The Rules of the Laundromat

I hate doing laundry. That's no surprise to anyone. So my laundry tends to pile up and up and up until I have no more underwear or socks and I'm wearing the worst outfit that I have because everything else is dirty. I've even gone so far as to buy new underwear and socks because they were all dirty. I think I have about 40 pairs of underwear (not sure if "pair" is the right term because underwear is singular not like a pair of socks)....because of not doing laundry. But, I decided to tackle it this weekend. I have a big bag a laundry that I have not touched since about April. I know that's awful, but my goal was to get it done this weekend.

I went through my routine of pre-treating all of my shirts and dresses with baking soda and vinegar--you know that pesky underarm sweat that makes the underarms of your shirts and dresses stink so badly--yeah, I pre-treat those. I didn' realize I had pre-treated already which was a bad thing (that's another story).

After pre-treating, I let the clothes sit overnight and after church loaded the car up with 3 big bags, a big laundry basket and another small bag. It took me three trips to get it all downstairs. When I got to the laundromat, my plan was to use the mega loaders--they hold up to 8 loads of laundry. One large bag, one basket, and the small bag was going to be put into the mega loader and the two other bags were going to be put in the 3 load machine. But, all 3 of the mega loaders were taken, so I just lined the large bag, laundry basket and small bag in front of the machines across from the mega loader. I wondered to myself how do people know who's in line to use the machine next? I didn't linger on this thought because I was in the next aisle washing the two other bags. I kept an eye on the mega loaders. Every once in a while I'd walk by to see how much time. When it got to be about 5 minutes left I saw some other people bring in bags and bags of black trash bags filled with clothes. I didn' pay too much attention to them. I was keeping my eye on the mega loader. Then as my loads were coming to a finish, I noticed that one lady was taking her clothes out of the mega loader and I was getting ready to go to put mine in, but then the people with all of the black trash bags started loading. I wasn't quite sure so I went around and sure enough they were filling their clothes. 

I had to stop for a minute because the mega loaders take about 45 minutes to wash and I didn't want to wait any longer especially since I had been waiting about 30 minutes and these people had just walked in. In my mind, I said to myself, "I should have put a note on the washer."   I politely told the young lady that I was next in line. "Well, nobody was over here and I didn't know," is what she said with an attitude.

*Breathe*

I DID NOT want to wait another 45 minutes, so I simply went to the staff person and politely explained that I was waiting......

"Yeah, you have to put your clothes in front of the machine if you are in line, " is what she told me. I apologized and told her that I did not know that. I though putting my stuff in front of the machine would be rude. I didn't know what was the rule. The staff person was SO sweet and nice. She offered to wash my clothes in the back FOR FREE!!!  THANK YOU, LORD!!  Not only did she wash them, but she dried them too. WOW!!! That was about $20 in laundry that I got done for FREE.

Thank God!!!

Now I know the rules of the laundromat. Not only do I know the rules, I will NEVER go back on a Sunday. It was packed......