Students React to Changes in the Laundry Room

Recently, we reported on LaundryView—a new web-based system for checking the availability of laundry machines online. The change was accompanied by an increase in the price. We asked students what they think about the changes.

Ivan D. Bochkov ’12 – Kirkland House

I probably won’t use it […] and I don’t think it’s a foolproof timesaver. For instance, you could check online, identify an open machine, and then carry your laundry downstairs only to discover that someone has put their laundry in that machine in the five or ten minutes it took you to collect your laundry, detergent, etc. and make it to the laundry room.

Anna J. Murphy '12 - Quincy House

I’d like to say, being a person who does laundry maybe four times a semester, I'm not that concerned. We get by.

Esther S. Wu ’13 – Winthrop House (currently living in DeWolfe)

I don’t think [LaundryView] is worth an extra 25 cents per load of laundry. I probably wouldn’t use it, and those quarters add up. If you do laundry every other week, those quarters can add up to a couple extra dollars per year, and I’d rather spend that on BerryLine.

H. Louise Hindal '12 - Quincy House

I think it's a cool system. I'm impressed by the technology behind it. But 25 cents is a lot per load in terms of scale. But I don't know enough about it, and I'm pretty ambivalent about it.

Wendy Y.X. Chen ‘12 – Cabot House

I don’t know if [LaundryView] will really matter too much in Cabot because most of the machines aren’t usually in use; it’s probably not worth the extra quarter per load.

Jon C. Wise ’11 – Leverett House

You would have to be really lazy to bother looking up whether or not laundry machines are in use on your computer. It doesn’t seem justified with the price increase, but it could be justified without it. Having said that, I may use [LaundryView] occasionally to save a couple minutes, but I wish we could have had a heads-up on this—or a chance to vote it down.

Ruthe J. Foushee '12 - Quincy House

I just have piles in order of stench. I lift it up and smell it. I don't know why we're paying more. Maybe they're hiring little elves to watch the machines.

Photo by Sara Joe Wolansky/The Harvard Crimson.