Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Decline of the American Laundromat

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 206 posts

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#171

Post by phil21 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #167
brightball wrote: post #88

I live in a house with a washer and dryer. After we had our first child there was a stretch where my wife and I were both sick for about 2 weeks and the laundry ended up building up significantly. We had probably 10 loads worth to catch up on and it was going to take all of at least one day, maybe two. Threw it all in the car, went to the laundromat and had it done in 2 hours. Laundromat's are now how I explain "the…

As long as you wash the clothes faster than you use them, what is the problem with letting they pile up for a long time while you wash them in a more normal rate (like once a day, or once a week)?

For me, much like CPUs context switch my brain does as well when I have a backlog of stuff to do.

I too would prefer to just go spend 2 hours to Get It Done(tm) and cross it off the mental checklist. Plus in this particular instance it's a snowball effect for me on productivity - as I see progress and my house gets cleaner I feel mentally better and am able to more easily focus.

Humans are strange.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#172

Post by adrianmonk »

simonsarris wrote: post #106
brightball wrote: post #88

I live in a house with a washer and dryer. After we had our first child there was a stretch where my wife and I were both sick for about 2 weeks and the laundry ended up building up significantly. We had probably 10 loads worth to catch up on and it was going to take all of at least one day, maybe two. Threw it all in the car, went to the laundromat and had it done in 2 hours. Laundromat's are now how I explain "the…

> Laundromat's are now how I explain "the cloud" to non-technical people. That is quite brilliant analogy. I always used "printing something off at Staples/Fedex" - no need to own a printer, deal with buying reams of paper and ink cartridges if you do not print often, you use the cloud printer of the Fedex locale to get the single spot job done.

I use renting an office suite instead of owning your own building.

They provide lots of services to make your life easier, like heating and AC. And they handle the maintenance: if the parking lot needs to be re-striped, they will take care of it. You get to concentrate on just running your business.

It's scalable in the sense that you can rent a bigger suite if you need more space.

Some people are concerned with having all their juicy business secrets on someone else's server, but it's not all that different from your landlord having physical access to your offices with filing cabinets in them.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#173

Post by burkaman »

marcosdumay wrote: post #167
brightball wrote: post #88

I live in a house with a washer and dryer. After we had our first child there was a stretch where my wife and I were both sick for about 2 weeks and the laundry ended up building up significantly. We had probably 10 loads worth to catch up on and it was going to take all of at least one day, maybe two. Threw it all in the car, went to the laundromat and had it done in 2 hours. Laundromat's are now how I explain "the…

As long as you wash the clothes faster than you use them, what is the problem with letting they pile up for a long time while you wash them in a more normal rate (like once a day, or once a week)?

Clothes aren't all interchangeable. You'd have to predict in advance which clothes you're going to need next week, which isn't always easy.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#174

Post by nfriedly »

peter303 wrote: post #160
nfriedly wrote: post #72

There's a laundromat in my town, and once a month a local church (the First Brotheren Church, I think) provides free laundry service for anyone who wants it. They provide the soap and the quarters and then while your laundry is getting washed they provide food to eat. It's a really great community outreach service.

Denver has a portable laundry truck with three washers and driers. It runs off of fire hydrants. It goes to homeless camps, providing a needed free service. Some private charity funds it.

That's awesome!

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#175

Post by dba7dba »

ausvisaissues wrote: post #120
zxcmx wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is also partly because we are less inclined to lock up, beat or detain people who violate social norms in western countries anymore. Neither do we socially support those properly, turns out running mental health and substance abuse support is difficult, politically charged, full of potential for liability, thankless and expensive. I have older relatives who were involved in the mental health system in the 50's and…

Japan has a backwards view of mental health, and one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Yet public places are immaculately clean. The fact is that western people and law enforcement tolerate vandalism, littering and antisocial behaviour. Recently, on Seattle's airport train, I saw a person openly taking garbage out of their bag and throwing it on the floor. No one said anything - just another day on the dirty…

US has had a good grasp on mental health and it's not stigmatized as much as it is in Japan.

But guess what, US has highest death rate from illegal/dangerous drugs, which to me is almost like suicide.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#176

Post by adrianmonk »

brightball wrote: post #88

I live in a house with a washer and dryer. After we had our first child there was a stretch where my wife and I were both sick for about 2 weeks and the laundry ended up building up significantly. We had probably 10 loads worth to catch up on and it was going to take all of at least one day, maybe two. Threw it all in the car, went to the laundromat and had it done in 2 hours. Laundromat's are now how I explain "the…

If I ever have a big house and money to waste,I'm going to get two washers and two dryers.

It still won't compare to the laundromat, but chewing through a backlog 100% faster would make a big difference.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#177

Post by nitwit005 »

justinjlynn wrote: post #24
minikomi wrote: post #5

I live in Japan where Laundromats are often attached to Public Baths. I love going to my local, taking a soak while the load runs, and then coming out and having a coffee while my clothes go through the drier. Not much to add.. just felt like professing my love for that Sunday arvo ritual.

That sounds quite nice. I wonder why public baths never really took off in the States. In the records I can find, they seem to have a less than savoury perception.

I suspect it's mostly just the underlying culture. Japan was more into baths/bathing in pre-industrial times than most of the world, and there is hot springs tourism.

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#178

Post by mtl_usr »

brightball wrote: post #88

I live in a house with a washer and dryer. After we had our first child there was a stretch where my wife and I were both sick for about 2 weeks and the laundry ended up building up significantly. We had probably 10 loads worth to catch up on and it was going to take all of at least one day, maybe two. Threw it all in the car, went to the laundromat and had it done in 2 hours. Laundromat's are now how I explain "the…

> Laundromat's are now how I explain "the cloud" to non-technical people.

I will steal that explanation. Thanks !

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#179

Post by db48x »

burkaman wrote: post #173
marcosdumay wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you wash the clothes faster than you use them, what is the problem with letting they pile up for a long time while you wash them in a more normal rate (like once a day, or once a week)?

Clothes aren't all interchangeable. You'd have to predict in advance which clothes you're going to need next week, which isn't always easy.

Either that or it's trivially easy. The clothes you're going to wear next could just be the ones on the top of the drawer (or indeed the laundry basket).

Re: The Decline of the American Laundromat

#180

Post by jessaustin »

fuzzybeard wrote: post #149
al2o3cr wrote: post #77

One thing I didn't see mentioned in the article or here: a good laundromat typically has machines you wouldn't want to squeeze into your house. For instance, the one close to me has washers that accept 70+ pounds of laundry at once - great for washing blankets & other large items. Having that machine at home wouldn't make any sense, given that it's really only needed a couple times a year for an individual person.

The cost difference between a moderately sized washing machine and one that's a few cubic feet larger isn't that much. Over the lifetime of the machine it pays off. And if you have the extra capacity, you'll use it more often than you would if you had to go to the laundromat for the annual duvet cleaning.

In many places, water is scarce enough to discourage industrial-sized washing machines.
Post reply on HN