Do you have a college student in your family ready to move away from home or head to a college campus? Among the many things that your college student needs will be making sure he or she knows how to do their laundry properly. Whether they decide to do their own laundry at the laundromat or use a local drop-off laundry service, taking care of laundry is a key life skill.
It might be a challenging task to remember everything you want to convey to your college-goer amidst all the other arrangements that you need to make, but when it comes to laundry, we are here to help!
Tips Every College Student Should Know About Laundry
Keep reading as we give you a quick rundown of all the points that you need to keep in mind and let your college student know before they head to the laundromat whether they’re using the drop-off laundry service or doing it themselves.
Sorting Your Laundry
One of the first things that your young student should know before he/she visits the laundry is to make sure to sort the clothes into whites, light-coloured and dark coloured ones. This prevents any white shirt from turning pink when washed with a red short!
Sorting also needs to be done based on fabric and washing instructions. Washer and dryer cycles differ for delicate fabrics vs. others. Also, reading the label carefully is vital. All ‘handwash’, ‘wash separately’, ‘dry wash only’ labelled clothes should be kept in separate piles and not taken to the laundry for a machine wash.
Don’t Forget to Check Pockets
Once the sorting is done, ask your young college student to ensure that he/she checks the clothes that he/she wants to take to the drop-off laundry service facility for that invaluable pen, a hundred dollar bill, a credit card or any pointed, sharp items in the pocket. Any of this needs to be removed to make sure no damage is done to the clothing and other items.
Also, following these other simple steps:
- socks need to be unfurled and right-side out
- shirts unbuttoned
- zippers zipped up
- hooks closed
- velcro secured properly
- pins or buckles removed and
- clothes with embroidery and sequins turned inside out
Pre-Treat Stains and Spills
Teach your student not to ignore any stains on his or her clothes. It’s easy to forget the coffee spill on a shirt after it’s been sitting in a laundry pile for a week! Have them get in the habit of pre-treating a spill or stain when they place the item it in the hamper. Pretreatment or pre-washing spills or stains before taking them to the drop-off laundry service facility is important because treating stains as soon as they happen increases the probability of the stain is completely removed from the clothing after a wash at the laundry. Also, he/she should remember to point the stain out to the laundry staff before dropping them off for a wash.
Laundry Cycles
Proper settings are required to wash and dry clothes in a laundromat. Help your college student learn this well as it is one of the most crucial things to keep in mind while washing clothes at a laundry facility despite the fact that any good laundromat today has laundry assistants that can help and guide them with the settings.
Water Temperature and Detergent
Using the right water temperature and the perfect amount of detergent is as important as knowing the cycles. Stuffing the machines with too many clothes is also not a wise thing to do as it will not wash or dry the clothes properly and lead to other potential problems at the laundromat.
The College Student “Laundry Kit”
Besides getting your student ready with the laundry tips and steps above, you can help them by packing a “laundry kit” that contains everything they’ll need in a tote or hamper.
- laundry detergent
- fabric softener
- fold-up laundry bags
- a delicates bag (for washing all the delicate undergarments) and
- a coin container like a change purse or small bag with a zipper
