a laundromat somewhere in boston. i dared to take only one picture... isnt this what you always see in movies? people waiting in the laudromat, or folding their freshly washed clothes. here, many apartments dont have their own washer or dryer. some complexes do have them in the basement (then you usually have to bring your own detergent and a lot of quarters to make the machines do their job), but the most unfortunate ones have to bring all their clothes to a laundromat. such a weird thing for dutch people that all have their own washer! i was one of the few weirdos who didnt, and brought my clothes home every weekend for a very long time (also, i was afraid of washing machines, they spin so fast and i thought one day the spinning would get out of control. so even when i had a washer, i took a while before i dared using it). there are hardly laudromats in the netherlands, but here they are on every corner, more or less. in our first apartment we had a coin-op washer in the basement, but clothes came out dirtier than when they went in.... luckily, we now have our own washer/dryer... (which makes an apartment immediately considerably more expensive). unfortunately, it looks similar like this one. not much fits in, and somehow the lint that comes off the clothes is later nicely distributed on the black clothes again, making them look... dirty... :( the machine is also much harsher than the dutch ones, even though (or perhaps because) it takes only 30 minutes or so, against 2 hours in a dutch one! so... clothes get worn out much much faster and several shirts already have tiny holes... :( but at least i can do my laundry whenever i feel like...
7 comments:
Funny to see the guy folding his washes, visible for everyone.
Sounds a bit old fashioned not to have your own washer. Maybe it is because of the small appartments in big cities they do it this way. To walk around with your washes I always felt so boring, had to do it for my mother long, long ago with two big bags. Long live your own washingmachine.
In Amsterdam you have quite some laundromats too, with all the little studios downtown. Last year we stayed in the Vijzelstraat and I didn't want to pay $4 to get one dress shirt cleaned by the hotel, so I took my Dirk and AH bag full of laundry to the Launderette a few streets away (http://buitenblog.nl/html/1309450245780.html, in Dutch but the picture with the English instructions to get the tokens for the machines is still funny I think).
Really dislike the American 20-minute washing machines. Temperature settings are only Cold-Warm-Hot and water is not heated inside the machine but is the same warm/hot/cold water you get from your shower... Started to love the lint roller though.
yes, it is old-fashioned!!
and ooh, i forgot indeed that the temperatures are ridiculous too. the hot is not so hot, the warm is not so warm, and the cold is really cold. grrrrr.... and rinse is always cold. grrrrrr...
Another thing about using laundramats: it causes you to hoard quarters because you never have enough. . .and the change machines aren't always reliable.
america.. stuck in the 80ies
We have very few laundromats here in Melbourne. Nearly everyone has their own washer (and many have a dryer too especially in apartments).
I like the reflection in the glass in this one.
Have rarely used laundromats except when we went on holiday and on the last but one day sought one out so we had clean clothes to take home. Now we live in apartment had have a communal laundry but the machines have a lot of a settings.
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