Personal experience: America’s public laundry
'05.09.2017'
In many American films and TV shows you can find scenes where the characters walk with baskets of dirty laundry to public laundries. We also go there. During the week we put the laundry in special containers or bags and wash it on the trolley once a week.
Why the washing machine can not be put at home:
- First, most of the houses are very old, the floors between the floors are wooden;
- secondly, the sewage system is too weak for water pressure during discharge;
- thirdly, in most houses there are no balconies, therefore, a dryer is also needed immediately;
- since most buildings are owned by companies, it is too expensive to upgrade for each apartment.
What are the options:
- modern, built after 2000-s, high-rise buildings with washer and dryer in the apartment;
- modern houses with laundry on the floor, which is available only to residents of a particular house;
- private houses with a washer and dryer on the basement - but most people rent apartments;
- public laundries - in most cases.
Public laundries are a whole industry. In our area, landromats can be found no more than a few blocks from the house, five minutes walk.
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How do I feel about this? - Negative
This is a huge minus of life in America. When we were looking for an apartment, we looked at about 30 different options, in each of them they basically asked whether it was possible to buy and install a washing machine ourselves, they were also ready to pay for water - all the owners answered negatively. So buying yourself is also not an option, even a baby for washing children's clothes.
Of course, over time, a person gets used to everything, but when I just moved to America, it was stressful for me to put my personal belongings in a washing machine, from which an untidy person had just pulled his sneakers.
It is unrealistic to spend a whole day in landromat and wash dark and light successively, in order to lay baby clothes in a clean car. Soothes only the thought that when things are in the dryer, under the influence of a huge temperature, all bacteria and microbes die.
Do we iron underwear?
- I do not iron household items, towels, bedding;
- formal clothes and dresses, of course;
- Her husband’s shirts and work suits are dry cleaned (here it’s very affordable and common).
If things are dried at an average temperature for a reasonable time, they do not dry out and do not sit down, you can get them, hang them on a hanger or put them on directly, as many do. If left for a long time in the dryer, then it will be necessary to smooth it with steam. But you don’t need to worry, in the public laundry at rush hour the things will “take care of” others for you.
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I know when the machine is at home - it is relaxing
- you throw the laundry in the wash at the slightest speck;
- It is possible to run a mini-mode at least several times a day.
I do it myself when I come to Russia.
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In America, it is easier to buy several copies of things and throw them into dirty laundry, rather than spend a few hours in the laundry room, especially if I go there with two children. Moreover, the machines here are huge, you can wash two bed linen and a few towels.
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Special attention is paid to the quality of washing - stains wash out badly. You can write, they say, this is just me having no luck, but regardless of the powder and the place where I washed, even the simplest stains do not wash well. It helps only option to lay less things in the washing machine, but it is financially costly.
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Approximate cost for our family (two adults, two children)
- 2 small washing machines for 3 $;
- 2 large for 4 $;
- powder and rinse;
- dryer - 0.25 $ for 8 minutes;
- = total about 15 $ every week.
Write how things are in other states with washing machines? I believe that this is a problem of megacities, because if you live in a private house, then the machine can be easily installed in the basement or in the kitchen.
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Although I still do not understand why there are dishwashers in almost every apartment, but there are no washing machines, because they have approximately the same supply and discharge of water. Every time I ask this question to the owner of our apartment, he meaningfully throws up his hands and speaks the words liability and flooding (for him it is a big responsibility and he is afraid of flooding).
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