Column: The lowdown on laundry lamentations

The cost of doing laundry at NIC takes me to the cleaners

Why the hell does laundry cost so much? We already pay several thousand dollars to live here. Are tokens for the machines to much to ask?  We’re all broke, no need to kick a dead dog if you know what I mean.

It doesn’t look like much if you’ve never done your laundry in the dorm laundry room. Let’s do the math shall we. One load in the washer costs $1.25, $1.50 if you want the “super cycle” and then another 25 cents for every ten minutes in the dryer. The dryers are pretty big so you can usually put all your clothes in one, however the washers are small and the average laundry basket takes about two loads to finish. So right there you’re looking at $2.50 then you have to remember the drying time. One full load in the dryer takes about an hour and a half to dry all the way. That’s about another $2.25 which puts you right around $4.75 if you did the super cycle it would be $5.25.

Put in prospective one semester of laundry, at two loads washed one dried, every week. This comes out to somewhere in the general vicinity of $85.50. Just for your laundry! I share the belief with many of my fellow NIC dorm residents that this is ridiculous. Unless you have access to outside forms of cheaper laundry doing you are stuck paying an extra $ 85 a semester to live in the dorms.

I think that if you pay to live on campus, and you pay to attend school at NIC then they should at least give us a brake on our laundry.  Maybe this is selfish, but like I said before, we’re all broke.

In retrospect, at least the dorm is equipped with working and decent quality washers and dryers. And I will admit that the convenience is at least worth part of the price we pay.

I suppose if you could figure out what it would cost to take your laundry to a laundry mat in town. Just think about it, even the cost of driving home or to a friend’s house to clean your clothes could cost quite a bit more.

At least, one could put a regular change machine in the laundry room. Honestly, digging up enough change to run the washers is usually more difficult than forking over the extra five bucks. You can’t even change your dollars for cents at the office in the foyer. When in need of coins and its after say, eight o’clock, there isn’t anywhere to get change unless you walk the four or so blocks up to the gas station on Northwest Blvd.

It is the opinion of my peers that they could simply have washer/dryer tokens. And if you didn’t have tokens, you could go to the laundry room and change your money for tokens by way of a token machine. I give credit to one of my roommates for the token idea. I will not take credit for that which is not mine, but I will promote a good idea, which it is.

I believe there is also a system in some colleges that allow you to swipe your meal card at the vending machines. Could it be possible to do the same thing with the washers and dryers? It would be much less of a hassle to figure out change or tokens if you could just swipe your card. People might have to make adjustments for how much they’re spending so as they still have enough for food. Still it would be nicer than trying to cough up the change.

Opinions expressed in editorial and opinion articles are the views of individual NIC students. These views do not necessarily  reflect the opinions of the Sentinel, North Idaho College, or any other organizations or groups there-in. North Idaho College is not responsible for the accuracy of statements or opinions shared.