In August of 2012, I had just started my freshman year of college. I moved in with my then best friend at the end of the seventh floor of Brayton Hall in Lafollette. After taking the elevator–the one that literally only went to floors one or six–I trekked at least one flight of stairs every day. At the other end of the seventh floor hallway was one washer and one dryer for 60 girls to share. It cost $2.50 to wash and dry just one load; that’s at least ten quarters if you don’t care about sorting your clothes. Don’t forget towels and bed sheets that occasionally have to be cleaned, too. I started out with $10 in quarters that my mom gave me. Thinking that would last me quite a while, I was running dangerously low on quarters sooner within a month or two.
Luckily, my parents and I arranged a system where I would go home every other weekend to visit. I, of course, never passed up the opportunity for free laundry. After a while, I realized how cost-effective it was to pile up the laundry, towels and sheets until I made my next trip home. Sure, it would take me three or four loads at home, but this way I was saving at least eight dollars. That also meant that I had to carve out a few hours of my Sunday just for doing laundry when I went home to visit. I often regretted having the large pile of laundry after I had to lug the load and my bags for the weekend down the hallway, and the stairs, to the car.
You never know when you’re going to have an emergency cleaning situation, so being low on quarters is not something I planned for. I actually did have an emergency cleaning situation the following year and had to mooch quarters from my friends in the dorm, where I offered food from my meal swipe as a trade. Whenever I went home I scavenged for quarters wherever I could. I searched for quarters on counters, on my dad’s nightstand, under the couch, in car cup holders, in my sister’s wallet (usually with her permission), and most often out of my parents’ hands when they received change back from cashiers. Just last weekend my best friend reminded me that I used to look through her car when we hung out, to find quarters, and all but beg her for spare quarters. I was like one of the beggars sitting in an underpass with a cup for change, praying for sympathy for the poor broke college girl who has to do her laundry.
I would purposefully avoid spending change to pay for things at the risk of losing quarters. And whenever other people paid for things, I put on my best puppy dog eyes and pleaded for quarters. I was the broke college girl who always needed laundry money. I knew I was weird for sinking to those levels just to afford doing laundry at my leisure, but I started to wonder if I was the only one that did these types of things.
As it turns out, I’m not alone.
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