All your everyday laundry, on a bigger scale:
A laundrette of course takes everyday laundry: clothes, sheets, towels, tea towels, baby clothes. The advantage over home is volume: a single large machine replaces three or four domestic loads, and you leave with all your clean laundry at once.
It is the ideal answer to a mountain of washing after the holidays, to the laundry of a flat-share or a large family, or quite simply to not having a machine at home.
The bulky items a home machine refuses:
This is where a laundrette becomes irreplaceable: duvets, blankets, feather quilts, pillows, thick throws, sleeping bags, sofa covers, curtains and even washable rugs. These items go well beyond the capacity of a 5 to 7 kg family washer; they need our large 18 kg drum to be properly soaked, moved around and rinsed.
Washed and dried properly in a large dryer, they come out plumped up and freshened, without the residual damp that leaves a badly dried quilt smelling musty at home.
What is better not washed in a laundrette:
Some fabrics have no place in a self-service machine: items marked « dry clean only » (suits, structured coats, certain dresses), leather, suede, fragile silk, embellished or very delicate garments. For those, a dry cleaner remains the right answer.
Also remember to remove anything that could damage the laundry or the machine: objects left in pockets, belts with large buckles, items stained with flammable products (white spirit, petrol). When in doubt, always follow the care label sewn into the garment.