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Comment by brogrammernot | Hacker News Reader

This is just a service I don't get the mass market appeal for. Washing your clothes does not take that much time and dry cleaners are readily available in every city. So these companies don't seem to solve a real problem, rather they're just a luxury. Luxury products are hard to maintain:

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Since I moved to a place where the nearest laundromat is 2 blocks uphiilll and pricey ($5/load), I admittedly did take a quick look into Washio, but noticed there was a minimum order of $20. It was a luxury service, or a good for fresh graduates who believe too much in the "your time is money" mantra.

If you want another "wtf, do we need this" service, check out TrashDay.co, saving us the indignity of taking out our own trash.

> If you want another "wtf, do we need this" service, check out TrashDay.co, saving us the indignity of taking out our own trash.

One more startup that makes the statement "assisted living for the young" that much more true about SF.

Wow. Who funded that?

...saving us the indignity of taking out our own trash.

It seems possible that this inconvenience is mostly caused by municipal garbage monopolies? I can haul my own bins, but contracting for trash service in monopoly areas has consistently been more trouble than doing so out in the countryside.

My laundromat has free pickup and drop-off. It has a minimum order of $20, too...but that's at eighty cents a pound, so it's a lot of laundry. I just bought more clothes and let it build up a little longer.

Yeah, if I could get a couple roommates/neighbors in on it, the $20 minimum can easily be met. I don't remember the price/pound of Washio, but it was probably higher than 80 cents.

Also, I hope you're still washing your clothes semi-frequently, or at least your workout clothes.

I moved to a place with a basement washer/dryer.

Ah you're one of the lucky ones.

It's a lot easier to be "lucky"--and this applies to life, not just a few normally-cheap creature comforts--when you live in places that aren't...how do I put it...gross.

The next competitive advantage for hiring is going to be "doesn't force you to live in the bowels of San Francisco or New York".

If you really don't want to take your trash out, you can pay Recology (who does pickup in SF) to get your cans out (usually from a locked garage). Though that might only be for apartment buildings...

> Washing your clothes does not take that much time

35 minutes to wash, 45 minutes to dry. 10 minutes to get to the laundromat, 5 minutes to move your clothes from washer to dryer, 10 minutes to haul it back, and let's say 20 minutes to fold it.

That's two hours, assuming there is no wait, no other interruptions, etc.

In New York, our local laundromat charged a pretty low cost in comparison to feeding quarters into a machine, so it made complete sense to just drop the laundry off on the way to work, and pick it up on the way back. (I don't remember the exact costs, but I do remember being surprised at just how cheap it was, especially considering the time it would save me.)

This is an American cultural quirk more than anything. Even most tiny New York apartment kitchens would have space for a front-loading washing machine. Maybe you need to knock out a cabinet. It's a fair trade.

And you don't need a dryer. No, really. You just get a drying rack and hang stuff up for 24-48 hours, and it's fine. Use a fan to circulate the air if it's absolutely necessary. It's usually not. This is how 99% of Europe works, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean.

Thanks for the explanation. German here and I've used a laundromat maybe thrice in my life, for washing stuff that didn't fit in the washing machine at the time. Around here those places are also hard to find because there's effectively no market for them when everyone has a washing machine. (And judging from the prices someone else quoted above I guess a 600 € washing machine that lasts a decade or more isn't a bad investment when you're otherwise paying 100 $ a month for cleaning services.)

In most of Europe it rarely takes that long. 12 hours is usually more than enough. It might be a bit worse in New York but definitely not in California given the dry weather.

Many New York apartments ban in-unit washing machines in the lease: the old plumbing can't handle it.

Modern front-loading washing machines are designed to use less and less water for eco reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if this regulation is no longer required with the same restrictiveness.

A bigger problem is vibration from spinning. Depending on the structure (e.g. wood frame), that can be felt throughout a multi-story building.

Eh? The plumbing just needs to deliver water to the machine, and drain soapy water away. Which part can old plumbing not handle?

I should've been more specific in my initial post. Yes, it does take time but the price WashIO charges is pretty crazy. Compared with other services you can find in large cities it is much more expensive and the service isn't differentiated. So in your instance you drop it off, and pick it up, at probably a fraction of the price. However, spending 2-3 hours for Laundry doesn't seem to be a large enough irritant for me to spend the $$$ that Wash IO was charging.

I've used drop-off wash and fold services at various times in my life when a laundromat or washer/dryer wasn't especially convenient. (And every now and then I still use one while traveling.)

But, as you say, these services are already commonly available in large (and not-so-large) cities. I'm not sure what a premium-priced startup brings to the table especially given that pick-up and drop-off isn't even clearly a win over taking your clothes down to somewhere local instead.

Devil's advocate, the majority of that time can be spent doing other activities in or around the laundromat.

Yes, I stack this process by buying grocery shopping during the wash cycle, bring the stuff to my apartment, then go back, transfer to dryer, go home and cook something, then return to pick up. Or, like, read a book, whatever.

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