(Can’t find as much live music these days, as the grand reopening is not that grand or consistent everywhere? Don’t pout. Go see Poot tonight! Visit Picks of the Weeks to see where).
If you are going back to school in another state, these are tips to do your laundry for less than half the normal cost, as it can’t always be on mom’s dime and using her machine. They could also go for most anyone living in an apartment complex. And if you are not a college-aged male, you might not want to tell your wife about these tips. Kind of like a guy’s way to do the shirts and pants, but hopefully not boxers and briefs, quick and easy. But the creative person is never revered in his own country – or domicile. But still, discuss it over a beer with your (new?) roommates.
We all have been there, the laundry is a little dingy but not really dirty. And there is a scant odor, but not odorous. After all, few of us are pro athletes, as we just watch them on sports TV and don’t break a sweat unless there’s an upset. And not many of us are construction workers either. For us grunge is a music form, not the state of the laundry. Simply put, we don’t get that dirty, even if rained on during the walk/run back to our student housing. So the following is for my niece Hannah, halfway through college, and the need more than ever these days to conserve as much as you can of that quarters fund for doing laundry.
Take that stuff you’d worn for a day and give a quick sniff to places like the pits. Unless they are actually smelly, or stained mildly, consider just placing them into the dryer with those fragrant laundry sheets. And you can reuse them a time or two, or even three, by combining their numbers into what’s put into a single spin – of only about five minutes. And add to their productive life by freshening them up with a bit of cologne (don’t need much at all, mind you, and don’t be that guy), or just a touch of fabric softner or air freshner, then give a couple extra minutes, or maybe even a few less, in the dryer. You also can have added value via freshner or even a bit of Shout if using a color catcher sheet as the base for All Those Many Ways To Spruce Something Up Now That Mom Has Abandoned You.(Just kidding mom). And she might not like it, but wipes, flushable or not, will serve a similar purpose.
Why is this important? If you have a coin operated machine, either onsite or at a laundromat, it can eat enough quarters after a week of clothing wear, to tear your hair out. My method, for each time through, will cost you only 25 cents. And when done, or so you thought, stuff them into your shoes and wipe as you go, for more overnight freshening power, as dirty socks just won’t work with my method, and in walking to class the shoes may get a bit stinky.
And how to get things dry, if you indeed wash them first? Top it off by placing the item on the barred face of the air conditioner in the room – and a lot you students probably do need the services of that air machine, as you are “central” to your friends and family, but not necessarily the landlord. You may need to keep the clothing item in place by doubling it over and thus flip-flopping it once you get to the next chapter of your biology homework, as the basics of home ec were for back in high school. If the lid on the AC is flat, you might have a chance to weigh it down and keep it from falling, with the armpits laid strategically on the blower right below. I know that you as a college student possess just the right weighted ingredient to keep the drying process going, it’s called Miller Lite doing double duty. And if you have a whole six-pack, you can separate it out and place the cans in a line parallel to the wall, and get a second clothing item, or maybe a third, dry all at the same time.
And don’t buy what your new bartender friend down the road from the dorm might tell you, that if you purchase dark beer for such a noble purpose, you can get more weighted-value than light beer. How is all this noble? You save energy as well, that would normally go for running a washer and to a certain degree, a dryer.
On the topic of drinks, and this is Joe procrastinating like a college student on a Saturday with an exam first thing on Monday, I will soon – hopefully sometime in the fall semester – get back with some of the caffeine tips you will only find in places like this. Been there, done that.