Trying to help daughter plan for weekly budget while at school. What are general cost for doing laundry in pay machines per load? We are thinking that she would have 2 to 3 loads per week to wash and dry. Just average amount would be great. Thanks.
It depend on the school. You can call Residential Life at the school your D will be attending and they should be able to tell you. It was “free” (meaning it was included in the price of the dorm I guess) for both of my kids who went to different colleges.
She should contact the housing office at her college/university to find out about this. These costs can vary wildly from one place to another, and can depend on the type of housing in which the student lives.
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m a fan (at least for college students and new grads with better things to do than doing laundry) of the “buy lots of underwear and socks and don’t do laundry until you run out of underwear and socks” school.
Check with the school. My kids have gone to 3 different colleges (big publics/small privates). None of them had “charge per load” machines. All of their schools had laundry costs factored into students’ room fees. So they could do as many or few loads as they wished. They just had to bring their own detergent and fabric softener.
D’s laundry is included in the price as well. The machines even email them when their load is done. Totally crazy!
The machines were pretty big. They held more than your standard home machine. D says she averaged 1 load a week, 2 if she was washing bedding.
My daughter has to pay for each load, $1.50 to wash and $1.75 to dry.
@rosered55 - lol. My S had to pay for laundry at his school (D has free laundry) and he subscribed to your theory. He had so many pairs of socks and underwear, I think he could go an entire month without doing laundry.
My kids paid–either quarters or on their student card that we recharged periodically with money (like prepaid debit). If it’s far or unconvenient, D would rarely wash clothes and would always fly home with suitcase of dirty clothes. S was better about washing clothes regularly.
Since so many have reported it included in housing fees, definitely ask! You might be happily surprised that it isn’t an extra charge and they can let you know whether it’s quarters, some prepaid card or other method of laundry payment.
The only thing I asked my kids…was not to come home with a suitcase full of dirty clothes. Both washed their own at school. I can tell you, neither my son nor my daughter did three loads a week. I’m guessing no more than two…if that. They waited until they had a full load of whites…or a full load of darks…well, not sure my son separated his, but that didn’t matter either!
Their washers used their school points card. It was loaded up anyway for food, etc. we just added about $20 a month for laundry.
We were at a school last week, so I remember that their prices were $1 per load, washer or dryer.
Yeah, if laundry is provided within your other costs, there is NO reason for lots of laundry to come home!!!
Warning: college dorm dryers can be finicky. Either takes a LONG time to dry things or dries them to shrinking proportions! Have your D keep an eye on the dryer the first few loads.
Also, I think my kids found that they didn’t throw clothes in their hamper quite as quickly at college as at home where things went down the clothes chute dirty or not! When you are responsible for all your clothes being washed, you will wear that shirt an extra time if it’s not dirty!!!
My son’s school includes the cost of laundry. He still sonetimes brings a pile home. He’s done his own laundry for years so I don’t really care.
I disagree that students have “more important” things to do than laundry. Having clean clothes and learning how to get them that way are very important. No little prince or princess is above that task, no matter how brilliant their scholarship. And like @abasket’s kid, mine also discovered that yes, you really can wear a blouse more than once if you’re the one who has to wash it, and when your dorm dryer takes a few hours per load because the school bought those energy saver washers and dryers. I think she pays about $1.50 per wash and $1.50 per dry.
I never mind if my D brings her laundry home to wash when she comes home for break. She’s the one doing the washing anyway. 
I’ll be interested to see how her younger brother manages this task when he goes off to college in August.
D generally does a load a week of her laundry at home during the summer when the clothing is smaller. So I’m guessing 1-2 a week at school, especially when she deigns to change her sheets, which is not as often as I’d like and I can only see it getting worse at college. Her college has cards that you load money on for laundry. $1.25 each for washer and drier. We toured one school that texted students when the loads were done and had an app to see if the machines were available.
“I disagree that students have “more important” things to do than laundry. Having clean clothes and learning how to get them that way are very important. No little prince or princess is above that task, no matter how brilliant their scholarship.”
My kids did their own laundry in college (D’s college offered a laundry service which we didn’t take - don’t know about S’s) but the same could be said about having nutritious food and cleaning the bathroom, and I’m fine with (and indeed prefer) them to live in dorm settings all 4 years, where someone else (cafeteria staff) cooks the food and someone else (janitorial staff) cleans the bathroom. IOW, for us it was a “this isn’t worth paying for”, not a moral objection to the idea of a laundry service.
Thanks everyone for you responses. Called today and learned it is $1.50 for each, wash and dry, and that money for this can be put on her student card. I do forget after so many years with much smaller Asian appliances overseas that washers and dryers are relatively massive here in the US, so it will likely be no more that two loads a week. We just want her to have laundry budgeted for.
When I was in college, two friends and I took turns with the laundry. It got washed every two weeks, there could always be separate loads for lights, darks, and brights, and no one felt over-burdened by laundry. We kept this up for all four years.
The color catchers they sell help D so she can wash a mixed load instead of a load of whites and a separate load of colors. It helps reduce the “migration” of colors and seems to work, though it is a bit pricey (but cheaper than having to buy new because clothing ran and gets “ruined.” It’s in the laundry aisle at Target, WalMart, CVS and lots of other places.
2 loads a week!?!? My kid maybe did laundry once a month - likely several loads at a time. He also always came home with baskets of laundry. I didn’t mind doing it for him either, since the rest of the time he was home he did his own wash. Besides, it wasn’t nearly the amount which came home after being at camp all summer - even though they sent wash out once a week - I don’t think his stuff ever made it to the laundry.