I would have used the other ginormous washer, but it required cash, and I use my BYU Signature Card because it costs half as much as cash. I sorted my other 1 1/2 loads into the 2 smaller washers on the complete opposite side of the laundry building.

I ran my card through the card reader to start the 2 washers and then went back to run my card through the card reader attached to the HUGE washers. I punched in the number without any problems and went to start the washer. I pushed the "warm water" button and started looking for the "Start" button, when I realized the display was flashing E. Thank goodness there's a handy little menu on the washer...otherwise I would not have known that E means "ERROR, (See attendant)." Since there are no attendants in the Wymount Laundry Buildings, and the office was WELL past closed at that point, I had to retrieve my three loads of laundry and forage for other open washers in the building. In the process of digging my clothes out, about 1/2 of the 2 cups of baking soda I poured onto the clothes ended up on the floor.

I headed back into the seemingly endless rows of full washers to begin my search. I really hoped that someone would walk in RIGHT THEN and take their clothes out of one of the washers that was just sitting there flashing "0 Minutes." No such luck. The washers had been sitting there for at least as long as I had been in the building, which was right around 15 minutes at that point.

I headed back to the front where there were a few finished washers with laundry baskets sitting on top of them. I figured if I was going to take clothes out of the washer, at least I could put them in a basket. Miraculously, one of the basket-topped washers was completely empty. So, I moved the basket and popped 1/2 of my 3 loads in the washer. I went around the corner and found a washer that said $2.00, (which is what is displayed when the washer has been opened after a wash cycle completes), so I checked it...full. Since I knew I hadn't been the first to check it and I'd been there for quite some time already, I decided that I was just going to have to pile the wet load of jeans on top of the washer and put my load in. In the process, the other 1/2 of the 2 cups of baking soda from the huge load ended up on the floor as I made the transfer. So, finally, after spending WAY too much time in the laundry building, I FINALLY had all of my loads going. Whew!

Just as a side note, when I went back to put them in the dryer, the jeans were STILL sitting on top of the machine. So, I transferred all my loads to dryers and put the jeans back in their washer. Really, if you're going to leave your clothes in the washer for over 2 hours, WAIT and do your laundry later! I'm sure this is only one very small irritation that I have yet to discover at the laundry building over the next 18-24 mos. of grad school.