The burden of clean clothes.

Laundry day.  The dreaded day for almost any student living on campus at California State University, Long Beach.  If you're lucky, it will be over and done with in a minimum of one hour and 45 minutes - no waiting required.  However, that rarely ever happens with each dormitory building only having one to two laundry rooms.

The washing machines in the West wing
of the Los Cerritos Hall laundry room.
Photo by Ashleigh Mehmed.

The anger and frustration that can arise due to laundry facilities is unbelievable.  Azalea Mayes is a 19-year-old international studies student, living in Los Cerritos Hall, where there are three washing machines and three dryers in each of the two laundry rooms and says that her biggest annoyances are,

"When there are no open washers and you have to wait forever for one to finish.  Then, the owner of the laundry doesn't come and remove it from the machine until they're ready.  I've seen girls get so pissed off with waiting so long that they'll grab the clothes out themselves and put them on top of the washer so that they can start their own." 

A student removing her clothing
from the dryer in theWest wing of
the Los Cerritos Hall laundry room.
Photo by Ashleigh Mehmed.

Asmita Deswal, 19-year-old philosophy pre-law student, has the same issues and more.  "It's ridiculous that we have to pay to use the machines," she says,

"Especially after spending so much money to live here.  The machines should be included."  Although it only costs $1 per washing machine load and 50 cents per dryer use, the fact that students can only pay with card and not coins makes the system all the more frustrating.  Not to mention, washing detergent won't buy itself. 

Yes, the laundry system definitely could be better at CSULB but, for the meantime, people are just going to have to learn how to be more patient as well as more considerate to the poor people who are waiting, in their filthy clothes, for your laundry to be cleared from the room.