Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
The Man Makes the Clothes Dirty
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2003 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Every so often, I go through a stressy hectic mopey spell, during which my laundry builds up to a seemingly unmanageable mound of slight stank. And so about every year I treat myself and decadently pay someone else to do my laundry. Perhaps someday I will be rich enough to resent even the time I must spend assembling dirty clothes for delivery to the laundry, but today, I nervously splurge.
This year I chose Frank's (?), a courteously run tailor and laundry on Telegraph south of Parker in downtown Berkeley. Frank's charges 80 cents a pound for wash-and-fold, which is forty cents per pound cheaper than Cal Cleaners up the street. (Incidentally, Cal Cleaners features a rack of used clothes for sale at $2 per garment, which both amuses me and incentivizes me to pick up my laundry on time.) As well, I dropped off the laundry at 10 am and it was ready by 4 that same day, and my clothes came back very neatly folded and smelling of nothing at all.
My back & arms hurt from lugging the clothes there and back. Caution: wheeled contraptions substantially facilitate the use of this innovation (laundry for pay).
