<p>Is it worth the cost? Experienced parents please let me know.
Thanks in advance</p>
<p>No. At S’s college, you have to bring it to a central location and then go back to pick it up. It’s much more convenient for S to go downstairs and do it himself, never mind the savings.</p>
<p>Well…if my kids wanted laundry service, I would have asked them to pay for it themselves. Laundry was under the “expenses” part of the college bills and our kids paid for those themselves. Since my kids did their own laundry at home, it made sense for them to continue to do so at college.</p>
<p>Mostof my D’s friends who had laundry service complained about the set time you had to put out and pick up your clothes and for the money they charged you could do a better job with your own laundry.</p>
<p>Let her wash her own clothes (she’ll multi-task and get some reading done).</p>
<p>If she is like Soozie, she will meet her future spouse in the laundry room :)</p>
<p>At Emory they drop it/pick it up at the dorm. Son did it first semester - I signed him up. No more second semester. Wanted to do his own. Maybe friends ragged on him. Fine with me although it was very reasonable and one less thing for him to think about. His choice so fine.</p>
<p>You should be aware that many laundry services at colleges send laundry to professional services outside of the school. They usually use very hot water, which isn’t what you might want for things that are delicate at all, and the drying is not customized for individual garments.</p>
<p>Depends. I knew a lot of boys who would just never wash their clothes because they didn’t want to deal with lugging it all down, waiting for a machine, etc etc. (Oh, college boys…) For them - and for the smell on our floor - laundry service would have been WONDERFUL.</p>
<p>Generally at my school, laundry service parked a van outside your dorm at a certain time every day (say 12-1) and you dropped off/picked up then. One of my roommates did it and she had a scheduling conflict which was kind of tough for her since then she had to lug it over to another dorm when she wanted to drop it off.</p>
<p>Depending what school you go to, doing it might give some people the impression you’re spoiled too. Not necessarily true, but laundry is a pretty basic skill, and eventually, they are gonna have to learn to do it.</p>
<p>Doing laundry is one of those basic life skills that everyone needs to know how to do.</p>
<p>I agree with luckycharmed. I don’t think my son enjoys laundry, but I know he’d be embarassed about having a service do it for him. He would definitely get ragged on by his friends.</p>
<p>The last thing a kid on a college campus wants is to do something that makes him stand out as inexperienced. So I’d find out if laundry service is something most of the students do; then discuss it with son and see how he feels about it. Can you jump on board after he goes off to school?</p>
<p>
as a shy male I second the thought that you should never understimate the value of hanging out in the laundry room … especially if yo ulive in a large dorm</p>
<p>Doing layndry a very simple life skill that studetns should acquire. P-erhaops more important as a kife skill is developing the ability to budget time well enough so they can do laundry even when busy with schoolwork and activities. So barring mobility issues or another physical reason why they are really unable to do laundry, I’d say no laundry service.</p>
<p>Rising soph son used the laundry service at his school – and also used his laundry life skills. He sent only clothing to the laundry service, but would wash his own towels, sheets, and blankets. I insisted that he keep up this “life skill” by doing it this way. I think the laundry service for him was a good thing, I knew he would have clean clothes each week-esp during those times when the studying/tests were overwhelming. It worked out well and we intend to maintain the same schedule/service this year.</p>
<p>Son had laundry service when he lived on campus. It was wonderful. He’d just leave his bag outside his door on appointed day and it was returned a couple of days later in same bag outside his dorm room. The service was run by upperclassman. They did the pick up and delivery to the local laundry. Sure it was minorly embarrassing to be one of the few bag outside in the hallway on laundry day, but to him it was worth it.</p>
<p>Son is in an off campus apartment now and since there’s a washer/dryer in the apartment, he’s had to do his own laundry. It’s convenient, so he has no problem with it.</p>
<p>I’d like a laundry service that puts the clothes away! 
I’m not sure my kids colleges offered a laundry service. After minimal training at home both were self sufficient enough to do their own laundy at college. Both liked how you could do a whole weeks (or two weeks for my son) worth of clothes at one time using more then one washer. Strange as it sounds they thought that coming home with clean clothes was what you were supposed to do. I made my husband promise not to tell them how most kids come home with duffels of dirty clothes.</p>
<p>I believe West Point has a laundry service, but from the sounds of it, I’m going to guess that they take care of that laundry better than some of these laundry services.</p>
<p>Laundry is something I’ve been doing since 8th grade. I can’t believe college students don’t know how to do their own laundry and I do know of a couple that college will be the first time they ever touch a laundry machine.</p>
<p>I can’t possibly imagine how much studying someone must be doing if they don’t have the time to, once a week, dump a load into a machine and fold it back up when it’s done.</p>
<p>Fold it? Just get two hampers. :)</p>
<p>I’ve been helping my mom with laundry for as long as I can remember. She started small with us (older sister, me, younger brother) and had us fold underwear and dish towels, then progressed to shorts/our t-shirts, then progressed to helping fold shirts/pants, then for my sister and I, once we hit 5th/6th grade and could reach the knobs on the washer (maybe 7th grade for sister =P she was the short one) she made us help significantly/do our own laundry. Obviously she helped out a lot, but by 8th grade, it was expected of me to have clean clothes. She still advises me every once in awhile on stuff like taking out stains and letting certain shirts/sweaters air dry, and still frequently moans when she finds 2-day old laundry still in the dryer (or on my floor) or when my hamper is about the bust a seal.<br>
On a side note, it is pretty fun teaching others how to do laundry (especially the boys). It’s a good ice breaker, so advise your son/daughter that’s heading off to college to a) know how to do laundry but b) occasionally “forget” something and ask a fellow laundry-buddy to come along and help</p>
<p>So, not only does laundry service prevent your kid from learning the life skill of laundry (are they going to be able to afford the service straight out of college? most likely not, so they’ll have to learn eventually), but hinders the #1 college social scene. My vote is do your own :)</p>
<p>Also, don’t think that just because we don’t do laundry at home religiously that we don’t do it at school. At home, there’s far less pressure to smell nice and look good. That, and we’re trying to do the million other things that is expected of us. At school, it’s fun to grab a friend on a Wednesday or Sunday night and do laundry. Also, the other kids in class don’t appreciate smelly kids next to them in class, and don’t forget that cute boy on the floor above you stops by frequently. And then there’s always the pressure cooker environment of the laundry room: if all of the washers/dryers are full, and someone needs one, you’re laundry might reach the dirty floor of doom (it’s much like Russian Roulette)</p>
<p>Davidson laundry service comes with the tuition! A left-over, apparently, from the days of being an all male school.</p>
<p>Washing your clothes goes high tech----</p>
<p>Some schools have a system that shows if machines are available and notifies the student by email (or can text them, I think) when their wash or dryer load is finished:</p>
<p><a href=“http://carnegiemellon.esuds.net/RoomStatus/showRoomStatus.i?locationId=330[/url]”>http://carnegiemellon.esuds.net/RoomStatus/showRoomStatus.i?locationId=330</a></p>