9 Laundry Day Strangers Who Quietly Stepped In, Like the One Who Folded a Sleeping Student’s Wet Load

The sign by the counter reads: “If you are unemployed and need an outfit cleaned for an interview, we will clean it for free.”

“Sign at my local laundromat”

Went to the laundromat. Heard “Look at all them tattoos girl, you oughta be ashamed of yourself!”

I turned around with a scowl and was greeted with an old man’s friendly smirk and wink. He was covered in tattoos.

I’ll let this one go, mister. You’re alright.

“Went into a small town laundromat that already supplies free tide pods and dryer sheets. Saw this note and some extra quarters added today. I cashed $20 of quarters, did 2 loads, and added to the pile.”

Groceries are ridiculously priced in this town. A family having to decide on $6 to do a load of laundry now getting to put it towards some food is what I’m hoping for.

This was in 2016, but I still think of this often.

I was in my last year of university, where I decided in my last semester that I would pick up another degree. I was taking 21 hours of classes, and most of them were intense and difficult.

One of these such days, I started a small load of laundry in my apartment complex washroom. We only had one washer and one dryer (maybe 20 tenants in the small complex) so if you were one minute late to taking your clothes out, you would come back to find them on top of the machine in a soaking (or steaming) pile.

While waiting, I sat down in my apartment to catch up on some project and was so worn out that I fell asleep for hours, leaving my laundry in the washing machine. I was fully expecting (and okay with) finding my laundry in a soppy heap as I way overstayed my welcome.

Instead, I came back to find my laundry dried and folded in a neat pile atop the dryer. These are quarter-slot machines, so this neighbor also sacrificed $1.25 (five quarters!) and went out of their way.

I’ve never forgotten this. I never found out who it was, but it made me like all of my neighbors a little bit more.

I left $1.25 on top of the machine (assuming they were now using it) to try and repay them and they didn’t take it.

“Local laundromat has a lost and found for socks.”

“Picked up my laundry from my local busy laundromat in Boston and found this...”

Hooray for honest and nice people!

I go there just about every week and am honestly surprised. I clearly forgot about the $20 or so. Made my day!

“The cleaning lady at the laundromat is letting me stay late to dry my clothing. This is the nicest thing someone has done for me in a while and I’m so happy I don’t have to dry my clothing with my hair dryer”

I was initially told no by the owner but he left and the cleaning lady let me stay. I’ve been working full time and going to school full time. I’ve been burning the ends of the candle. I literally had no clean clothes left and I needed some for tomorrow at work.

I love this cleaning lady. I can be ready for tomorrow morning and not have to stay up an extra hour and a half drying my clothing manually.

I just needed a break somewhere.

She’s reading a magazine now, she only had to disinfect handles and the doors from what I saw.

“Talking with a 10 yr old girl about Pokemon Go at my laundromat and told her about how I needed a Ditto for a mission. Came back to my counter to find this.”

A note written out in a child’s handwriting that says “This is a Ditto egg for you. You can’t really use it, but whatever.” There is an egg drawn labeled “Pokemon egg.” It is addressed “too staff” “from: (name blacked out)”

“Mom and I moved into low-income apartments and wanted to do something small to give back (laundry only costs a quarter per machine).”