<p>Our S is MUCH better about doing the laundry AND keeping his room very neat and presentable than younger D ever was. The scary thing is that even with all the stuff she leaves on the floor, she is the NEAT one in most the the living situations she’s been in sinch she left home. <shudder></shudder></p>
<p>I have girls so can’t really comment - but I think “helping” you with laundry is way different than having him be completely responsible for his own. I admit my girls didn’t do their own laundry until they left home and when one of them was home on break she complained that I needed to do the laundry. I told her she was free to use my machine, my detergent and my water any time she needed to. That was the last time she complained about it to me!</p>
<p>I refuse to answer on the grounds it would incriminate SecondToGo. He, like I, has asked for more socks and underwear … which is probably a hint about how often he does laundry.</p>
<p>My motto on these questions…
-how often do you do your laundry
-what have you been eating
-do you get enough sleep
-are you dressed warmly enough
…is Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.</p>
<p>However, I do remember sending 2 dozen new undershirts and underwear, socks with my kids</p>
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<p>Wait, eastcoastcrazy, you picked up MY son! :D</p>
<p>I think that once a month is probably how often he really did laundry as a freshman. I said “twice a quarter?” and he replied “I MUST have done it more often than that!” When the end of a quarter approached, I think he let it pile up. Being within 3 hours drive of home has its positives and negatives. 
do recall standing in his freshman room and scanning it when picking him up before some vacation…possibly Christmas. I started throwing old food containers in the trash, and he told me not to interfere with his room, until I showed him the moldy panini remains. :D</p>
<p>As my daughter has pointed out to me the process of doing laundry in a dorm is very different from doing it at home. At home, we have one washer and one dryer and so end up doing a load a day (or it seems that way) - we also leave our machines unattended and do other things at the same time - we also then have only one load to fold and put away at a time. At school, they have multiple washers and dryers and so do all their laundry at one time and also if the machines don’t lock (which the dryers in her dorm didn’t) they hang out to protect their clothes (lots of stories of unattended clothes gone missing.) and then also have a lot more to fold and put away at one time.</p>
<p>Hmm… DH works in a building across the street from campus. DH has joked that DS could meet him for lunch and he’d take the laundry home for me to do. DH and DS know that is NOT happening… the meeting for lunch maybe but definitely not me the doing the laundry…However I could see DS bringing home a big pile of it whenever he visits. </p>
<p>His dorm room is really small and he has a roommate so it will be interesting how clean it stays…</p>
<p>“and then also have a lot more to fold and put away at one time.”</p>
<p>On the rare occasion at school when my son does do laundry that never happens. I know this because he doesn’t fold or put away anything when he’s home. Just plops the laundry basket full of clean clothes down in the middle of his room. The dirty clothes all go on the floor. I can barely stand to walk in it’s such a pig sty.</p>
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<p>When I was in college, the dryers took twice as long to dry a load of clothes as the washers took to wash the same load. Whoever arranged the laundry rooms put equal numbers of washers and dryers in the laundry rooms, so that there was always backup of wet washed loads waiting for dryers. That can make doing laundry more of a hassle than it would otherwise be.</p>
<p>My son sounds like emilybee’s. We bought him another basket so now he has one for dirty clothes, and one for clean. The dresser and closet, however, are both completely empty!</p>
<p>I think my two S’s only washed when all the clean underwear ran out. They were of the opinion that it was fine wear the same pair of jeans (or alternate them w/ other previously worn but not washed pants) for at least a week or two unless there were obvious stains.</p>
<p>When S1 returned home after freshman year, there were no sheets. He said he threw them away because he never washed them the whole year and figured I wouldn’t want them in the house!</p>
<p>My son had been doing his own laundry for about two years before he launched. I didn’t get into any packing of clothes, I left that entirely up to him. We were 90 miles away and although he wasn’t coming home until fall break we were going for a couple of football games so there wasn’t anything that couldn’t go (or come back) later. I did however make sure he had three weeks worth of boxers and socks. I did not come up with this number on my own I assure you, I read it somewhere and after reading about kids who didn’t do laundry it seemed pretty reasonable. He does laundry about every two weeks but there were times he stretched that out when he was close to breaks and could haul it all home. The sheets get done when he’s brings them home on breaks, so once or twice a semester. This year his apartment is off campus so I don’t know how that will/won’t effect frequency…not my problem. :)</p>
<p>OP…general consensus here is laundry will be done when underwear runs out. Was amazed that S took 21 pair! (Really, you’re not doing laundry for three weeks??? WHat does your room smell like?) But he pointed out that with sports, hot weather, etc., he was doing laundry about every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.</p>
<p>His frosh year he thought he’d wait and just bring his laundry home for THanksgiving.<br>
ALL of his laundry. Just what a Mom wants to see. Oh, and did I mention that he paid $35 extra bag fee to do this?!? Sigh.</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s part of me letting them go, but I didn’t worry myself with the frequency of laundry or the state of the dorm rooms or apartments. It’s their space to do with what they and what their roommates agree upon. We sent them both with the normal amount of socks and undergarments (about 2-3 weeks worth). I figured they were/are young adults. If they or their clothes started to smell bad, they would do something about it. That said, I think DD and DS did laundry about every two-three weeks. I know DS washed his sheets a few times. They both had been responsible for their own laundry since middle school. </p>
<p>I did make sure apartments were spotless upon move-out so that DD would get her deposit back. It was already pretty clean when I arrived to move her out.</p>
<p>I mentored a young man who confided to me that he never once changed his sheets his freshman year. We went to the store & I bought him several sets of sheets … I told him to put all the fitted sheets on at once, then peel them off every so often. At least then he would have some “somewhat” clean sheets. Yuck, ick.</p>
<p>If I reminded him of this today, he would cringe as much as I am cringing … he did get past that stage. :)</p>
<p>Older son doesn’t do laundry more often than he has to. Younger son always seems to do laundry right before we pick him up and it’s never quite dry. My impression is he does it weekly except when he has big papers due - so he likes to have two weeks worth of clothes - or at least underwear and shirts. He wears most pants for 2 or 3 days. He’s a bit of a dandy and I really don’t think would wear a smelly shirt.</p>
<p>S1 does laundry weekly but has 2-3 weeks of clothes. He is meticulous so room/apartment is always clean. Ironically his freshman roommate is/was the same and they have been together all 4 years. </p>
<p>Another interesting question is how many towels to take… My D used to use 3 towels a day at home! At school she has learned to drastically reduce towel use and even reuse, which was previously unthinkable to her. Her room at home is a mess but she keeps her room at school very neat- she says it’s too small to leave messy.</p>
<p>Agree that running out of underwear was the catalyst for doing laundry. Don’t think S2 washed his sheets very often but then he didn’t sleep in the bed. Musician with several musical instruments. Those were laid on the bed, and he slept on the floor!</p>
<p>I agree that the location and ease of access of washing machines also is a factor. And whether there’s cell phone/internet service in the laundry room. I finally convinced S to set the alarm on his phone to go get his clothes out of the machines.</p>
<p>In our case, too, there was no such thing as folding and putting away clean clothes. What clothes were in the basket could be assumed to be clean.</p>
<p>I was wondering about the towels. DS currently uses 1 but we don’t reuse them. Not sure how many to send.</p>
<p>The more you send, the less he will do laundry!</p>