Do some washing

Date: 14/10/2003

Laundry was pretty simple - but cost a lot of 20p's

I had been letting all my dirty washing build up in my room for quite some time now, but I was down to my last pair of socks, so it was time to do the laundry. I hadn't exactly done much washing at home, but my mum had given me a few basic tips like don't mix coloured and white washing and to washing most things at 40 degrees.

I didn't really have to worry much about stuff like that because when I got to the laundry room the machines were really simple to use and had instructions printed on the door. The machines only accepted £1 and 20p coins, and the prices were £2.00 for a 38 minute wash and 20p for a 5 minute dry. Though 5 minutes wouldn't be enough to properly dry a full set of clothes, but one of my flatmates Mark, had warned me about this and told me to take lots of 20p's.

After I loaded the clothes in the next problem was washing powder, there was a dispenser in one corner, but no cups for the powder. I asked a guy sitting near about this and he said he didn't think the dispencer had ever worked, but would let me borrow some of his washing powder, which was very kind of him. After that it was just a matter of putting £2 in the machine, pressing the whites button (all my socks are white) and waiting 38 minutes.

Drying was just as easy, once the 38 minutes was up I just bunged everything in a dryer, which was conveniently placed right above the washing machine, but some 20p's in and pressed the whites button again. After about 15 minutes the clothes were done, but still a bid damp so I put some more 20p's in. This time they came out dry, so I unloaded the dryer and took them back to my room.

I estimate washing and drying the clothes took me £3 all together, but next time I would need to buy some washing powder so it would be slightly more. I didn't bother ironing the clothes either, so some may be a bit creased when I come to wear them. Maybe I will tackle some ironing next weeks