Moving into a new college dorm comes with a lot of freedom, but it also entails new responsibilities. Keeping your room clean, completing homework and finding three hot meals a day are some of the responsibilities a student must keep up with. However, one less enjoyable responsibility is doing laundry. Doing laundry is no easy task in a communal laundry room, so here are a few rules to follow to make the task less stressful for everyone. 

1. Don’t use too much laundry detergent — no one wants to deal with a sudsy, out-of-commission washer. For reference, use one detergent pod for a small load and two for a large load. 
2. Don’t take up too many washers or dryers, there are other people who are also trying to do their laundry. Stick to using one or two washers and dryers — one for dark clothes and one for light clothes.
3. Bring your own detergent — most laundry rooms in the dorms don’t provide them, and you don’t want to have to trek all the way back to your room to grab detergent when you realize you need your own.
4. Don’t overload the washers! It can mess up the speed of the spin cycle and permanently damage the machine’s drum. 
5. Try to complete your laundry within a reasonable time frame so you don’t take up space that others could be using. No one likes a laundry resident who leaves their clothes in the washer or dryer for hours, leaving limited machines available. If you leave your clothes too long, you run the risk of becoming the victim of laundry theft. 
6. After using the dryer, make sure to clean the lint trap — too much lint in the lint trap can make it harder for clothes to dry and create a fire hazard. Use your hand or take a dryer sheet to remove the lint from the lint trap. 
7. Speaking of dryer sheets, throw them away after they have served their purpose. Don’t leave them in the dryer or on the floor for someone else to deal with. Clean up after yourself! 
8. Refrain from touching or moving other resident’s items. If someone’s clothes have been in the laundry room for an extended period of time, inform your resident adviser or resident director and allow them to handle the situation. 
9. Finally, don’t steal other patrons’ belongings! No one likes a thief.

By following these rules in the laundry room, you can ensure a smooth and peaceful laundry process for all residents in the unit. Now that the washing and drying process is done, the only thing to worry about is folding the fresh laundry and putting it away — but for now, it can sit on the designated laundry chair. 

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