While the majority of students set aside a few hours each week to wash and dry their laundry, others opt to send their clothes to St. Michael's Laundry Service to have it done for a fee.
St. Michael's, located behind the Main Building, offers a "Student Bundle" plan for $225 a semester. Once a week on an assigned day, St. Michael's visits each dorm to pick up a bundle of laundry from each student, and then returns the clean clothes a few days later.
"We pick it up, we bring it back and your laundry is getting done for you," St. Michael's Counter Service Lead Representative Jean Rinehart said. "It gives you more free time to study and do other things."
Although St. Michael's main service is the "Student Bundle," Rinehart said they also offer tailoring, dry cleaning and individual wet cleaning. For students who use the bundle plan, these extra services are simply deducted from their original allotment of $225.
However, Rinehart said all these services are also available to students who did not sign up for the bundle plan.
"Any student can get an item of clothing tailored or wet cleaned," Rinehart said. "And if a student wants to just send in one bundle for the whole year, they can do that too."
Although many students will send in a bundle or two near finals, students save money by signing up for the entire semester, Rinehart said. If a student uses the bundle plan service, each bundle costs $13.75. If a student only does one or two bundles a year, each costs $19.36.
Although paying for St. Michael's to do his laundry is more expensive than it would be to do it on his own, sophomore Pat O'Brien said the service is worth it.
"It really saves me a lot of time, and then I can do homework and other things," he said.
O'Brien used the bundle service last year and will continue to do so this year.
However, not all students who sign up for the service freshman year continue using it the following years. Junior Lauren Antonelle enjoyed the extra free time St. Michael's gave her as a freshman, but she opted not to continue the service.
"My parents paid for it for me for a graduation present," Antonelle said. "They figured I'd like the time it would save me. But I didn't sign up for it last year because I felt the drop-off and pick-up days were inconvenient for me."
O'Brien agreed that the scheduled days provided by St. Michael's sometimes posed a problem.
"If you forget to drop stuff off it's really awkward and you have to do it yourself anyway," O'Brien said. "And then you put all your clothes in that bundle and don't get them back for two days. That can be kind of awkward too."
Junior Christian Demere signed up for the service his freshman and sophomore years, but only had minor issues with the service.
"Out of all the times I used it there would be a few times when you'd lose a sock or two," he said. "That's kind of an inconvenience, but it really wasn't that often at all."
Lost socks were not enough to make Demere regret using the service.
"It's definitely a good trade-off. It's well worth the money, since you'll have to pay for the washing machine in your dorm anyway," Demere said.
