You know what grinds my gears? The way doing laundry on campus becomes a long and troublesome adventure.
I'm very glad that laundry machines are free to the student population. But I do not want to constantly wait for six hours at a time just to get my laundry done. It is difficult just to find a machine that isn't being occupied because of the awful ratio of machines to residents.
Freshmen have to resort to searching all odd-numbered floors for vacancies when they run into this problem. During my stay in the towers, I lived on the seventh floor of Wolfe, a floor with a laundry room.
Just like the dishwashers at Eickhoff, the laundry machines decided to malfunction at the most inopportune times. I had to search all over Wolfe to find a suitable replacement, since two of the three washing machines were broken. When I did find one, it ended up being on the first floor.
Upon descending the stairs to inquire about my clothes, I discovered the washing machine had stopped halfway through its cycle, so my clothes were swimming around in a pool of water and detergent. After toying somewhat with the machine, I realized it would not restart. It took me a long time to do laundry that evening.
Something I don't understand is the disrespect that is shown in the laundry rooms. They are like war zones with people battling as they try to claim machines. Then there are the people who open up the dryers and ignore the bright red light indicating a cycle is still in progress. How can they disregard the light? Apparently it's much brighter than they are.
What angers me more is when they open the door mid-cycle and let clothes fall out. Then they close the door and don't turn the machine back on. Just the other day my friend discovered her clothes, which were intended to be in high heat for only half-an-hour, were still wet because someone opened the machine after only 10 minutes.
Then there are those who neglect their laundry once they have started the process. People who are in need of a machine have to pile up the previous user's clothes on top of the machines. The next thing you know, people will be reporting missing clothes because they cannot find their own apparel amid Mount Fruit of the Loom.
New Residence Hall has flooded twice already in this school year, but I am certain not a day passes when a laundry room doesn't have its own adaptation of a flood. Defective washing machines find a way to leak water, creating dirty little pools on the floor. Not many of the laundry rooms are equipped with mops or brooms; what they really need are inflatable life rafts.
Why are people so careless with the simple task of cleaning clothes? That's what grinds my gears this week.
