I don’t like doing laundry — lugging it around, waiting around having to fold it and all that stuff. Sure, there are worse things in the world, but there are also a lot of other things I’d rather do.
A new laundry service named Cleanly reached out to me the other day and offered a trial, so I gave it a shot — and I liked it.
They pick it up, return it within a day or two, and do wash and fold as well as dry cleaning. They’ll do non-clothes too, things like bedspreads, tablecloths and sheets.
The rates are pretty straightforward, $1.99 per pound for wash and fold, $2.75 for laundered shirts and then other rates for different kinds of items: a dry-cleaned shirt is $6, for example. There’s a $4.99 delivery fee if you have an order less than $30, otherwise it’s waived.
In my case, the two guys showed up promptly when they said they would and returned the items also when they said they would — something that I can’t say for when I tried Washio a couple of years ago.
I had about two hampers full of various wash and fold laundry and 6 button-up shirts which I figured would go in wash and fold, but when the driver arrived, they separated them. This meant it cost a bit more and also added a day to the return. I was ok with that, but when I asked the customer service person about it, she said I could have asked for them to be wash and fold instead — they aren’t formal shirts or anything, so I would have been fine with that. I’ll do that next time.
The folks who came (two friendly guys) brought some garment bags and such for me to keep and use, we filled them up and they were on their way.
Then they were back in two days right on time, and everything was clean, pressed and hung or folded with a light fresh smell. The wash and fold stuff was kind of interesting, it came tightly packed in some plastic, but wasn’t wrinkled from what I can tell. The laundered shirts were on hangars and pressed.
The total was $49, but would have been a bit less if I had done the laundered shirts as wash-and-fold.
It’s not inexpensive, but it’s definitely convenient and they did a nice job. Your rates may vary if you send out a lot of dry cleaning with them.
Here’s a photo of the hanging shirts and the bag that the wash-and-fold came in:
