A photo of laundry machines that are trusted to work properly, much unlike the ones I had trusted on campus. Photo courtesy of Oli Woodman on Unsplash.

SARAH NITTI | STAFF REPORTER | snitti@butler.edu 

When the going gets tough, I turn to cleaning as a coping mechanism. After one of the hardest weeks of my life, I decided the only thing that would make me feel better was doing all my laundry so I could start completely fresh the following week with all my favorite clothes.

I happily took my clothes to the third-floor Irvington laundry room, paid my $1.50 and started a load. I’ve been doing my own laundry for quite a while now — thanks, mom — so this wasn’t my first rodeo. It’s also important to note that I had never experienced a clothing casualty in my life until I came to Butler.

Once that 30-minute wash cycle was up, I quickly went to move my clothes to the dryer, as a good fellow Irv resident should — y’all really need to get your clothes on time so no one waits longer than they are supposed to. Then I paid another $1.75 to dry my clothes for 45 minutes.

I would say I’m a very optimistic person, and though I discover my clothes are still wet every single time I go to take them out of the dryer, I still thought things would be different this time. I had a pretty trash week, so I figured that something good was bound to happen. But no — no good surprises this time. I swear on my life, my clothes literally felt like the dryer had done absolutely nothing. So I, yet again, paid for another dry cycle, praying that they would actually come out dry. 

This is something that many students complain about, and I’ve made some real bonds in that laundry room over the fact that I have to dry my clothes two or three times every time I do laundry. 

Madeline McElroy, a first-year marketing major, definitely feels my pain.

“Pulling my damp clothes out of the dryer is one of the most defeating feelings in the world,” McElroy said. “This leaves me with two options: to either pay to dry them again or lay them out all over my room for hours hoping they get dry.” 

The wack dryer situation wasn’t even the worst part of my laundry experience. When I pulled my clothes out, I noticed that my favorite sweatshirt had bleach stains everywhere. The devastating, heart wrenching pain was taking over me due to the fact I did not even use bleach, as I had done a load of colors.

I am — and was – genuinely so confused. What first-year college student is bleaching their clothes? Like, go off, I’m glad you know how to do that, but you f*cked up my clothes.

I own up to my own mistakes. If I had ruined my own clothes by incorrectly washing them, you would not be reading this right now. But like I said, I have been doing this since I was 12 and my momma taught me well.

The unprovoked damage to my clothing is clearly an issue. I just paid $4 to straight up ruin my clothes — not very fun if you ask me. Molten lava of pure anger rolled through me so much so that I genuinely exploded and ranted to my RA over text at 1 a.m. So sorry, Timmy, but I know you understand my pain.

The part that really bruises me the most is that I just wasted my money on inadequate machines at a pricey university that has more than enough money to afford better laundry appliances. I don’t love the idea of paying for something that barely works half of the time and I know many people feel the same way.

Matthew Bachman, a first-year accounting student, is also disappointed in the pricing situation.

“The fact that I have to pay a little over $3 every time I do laundry is crazy,” Bachman said. “I myself am fairly conservative with my clothes, but I couldn’t imagine how much more people who wear more clothes than me are paying. The majority of my friends at other schools such as [University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana], or [Nebraska], don’t have to pay for their washers or dryers … The fact that we still have to pay for our laundry is very surprising.”

Little does Bachman know, I wear at least two outfits a day — maybe even more — so my laundry often takes three loads to do, and that’s on a good day. As you can imagine, my clothes pile up fast.

But now I’m absolutely terrified to do my laundry because I can’t handle another item being damaged, so I wait until I genuinely can’t anymore to clean my clothes.

Like myself, some students also put off doing their laundry due to anxieties surrounding previous damages being done. Karmen Jenkins, a first-year finance major, is no stranger to the waiting game.

“It occurred to me that it was an issue when both my roommate and I had mysterious, similar stains on our clothing,” Jenkins said. “I will put off doing my laundry for so long due to the laundry situation … It has made me feel incredibly frustrated.”

Butler, babe, do something about this. I’m frustrated as hell. I’m sure others in Irv are frustrated as hell. And my mom and dad and probably other parents are frustrated as hell — especially when their Butler Bulldog is continuously complaining about atrocious laundry room mishaps.  

As for now, I will be taking my laundry elsewhere, even though I can just walk 30 seconds to get to the one at school. It’s more important for me to get my laundry thoroughly cleaned without any problems. In the meantime, I expect Butler to do better, and fix their machines so that way this won’t ever happen to anyone else ever again.