Laundry 101

When it’s your first time away from home, doing laundry may seem like a daunting task. Here are some helpful tips and tricks to make laundry day a breeze!

1. First and foremost, never forget your laundry day essentials. For community style living, it's easier to have a rolling hamper. You’ll be able to take your clothes to the laundry room with little to no effort. Remember, everything that you’ll need including dryer sheets, detergent, and fabric softener, you’ll need to bring yourself. Most washers in our residence halls are top loading, so make sure to account for that when planning for laundry day.
2. Separate your clothes by color. Remember that light colors, dark colors, and delicate items go in different loads. We all know the story of one red sock turning white clothes pink. Don’t let it happen to you!
3. Don’t overfill the washing machine. It’s easy to want to save money and wash as many clothes as possible, but it’s not the most practical. Pushing down loads of clothes to fit in the washing machine can cause a damaged machine and prevent clothes from coming out clean. There’s nothing worse than washing a load twice!
4. Remember to clean out the dryer vents. It might be annoying to remove piles of dryer lint after every load, but it must be done. Leaving lent built up for one or more loads can lead to longer drying time for your clothes and can become a pretty bad fire risk.
5. Grab your jar of quarters or trusty Tiger Card. It costs $1.50 for a load in the washer and another $1.50 for a load in the dryer. Personally, I prefer the TigerCASH method because coins can get so heavy, but ultimately it's your preference!
6. Pick up your laundry on time. To avoid missing items and your clothes being taken out of the washer, make sure to always be there when the cycle is finished. Each of our buildings is linked to laundryalert.com. This website gives you the ability to see which machines are available and will send you an alert when your laundry is done. If you can’t reach the website, you can always set a timer on your phone.
7. Be considerate. The laundry room is a shared space just like so many other places in the residence halls. Make sure that you’re being mindful of how long your clothes are left in machines, being patient with other residents, and maintaining a clean area.

Remember doing laundry doesn’t have to be hard. With these tips you’ll have an easygoing laundry day that you can always look forward to. If you’re having any trouble, check back for any information you might have missed.