Luke Chaffin needed to get his laundry done Monday afternoon.
The Weinberg sophomore asked a friend to drive him to Good News Laundry, a Wi-Fi equipped laundromat on Noyes Street, since the dryer in his fraternity house makes his clothes “doll-sized.”
“I thought I might as well just come here,” Chaffin said.
To attract Northwestern students as customers, Good News Laundry and other Evanston laundry businesses offer drop-off and pick-up services, wireless Internet and summer storage.
Good News Laundry, 817 Noyes St., caters to NU students living on and off campus, owner Jeffery Kelly said. Many NU customers take advantage of the store’s free wireless Internet and table space while they wait for laundry, he said.
“You can come here and get in and get out,” Kelly said.
More students have begun using the store’s pick-up and drop-off services this year, which prove useful to students who do not want to walk to the store and drop off their laundry, Kelly said.
Other off-campus laundry businesses such as Best Care Cleaners and Tailor, 1623 Chicago Ave., offer free summer storage for clothing and bedding if students pay to have them laundered.
“We recommend they store here,” she said. “Sometimes they have a bad experience if they store in people’s houses or basement.”
Despite sometimes forcing students to scrounge for quarters and wait for open machines, laundry services on campus remain more convenient for students who do not want to drop off their laundry in person.
Nicola Rinow said she rethought bringing her laundry to an off-campus business after lugging all of her clothes to the laundry room in Jones Residential College, where she lives.
“It was so heavy; I can’t even imagine walking into Evanston with my laundry,” the Communication freshman said. “It’s more convenient in Jones.”
Another Jones resident, Charlotte Garcia, said she uses LaundryView.com, a website that allows students to check the availability of washers and dryers in dorms, to make sure she gets to an empty washer and dryer before another student.
“I raced someone downstairs,” the McCormick freshman said.
Competition to use the available washers and dryers can be an issue off campus too.
Weinberg junior Steven Chen said he had to wait about an hour to use the laundry services in his apartment complex at Ridge Avenue and Simpson Street the first time he did it.
Doing laundry in his apartment complex costs slightly more than dorms on campus, but the machines work better, he said.
While washers and dryers on campus sometimes break or do not work well, a maintenance person attends to the laundry facilities in residential halls and colleges daily, said Bashir Kudsi, NU’s senior executive housekeeper.
“It’s a convenience for the students,” he said. “You don’t have to go out – it’s right there in the dorms. You can come down with your pajamas on.”
