Monday, October 8, 2018
I moved to my current apartment just about 19 years ago, and for much of that time I did my laundry at the Playdium Laudromat just two blocks away, next to the somewhat historic Playdium Bowling Center. The place was big, clean, and if I picked my times to go there carefully (weekday mornings were best) I could use as many washers and dryers as I wanted, which was handy since I'd wait a couple of months and do a huge laundry run (supplemented when I visit Rochester by Ann's washer and dryer, where I would do a bag or two of laundry per visit.)
Except when I went by there late this spring, there were signs up saying the place was closed. And a little while later I found out that the property had been sold to a developer to build a trio of fancy apartment buildings along with some commercial space. (More info can be found here.)
I tried one other local laundromat over the summer but wasn't thrilled with the results, so I'd been planning to check out a few others. Then for some reason Facebook gave me an ad for an "apartment sized" washer-dryer combo that someone was selling. I actually have the hookups down in my dungeon of a basement but couldn't see any way to get the actual appliances down the very narrow stairs, which conveniently have a 90 degree turn halfway down (as an example, I've found that it's easier to take the wheels off my fat bike when I bring it upstairs for the winter and downstairs for the spring, summer, and fall - and even then it's very difficult to get the frame up and down the steps.) But a few weeks ago curiosity got the better of me again, and I did a little searching and discovered that there are some very reasonably priced small washers and dryers out there. And for approximately the same cost as my most recent pair of glasses, I now have a washer and dryer in the basement after 30 years of mainly using laundromats.
It's very strange after all these years to walk down to the basement and put clothes in a washer and dryer... but it's a good strange, and I'm really looking forward to not spending 2-3 hours in a laundromat every few months, now that I can easily do the same chore a couple of times a week.
JMH
