College dorm life can be an adventure and for new students, there are many questions that need to be answered about their living arrangements. It can be a bit overwhelming for some students to figure out cooking, laundry, and curfews.
All of this is to be expected, and there are some common questions that most dorm staff can advise new students about.
If your college student is not sure about laundry and other details of their new dorm life, you can always reach out to the dorm to clarify some details about the living arrangements.
Most students and parents will get to visit the dorms in advance of move-in day and you might be able to clarify these issues well before move-in day.
If you want to know more about whether or not college dorms have washing machines, read on!
Are Campus Laundry Arrangements Standard?
The answer to this is no. College dorms can be arranged in many different ways and there might be laundry services, laundry rooms, or other solutions in place for laundry on campus.
There are also many different rules about how laundry should be done and on what days in most locations.
College dorms and fraternities and sororities handle laundry differently, so this can also add a consideration or two to the mix.
Laundry Services
Some campuses use laundry services for the laundry needs of the students that live in dorms. This can help with confusion about lost clothing and other concerns that can take place in public or shared laundry locations.
This might be more expensive, but it can keep everyone’s laundry separate and prevent theft and other concerns that shared laundry facilities can cause.
Laundry service might also be part of the cost of your dorm room per month. This is something that you should ask about before you assume that there are shared laundry facilities on campus.
Shared Laundry Locations
These are the most common solutions to campus dorm laundry needs and most dorms will have a shared facility that services numerous buildings. This means that there might be times when it is hard to do laundry because of demand.
Shared laundry facilities can lead to lots of struggles for the use of machines during peak times and can also be havens of theft.
In most cases, students that have to use shared laundry locations will come to the laundry area and sit down and do homework while their load of clothing runs. This can stave off theft and make it less likely that your clothes will be forgotten.
Everyone knows how easy it is to forget a load of laundry in your machines at home, and it is no different with shared laundry locations.
Some campuses handle laundry concerns related to peak hours by having set days that each dorm can do their laundry. This means that you might have to plan ahead when you are doing laundry and be sure to have coins for the machines and all of your clothes ready to wash when your day comes around.
Shared laundry locations can be difficult to learn to use, but most students figure out a system after a few weeks of using them.
Washers and Dryers in House
If you are living in a sorority or a frat, you might have your laundry that is in your house. This can be the case in smaller dorms that have their services.
If you are living off the main part of campus, you might get access to the shared but smaller laundry room in your unique building.
This arrangement can have the same flaws as other shared laundry setups and some dorms will assign floors their laundry days to help with congestion and wait times to use machines.
These laundry locations are also sometimes open twenty-four hours a day to help with competition for machine use.
Local Laundromats
Small campuses might expect you to use local laundromats for your laundry needs and this can work really well if the laundry locations are close to campus.
This is not a common arrangement, but if this is the plan that your college has in place, you might be given discounts or punch cards to use at these laundromats.
Even if there is a laundry location on campus, you can usually get punch cards or reduced prices at local laundromats around your campus. If you want to be able to do laundry at more convenient hours and you have access to a car or other transportation, this can be the right solution for your laundry needs.
Many older college students will tell you that shared dorm laundry rooms can be more trouble than they are worth sometimes.
Laundry Can Be Easy to Do if You Plan Ahead
No matter what kind of laundry arrangement you decide to take advantage of when you are in the dorm, you will want to plan and make sure that you have cash for the machines and laundry ready to be cleaned when your laundry day comes up.
If you are using a laundry service, being ready to drop off on the days that the laundry is picked up can help make it possible for you to take advantage of these services efficiently.
No matter what kind of laundry service you choose to use, make sure that you plan for the costs of doing laundry on campus and that you think about security in the laundry room if there are issues with theft of clothing.
You might want to plan to watch your laundry while it runs or go to the local laundromat if you are worried about being unable to leave your laundry to run while you do other things.
Doing laundry at college is just one more part of the process of learning to do things on your own, away from home. There is no wrong way to get your laundry done as long as the process that you have picked works for you.
I am Brianna, a self-published author with a passion for sharing my knowledge and expertise on various topics with people looking to find the perfect items for their needs. I love ensuring that the right informative content is available to people looking for the right information. I am an avid horseback rider and reader when I am not writing.
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