Laundry

The laundry system here, if nothing else, is efficient.  You have this woven white bag into which you put all of your dirty laundry.  There’s really no need to sort things as everything is basically the same – browns and greens with some white socks.  You tie your strings into a knot with your nametag sticking out of the end of the bag.  You then take your bag to this little hut and throw it into the bin with everyone else’s dirty laundry bags and sign your name in on the register.  The laundry can be done in as little as twelve hours, but I usually pick it up the next day.   The clean bags are placed on shelves in the same little hut where you dropped it off.  You pick up your bag and sign off in the register that you picked it up.

Some keys to the laundry:

-          They don’t open the bag and put your clothes in the laundry, they just throw the bag into the washing machine with everyone else’s bag and then throw them in the dryer.  There is an art to getting just the right amount and combination of clothes into the bag.  Too many clothes and the whole bag is still wet when you pick it up.  Too few clothes and you have to keep going back.

-          Right after I got here, I was able to score a second white bag.  This allows me to put more clothes into the laundry at the same time, yet still get them dried.

-          When you wash your uniforms, which are big and bulky, it’s key to put in a couple of other clothes so they come back just a little wet.  That way you can hang them and some of the wrinkles come out.  Otherwise, they get dried into a big ball and look like you just slept in it.

-          I’ve gotten to the point that I can recognize my bags on the shelf without having to search for my name.  Some people have colored tags that they’ve attached to their bag or colored strings that they’ve woven into their mesh.  However, you get to the point that you recognize your knots or the way your bag looks without any of those markers.

-          Eventually everything turns a dusty grey color.  You can definitely tell the older bags on the shelves from those that have just been issued.  You can see the grey in all of the whites.  When my wife sent me some new white pillow cases about 4 weeks after being here, they were blinding.

-          The workers tie a small string around the neck of your bag before they put it into the laundry so there is no way things can fall out and get lost.  There have been several injuries from people using their issued Gerber knives while opening these small strings – to the point where we were warned at one of our doctor’s meetings to be careful with the laundry bag opening technique.  I use my little scissors to avoid any injury.

-          You can pay some money to have your laundry “ironed” if you would like. (The laundry service itself is free).  I have not taken advantage of this opportunity yet, but supposedly this ensures that your stuff will come back dry.

-          There is no limit on the amount of laundry you can do, so I do it about every other day.  This decreases the amount of clothing I actually need and I’ve noticed a significant change in the color of my uniforms that get cycled through the laundry compared to the ones still hanging in my closet.

Laundry before...

Laundry after...

All in all I think it’s a great system.  Very efficient and simple to use and don’t see why we can’t implement it when I get home…