February 9, 2000

Getting the dirty on life in the laundromat

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       Laundromat lessons 101.
      Bring a friend, bring a chair, bring some books and maybe snacks. But don't expect to get any studying done and watch out for those dryer stealers.
      For people who do not have the in-your-basement (or closet) convenience of a washer and dryer, a weekly trek to the laundromat is a necessity. Hauling baskets and bags of clothes, soap and softener and coins, laundromat regulars know that convenience at home machines can be balanced by the convenience of mass production.
      Tracy Lord brings her laundry and her three sons every Saturday to the East Bay Plaza Maytag Laundry to do the family's six loads of clothes. Six loads at one time, that is, using the area's largest washing machine and doing just one wash.
      She appreciates the convenience of getting all her laundry done at one time - no distractions, no clothes languishing in the washer, dryer or baskets for days. She even admits the laundromat does save time overall. So what are the biggest drawbacks to laundromats for her?
      "You can't do anything else while your here, like clean your house," said Lord, who has a washer and dryer in storage while she lives in an apartment without hookups. "And you have loads of laundry stacked in your bathroom until you have enough time and money to go wash it."
      She is resigned to her fate, though, for now. Plus her boys enjoy the television and video games that are now standard fare in laundromats. They do help her fold, a little anyway.
      Despite being a novice to the laundromat scene- coming for just three months now- Lord already has one tip worthy of veterans: "Bring your own chair, you'll always have a place to sit!"
      The problem of scarcity of chairs pales by comparison to the drama of scarcity of dryers. Most laundromats can chug through more wet clothes than they have dryers to dry them all immediately. Sometimes the wait can be the biggest snag to efficiency, with economies of scale crumbling and blood pressure rising as your clothes drip and dozens of dryers spin into infinity.
      Major laundromat faux pas? Scamming a dryer out from under someone.
      "The rudest thing is stealing other people's dryers," said Scott Machin, a Northwestern Michigan College student who comes weekly to Kardes with his friend Shani Maltby, both of whom learned quickly studying was not on the docket when at the laundromat.
      "When you are dumping your own stuff out and take it to your table and someone steals your dryer before you can put more clothes in."
      Laundromats as a gathering place can evoke images of the days when women met at the river to pound the dirt of clothes. One benefit (or drawback, depending on your personality) of laundromats can be the socializing. Sunday mornings at Kardes Self-Serve Laundry are social times with regulars who have known each other for years chewing the fat while the dryers spin.
      "Sunday morning is a major chat session," said Barb Fritz, sister of the owner who has worked at Kardes since it opened more than 20 years ago. "The same people have been coming for years."
      If you can't make it Sunday, sometimes the best socializing tip can be to bring your own friend along. Long Lake Township resident Mary Blair came to Kardes last week with baskets of dirty clothes and her friend Debbie Rasho to keep her company. For the past three years, Blair has made the weekly pilgrimage to the laundromat. Last week's trip was even more enjoyable with someone to talk to and to help fold.
      "She said she had some laundry to do so I said I'd go help her," Rasho said.
      The laundromats around Traverse City are family-owned, said Bill Keely, owner of East Bay Plaza Maytag Laundry, one of the few remaining businesses that have not drawn the attention of bigger companies. Being neighborhood mom and pop business, they are staffed by the owners or family members during the long hours they are open.
      For the past 30 years, Keely has been coming virtually every day to his laundromat, making change, doing laundry and fixing what needs fixing. Boasting the area's only non-smoking laundromat, which he recalled lost him some customers but gained the loyalty of many others, Keely is devoted to his business
      "I love the smell of bleach in the morning," he said. "At laundromats, you still need someone who cares there when it is open. This business does not lend itself to offsite management."