Using the Communal Laundry Room

Every Monday morning, I awake, and begin the task of doing my laundry. I do my laundry in a dorm setting, laundromat style. It is a very unique task, not like doing laundry in any other setting. Here‘s what its like.

At 10:00 am, I gather my clothes and my laundry detergent in my hamper, and be sure to take my phone and keys with me. As I walk from my room to the laundry room, I know that everyone is staring at me, because my giant hamper makes me walk funny. Either that, or they can see my underwear through the blue mesh material. That’s probably it. They are looking at my underwear. Why did I think Frozen underwear was a good purchase?

At 10:05, I’m in the laundry room, trying to find an empty machine or two. Many are done running, but they are still full. The owners of these clothes are out there, somewhere, and I hate them. I know in my heart their clothes have been occupying the machine for hours. I know it.

I find two empty machines, far apart from each other. This irks me. I see my clothes as a family. They should be near each other. I pretend like I know how much detergent to use. I set a timer to come back on my phone. I wonder why boys always leave their clothes everywhere. It’s always boys’ clothes, in piles, everywhere. This reaffirms my childhood belief that boys are gross.

Before I leave, I step in a sticky, watery puddle.

At 10:35, I return. My washing machines both say they have a minute left. This “1” on the machine will remain for 5 more minutes. When I finally get to take my clothes out, one of my socks falls out and lands in a sticky puddle. I consider washing it again by itself. I don’t.

Then I find away to get all these clothes from the washers on one end to the dryers on the other. I retrace my steps twice to make sure no socks were abandoned on the journey.

I set another timer on my phone, and go back to my room.

11:35, I return with my basket to get my freshly dried clothes. This process is almost over. As I am leaving, I notice a boy emptying FOUR washing machines, four machines that I know for a fact were sitting full and unused this entire time.

I especially hate him.