One of the advice session parents give their college-bound children is how to do their laundry. But who’s to teach college freshmen about laundry room etiquette?
Probably the biggest laundry etiquette questions is this: if someone leaves their clothes in the washer or dryer , how long do you wait after the cycle’s done before you take out their clothes and put yours in? Students’ answers ranged from when the buzzer rang to signal the cycle’s end, to five to 10 minutes after the cycle ended.
However, there were students, who disagreed that you should take people’s laundry out at all, with reasons concerning courtesy, safety and hygiene.
Freshman nursing major Sherumika Perry from Lavergne, Tenn., doesn’t approve of anyone touching her clothes.
“People take my stuff out of the washing machine or dryer and put their stuff in when it’s not done, like it’s more important than my stuff drying,” Perry said.
Sophomore English education major from Nashville, Matthew Inman, said that taking someone else’s stuff out can result in theft or clothing mix-ups.
“I’ve come up with mismatched socks [before],” said Inman.
There have been a few reported, but even more unreported, incidences of missing laundry in different dorms.
Jeans have been reported stolen from Elam laundry rooms. The Village residents have also claimed missing clothes.
However, Resident Life director Dr. Sam Smith sent an email out regarding the case to all the Village residents, asking the person to return the laundry. Apparently, it was only a mishap.
In majority, most people dislike their laundry being taken out. Inman feels that people should just wait.
“It’s impolite to just take peoples laundry out and leave it somewhere,” Inman said.
However, when someone’s laundry stays in the machines for days at a time, freshman elementary education major Colette Surles from Nashville thinks you should take action.
“People need to just take it out and just put it on the dryer or fold it for you,” Surles said.
She also mentions her concern with hygiene when taking someone else clothes out of the dryer.
“Sometimes I’ll feel nice and I’ll fold it for them, as long as it’s not like underwear,” Surles said. “For underwear, I’d use their shirt [to grab it] and put it in [the dryer].”
If you happen upon a dryer with clothes inside and the cycle completed, should you fold the clothes when you take them out? Junior social work major Austin Jones from Atlanta, Ga. doesn’t think so.
“Leave it, cause I’ll fold it myself,” said Jones.
Patrick Chapman elaborates on this responsibility.
“If you leave it in there, I’m not going to complain if you don’t fold them, because I left them [in the dryer] too long and I didn’t get them,” Chapman said. “It’s my responsibility to fold them, not yours. But if you’re a nice person, you can do it for me and I’d have no problem with that.”
Chapman also shared a laundry tip.
“Some people decide to put their basket with a post-it note right next to [the dryer] saying ‘Hey, put my clothes in this when you’re done.’”
Lipscomb students continue to comment on how Lipscomb University can update their dorm laundry facilities. Sophomore law, justice and society major from Nashville, Sterling Crawford, hopes that both the university and students would work together to maintain the laundry room facilities.
“I only do my laundry on campus once every couple of weeks, but there’s always at least one or more machines broken in the laundry room,” Crawford said.
Sophomore history education major Melissa Wardwell, from Brentwood, Tenn., wants their to be some folding space in the laundry rooms.
“I wish that there was some more folding space in the [laundry room],” Wardwell said. “If you have a lot of clothes, you can fold them and have room to pile them up together and be able to separate them from colors and whites.”
So use your best judgment to be courteous to those with whom you share laundry facilities. And if all else fails, leave a post-it.