Lazy laundry

After experiencing the accidental shrunken sweater or white shirt turned pink from a mixing of reds and whites, to some student laundry becomes more of a fear than the chore it usually is. \nFor students who don't know how, don't have time to or just don't want to do laundry at all, local businesses such as Winslow One-Stop Laundromat, Campus Laundry East and Bumble Bee Laundry & Cie have moved from the traditional laundromat setup to one requiring less work from customers. Rather than just providing washers and dryers, these laundry services actually wash, dry and fold the clothes for customers.\n"Students don't want to have to wait on the washing machines and have to deal with the hassle of doing their laundry," said Justin Brunes, co-owner of Bumble Bee Laundry & Cie. "They just want it done."\nThese businesses typically weigh the laundry by the pound. Winslow One-Stop Laundromat, Campus Laundry East and Bumble Bee Laundry & Cie all charge 75 cents per pound of laundry, although Campus Laundry East will be raising its prices to $1 per pound next week. A typical week's worth of laundry weighs about 10 to 12 pounds, said Mohammed Mahdi, co-owner of Bumble Bee Laundry & Cie.\n"Students who live in dorms come to us because they don't want to have to sit in the basement and wait on their laundry all day," said Lauran Baker, a Campus Laundry East employee. "A lot of people don't want to take the time to deal with it."\nStudents who choose to do their own laundry in the dorms with a Campus Access card pay $1 for each load of laundry for the washing machine and 75 cents to use the dryer. If they pay in cash, a washing machine costs $1.50 and a dryer costs $1.25.\n"I do my laundry in my dorm because it's more convenient," said freshman Marie Coomes. "Also, I don't really know of any other place to get it done."\nCampus Laundry East and Winslow One-Stop Laundromat offer drop-off services, where students drop off their laundry and come back for it later. Winslow One-Stop Laundromat typically finishes the laundry in four hours, while Campus Laundry East usually promises to finish by the end of the day, depending on the time of drop-off.\nBumble Bee Laundry & Cie, a business run by two undergraduate roommates, also offers ironing, dry cleaning, pick up and delivery. They charge 50 cents for every item ironed, while pick up and delivery are complimentary.\n"Since we are mobile, we are able to deal with customers for whom it is an inconvenience to drop off laundry," Mahdi said.\nMahdi and Brunes started Bumble Bee Laundry & Cie five months ago, after hearing complaints from a friend about other laundry services. They said they decided to make their business mobile so students without cars wouldn't have to ride the bus with bags of laundry setting themselves apart from other businesses.\nTo start the business, they each contributed only $50. After operating out of their apartment for five months, their business has grown to serve about 65 regular customers. Almost all of these customers live in the IU dorms, mostly Briscoe and McNutt.\nThe two owners are the only employees, and the business continues to operate out of their apartment.\n"Justin and I just split up the duties. Laundry's pretty much a whole day event, but you don't really put that much time into it," Mahdi said. "If our business grows exponentially, we might go ahead and move to another facility and start hiring employees."\nBecause they operate without employees and in their own apartment, they are able to offer 24-hour-a-day service.\n"We don't necessarily have hours of operation," Brunes said. "If you're going out one night and get something on your dress, we're able to do it really fast as opposed to people who have hours."\nBoth owners said their investment paid off, and that they've both learned from owning this business. Neither are business majors -- Mahdi majors in psychology, while Brunes is a French and international studies major.\n"We've learned that anyone can start a business," Mahdi said. "You just have to learn from experience and ask for advice."\nCampus Laundry East is located at 411 S. Woodcrest Drive, and offers drop-off service from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Winslow One-Stop Laundromat is located at 343 E. Winslow Road and offers drop-off services from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Bumblebee Laundry & Cie can be reached at (800) 693-5189 and picks up and delivers at all hours.