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Doing laundry

Sometimes I feel like I have taken a step backwards, but it is not my fault. NYC is known, at least in these circles, to be very much attuned to service. I can get almost anything delivered to my door. Paris is not up to this at this point. Perhaps one day, but now, there are still things you need to do yourself. The solution is to pay someone to do the manual labor.

For instance, laundry. I have not done laundry from quite a number of years. In NYC, I call, have them pick up the bag and laundry and they deliver last weeks' laundry on hangars (for shirts) or folded and organized (for underwear, socks and sheets). Here, we are back to the do-it-yourself laundry.

Now, I collect the laundry and carry it to the laundromat. Then (stop me if you know this) you sort the laundry into the appropriate types (whites, colors, delicates) and put each in a separate machine. Now the laundromats in NYC have attendants and you can get change or address issues with them. The ones in Paris are totally automated and good luck if something goes wrong. How this works is that every machine has a number. There is a master control panel that takes money (not cards, though). You type in the number of the machine on the panel. It decides what kind of machine it is and shows you the amount needed to run a cycle. You put that amount into the machine and get change, if appropriate, and the machine starts.

People seem trustful that their laundry will be OK, but not their laundry bags or baskets. Everyone seems to take those with them, but no one stays during the cycle. This is different from what I remember of doing laundry in NYC. I remember people bringing books and reading during the cycle, but they would be happy to leave the basket/bag on the machine. Perhaps since they are staying, they don't worry about the containers.

Of course once it is done, you pack it up and bring it home. But for me, the issue is that it now needs pressing. I am used to having it arrive, putting it away and you are done. If we had someone in place, they could come and do the laundry for us, including the ironing. I need to look into it. Perhaps it feels a bit too self-indulgent, given that I am not working currently. Helmut has this really great ironing system (it looks professional) where the steam is an entirely different unit attached to the iron and it does a great job... but not on its own. You have to still do the ironing.

First world problems.

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