Coin Laundry to zip your time

Coin laundry is something new in Indonesia. People usually just drop their laundry and let the pros work it for 3 or more days. I think it's related with our culture of liking to be served. We think that people we paid should do the best worth the money.

I remember when fast food restaurant started opening chains in my hometown. It was big hit. The restaurants were always full. The waitresses were always busy cleaning up messy table for next customer. My mom told me that foreigners are not like us. They're used to tidying up everything after meals. It's true that fast food is semi-self service, thus they also throw the garbage themselves. They take their leftovers to the garbage bin before leaving. Local people fails to learn that habit. Leaked water, unfinished sauce, dirty paper plates are all over the table when they finished. Why can't they just clean up? They do cleaning up when dining at home, right?

I'm guessing there are two reasons:
#1 not everyone cleaning things at home. In most homes, mom is the central figure, which also means the one who works the most. Lazy kids and busy father rarely help with house chores. Mom is the core. Nowdays, it's not hard to find kids who knows nothing about making the house.
#2 they want to give imaginary line between home and dining out. Eating in restaurant is a gift for themselves. So, they want to enjoy it to the fullest, including to be served thoroughly.

And so, coin laundry's business is a challenging one. It lets the customers do the laundry themselves. Which mean, they have to insert the dirty clothes, push the button and wait for 30 minutes. It's actually so simple, but again it's against the culture.

The coin laundry I tried (for the first time) this morning gives two options: self service or laundered. I chose the self service. The workers are friendly and happily explained to me how it works. 

First, i have to weight my laundry. The machine can take until 6 kilos.

Second, I took my clothes into the machine. While the worker got me detergent and perfume, I bought 4 coins, (@Rp.10.000). 2 coins for the 30 minutes washing. Just insert them and push the start button.

So, what did I do for 30 minutes? Well, I bought some books earlier. You can also enjoy the wifi service.

Third, after the washing finished, I moved the clothes to dryer above washing machine. 1 coin will spin for 25 minutes. But, it's better to have 2 coins for longer drying to get thick clothes dried throughly. 

I went to pray and wandered in the mall for the next 50 minutes. And when I got back, voila! my laundry was done!

It only takes 80 minutes to do your laundry. It's saving so much time. I like it.