At IU, laundry is a thriving business

With the smell of freshly cleaned clothes in the air, freshmen Dani Meier and Joshua Garver sit at a table in Teter Quad on Wednesday waiting for their laundry to finish.\n"I don't do my laundry enough," Garver said. "I usually do it once a week."\nThe two friends sit and talk, relieved the day's activities are done, and at 11 p.m. they are waiting for their laundry to finish.\nComing to college requires students to adjust to an independent lifestyle, setting their schedules to have time to do all the necessary chores, including the inevitable and often "boring routine" -- as many students describe it -- of laundry.\nMeier said she does her laundry about every two weeks.\n"In the beginning of last semester, I would do it once a week," Meier said. "But after winter break I washed what I needed and now I am doing my laundry in a mass exodus."\nBut time is an issue for her, too, as she is a music student and is sometimes gone all day from 7:30 a.m. until 6:45 or even 10 p.m.\nGarver has a similar problem.\n"That is why we are here at 11 o'clock at night doing our laundry," Meier said. "It is the one time available during the weekdays, late at night. Wednesday night is when I don't have orchestra and I can get stuff done, like laundry."\nAbout 50,700 loads of laundry are done on campus each month, said Pat Connor, executive director of Residential Programs and Services.\nBehind the detergent, the smells of clean clothes and the Campus Access swipes, ASI Campus Laundry Solutions works to ensure laundry at IU runs smoothly.\nProviding laundry since the mid 1990s, ASI has since installed front-load washers and replaced all other equipment. The new washers are energy-saving, state-of-the-art and high efficiency, said company Vice President Dave Drake. \nDrake said IU's front-load washers, which use about 20 gallons of water per cycle, are more efficient than top-load washers, which use about 35 gallons per cycle.\nThe service technician is on campus twice a week, visiting each of the facilities and inspecting them to make sure all the machines function properly.\nWith 11 residence halls on campus, plus Campus View, Tulip Tree and other University-owned apartments, there are more than 50 locations and 600 washers and dryers.\nASI, which maintenances machines at other schools, including Butler and Ohio State, said most students around the country wash and dry their clothing at the same times during the week.\n"On Mondays and Tuesdays, the machines are hardly used at all. On Wednesday and Thursday, it starts to pick up," he said. "Friday is the busiest day -- Saturday too -- and then Sunday it starts to decline again."\nDrake said students tend to do their laundry in the early afternoon and evening, but on the weekend it is more of a morning chore.\nSophomore Lisa Pairitz does her laundry every week, and now does her laundry on Tuesdays or Thursdays because she only has one class on those days. \n"On the weekend, it is always hard to get a machine," Pairitz said. "The only thing is it's a pain is carrying and bringing everything back and forth. At home I have a laundry chute."\nTeter resident and sophomore Daniel Bennetzen sees the walk to do laundry as long, but it is good exercise, he said.\n"I don't do my laundry as often as I should," Bennetzen said. "I wouldn't have so much laundry if I did it more often."\nCampus Access is how about 80 percent of students pay for laundry, Drake said, although coins are also accepted.\nNo matter how convenient it might be to pay for laundry, students find the process a chore.\n"The process of laundry is so long and you have to run back and forth," Meier said. "I wish there was more stuff to do downstairs while you are waiting for your clothes to get done."\nWith no Internet access or cell-phone reception, Garver called going back up to his room for 20 minutes and then coming back to down to retrieve his laundry "a pain."\nAnd he warns other students that being polite in the laundry room is necessary.\n"In all seriousness, it is really rude to go in and take out other people's laundry," Garver said. "I assume people obviously want their laundry. I think you can wait five minutes and don't go touching it."\nGarver remembers walking in about a minute after his machine finished and saw someone piling his wet clothes on the floor.\n"I was stunned," Garver said.\nMeier agrees that students shouldn't dive in the minute the timer hits zero.\nWhile doing laundry might a hassle, Meier said she does enjoy the smell of fresh clothing.\nGarver, on the other hand, disagrees.\n"There is nothing I find rewarding (about doing laundry)," he said, "except I don't have to wear the same pants for a week"