Fiona Greaney ’29
Opinions Editor
I walk into the Brooks laundry room, and I am greeted by the smell of must and mold. It hits me like a ton of bricks, but I stay strong and trudge through to a seemingly free machine. I pop it open, and the smell that just hit like a ton of bricks has now punched me in the face, pushed me to the ground, and kicked me repeatedly. Who in their right mind would leave their clothing unattended in the Brooks laundry room long enough to let it support organic life? I have always lived with communal laundry machines, never having the luxury of one closer than eight floors down. My extensive experience in laundry rooms has prepared me to write this article and address any questions you, dear reader, may have about doing laundry in a communal setting.
The first rule is to set an alarm. Leaving your laundry in either the washer or the dryer is bad for your clothes and also just rude. You don’t want to be the person everyone stands around waiting for, or worse, decides you’ll have to put your clothes in for another round because they’ve been discarded on the floor. Suppose your laundry somehow survives more than thirty minutes before being taken out (like the unfortunate individual whose laundry physically abused me in Brooks). In that case, you are at risk of bringing a new ecological community back to your dorm. Laundry doesn’t age like fine wine—it ages like milk.
The second rule is to leave machines open when not in use. This prevents mold and rust from forming and saves the person who uses the machine after you from the stench your socks left. The third rule is to clear the lint trap after your dryer cycle is done. Leaving lint in the dryer is gross and a fire hazard. No one wants to see the paper scraps you forgot to empty out of your pockets, and no one wants to stand outside longer than they need to while the Worcester Fire Department hoses down your dormitory.
Up until this point, these guidelines have been pretty straightforward. Now we reach the point where the majority of discourse originates: “What do I do if I get to the laundry room and there is a machine that is done, but the clothes remain inside?” This is an important question and has been the subject of many conversations overheard in the laundry room. While I cannot offer an exhaustive solution, I can provide general guidelines for situations one may encounter when a machine is completed but taken.
First, wait a few minutes to see if the person gets their laundry. This is to avoid the awkward encounter of you beginning to take out someone’s laundry as they enter the laundry room. You stare at each other, and you instantly know that you will be judged either way, whether you explain yourself or not. If a few minutes pass without the culprit revealing themself, you are well within your rights to move the laundry out of the machine. I have heard some people speak of these laundry movers as if they are Satan’s henchmen, but I assure you that these folks are upstanding citizens who are just trying to move the conveyor belt of dirty clothes along. Perhaps those who criticize the laundry movers have had negative experiences in the laundry room, and for that I offer my condolences. But we must also agree that, for everyone’s sanity and sanitation, we must help each other move along in the laundry cycle.
There are good ways and bad ways to move the cycle along, however. A bad way would be to put the laundry on the floor, which I wish I could say I haven’t witnessed in the Brooks laundry room. A better alternative would be to move the items to a clean basket, but this method is only effective when it is clear that the basket belongs to the person whose clothes are in the cycle. The best way is to simply put the clothing on top of the washer or the dryer table. This keeps the items in generally the exact location while keeping them visible and clean, a perfect middle ground for the mover and the culprit.
The point of this article is not to reprimand or reprove; instead, it is to educate and, well, convey my opinion. It comes down to a single question—take it, or leave it.
Featured image courtesy of College of the Holy Cross
Copy Edited by Lily Wasmund ’28
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