Lessons from the Laundromat

As mentioned in the previous post, I had to wash our entire bedding set on Sunday due to one sweet dog with a very upset stomach. The sheets and blankets could easily be washed in our regular washing machine, but there was absolutely no way we could fit the king size comforter into our little home machine. So I packed up the gigantic blanket, my little bottle of Gain and my book and headed to the Laundromat for the first time in...ever. So today, I thought I would share with you some lessons I learned while spending my afternoon washing my comforter in the company of strangers.

• A Laundromat is the hottest place on earth. It may be the hottest place in the entire solar system save the surface of the sun. Opening the doors and having the giant industrial fans does not help. It is hot as hell.
• The instructions on the amount of soap that should be added to a triple load washing machine are alarming lacking. I mean, I don't OWN a triple load washing machine at home or I wouldn't be here. Should I use three times the amount of soap or will that fill the entire Laundromat with suds and send us all running for cover? Should I use the regular amount and then possibly spend all this time and all my pocket change and not actually come home with a clean comforter? It's a game of roulette I tell you. I went with 2x the normal amount. We all survived, and the comforter smelled clean.
• Bring a book. I felt sorry for the people forced to just sit there and watch their laundry spin.
• Bring a hair tie. Especially if you hair may go to the frizzy side in insane heat. I was not cute when I walked out of the place. Not cute at all.
  
• Bring quarters. Only quarters. Apparently the Laundromat is too good for my nickles and dimes.
• The vending machines will be woefully understocked. And you will hear someone beating on it trying to get their paid for bag of Bugles out for ten minutes, which leads you to further doubt the efficiency of the machine. If you are hungry, bring snacks from home.
• And a drink. Dear GOD, bring a drink when sitting on the sun.
• The dryers at the Laundromat, they are not your typical dryer. They are super sonic dryers. They can dry a king size down comforter in 15 minutes. Seriously. Do not load it with enough quarters to have it run for an hour. You will waste your change and leave an empty dryer tumbling for 45 minutes while you head to your nice air conditioned home.

And that's about it. Except, I feel the need to ask how often you all wash your comforters. I mean, when we had our queen size bed we just had a quilt, and I washed it whenever I did the full bedding, but when we got this bed, we apparently just decided the top comforter never needed to be washed ever in it's existence. And now, that seems disturbing. Should I be washing this thing like once a year? Once a season? Dear god, should it be washed once a month?? I may be spending a lot more time in the old Laundromat. I wonder if they have heat in the winter??