As uni students, there are many things to worry about when it comes to finances and budgeting. In fact, one thing you might be overlooking is the cost of doing laundry away from home. However, don’t stress as there are plenty of money-saving tricks to save cash. So, to help you out we are going to have a look at some of the best ways to save money on laundry whilst you’re at university.
Only do laundry when it’s necessary
This may be obvious, but it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t be washing clothes unless you actually need to. You definitely want to make sure that you aren’t keeping mountains of dirty clothes in your room, but to make sure that you’re getting your money’s worth, make sure you actually put a full load of laundry (which fills around 75% of the machine according to the Uni Guide) in when you use the machines so you aren’t wasting money on cleaning only a small amount of clothing.
Purchase a drying rack
This is extremely useful as a drying rack can completely eliminate the need for using the dryers at university- saving you lots of cash. Admittedly, the amount of laundry you can actually dry at one time is somewhat dependent on the size of the drying rack you use. However, a one-off payment for a drying rack it will almost certainly cost much less than repeatedly spending money on the dryers at university (make sure you have a laundry basket to store laundry in as well.)
Bring laundry home
If you have a washing machine available to you at home, then when you come home to visit you can also take some laundry with you. Of course, this depends on how far your home is from your university campus- it’s probably not be the best idea to go back solely for the reason of doing laundry! That said it can save you small but noticeable amounts on laundry by bringing a load (or even more) back home whenever you do visit.
Cold washes
A “cold wash” is typically considered 30 degrees celsius or lower-it is what it says on the tin. Cold washes often cost less than higher temperature washes and tend to do just as good a job of washing your clothes, unless they are badly dirtied. Therefore washing using a colder temperature is an excellent, simple way to avoid extra costs when it comes to laundry.
Sharing loads
If you have friends or flat mates who are comfortable with sharing washing machines, combining loads can be an effective way to save money as you won’t have to pay for the price of several separate washes. Note: this primarily works with small loads unless your washing machine is an industrial size.
Student laundry services (outside of uni)
Lastly, there will be student laundry services outside of your university halls which you can use; and they can be more convenient, reliable and cheaper than university laundry services (you may want to investigate in order to compare). Examples include Washco-which provides laundry services to universities such as Oxford, Warwick and Brighton- and Student FM-which provides for students in cities like Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.
So there you go, there are some of the best ways to save money on laundry while you’re at university.
