Have you ever used a laundry pick-up/delivery service in Brooklyn?

November 24, 2013 10:17 AM

Laundry is a major scourge in my life. It occurs to me that there are services that pick up and drop off your laundry. How…do those work? What sort of bag do I need to put my stuff in? How risky is it, i.e., what is the likelihood something will get lost or damaged? Most importantly, is there a service you can recommend in the Prospect Heights/Park Slope area?
posted by Charity Garfein to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

I've never used one in Brooklyn but I use one in Manhattan, which should be close enough for this to be useful, when I get lazy.

The first time i put the stuff into a garbage bag and when they brought the stuff back they brought me two cloth bags with the name/info of the wash and fold place on them that I now use.

I don't send out things that need more delicate washing, nicer work clothes and sweaters, and while nothing that i've noticed has been lost I did have one load come back pink. Overall its great for cutting down on loads I need to do.
posted by SpaceWarp13 at 10:28 AM on November 24, 2013

We do this regularly, as we live up many flights of stairs and don't have a washer/dryer . Our place is a 15 lb minimum for pick-up/drop-off. They will separate colors from whites if you specify. I don't send out anything delicate, although they do offer a "hang dry" option. I bought the laundry bags from them, $5 each. It is SO AWESOME. I hate doing laundry and I hate folding it. They will even use your own detergent if you leave a bottle there. They've never ruined or lost anything of ours, but if you're nervous, send out a few test loads of just sheets and towels? We live in BK but not Park Slope...maybe just try out a few close places?
posted by Ollie at 12:04 PM on November 24, 2013

I haven't done my own laundry in 7 years. I used to use a pick up/delivery service in Bay Ridge, and now I use one on the Upper West Side. It is more expensive than doing it at home, but my time is worth money, too.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:31 PM on November 24, 2013

If you can afford the extra cost, it can be a really nice luxury. Never had anything go wrong.
posted by milarepa at 1:00 PM on November 24, 2013

I've used two different companies for this in the neighborhood. Any kind of laundry bag will do. I've even used garbage bags when I had too much laundry for my real laundry bags, and they just took them and gave me an extra laundry bag when they returned my laundry. On rare occasion I'll notice someone else's t-shirt in with my clean clothes, but seriously, we're talking less than once/year. And they fold everything! It's the best luxury ever!
posted by 168 at 1:19 PM on November 24, 2013

I've used a local laundry service for a decade - I just throw everything in a sack, works fine - but I don't own any particularly delicate clothes. They charge $1/lb for the service, with free delivery if it's more than 20 lbs (but I'd usually tip 20% for delivery). I usually carry the laundry there and back myself, since I don't usually have 20 lbs at a time and it gets me out of the house.

Once a year or so, I've found someone else's sock or t-shirt in my laundry; if I've ever lost anything, I didn't notice it, but it has probably happened. Having everything come back neatly folded is wonderful.

Mefi-mail me if you'd like the names/numbers of the places I use in central Park Slope.
posted by moonmilk at 2:14 PM on November 24, 2013

I used to do this (in Queens), and every now and then a few items might be insufficiently dried, like jeans. I just checked the items and hung up anything damp. I also asked for my shirts to be returned on hangers rather than folded because sometimes they got wrinkly. I was using a pretty cheap place though!
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:53 PM on November 24, 2013

I used a place in Bay Ridge that cut all the tags off my shirts. Destined for black market stuff or something? not sure. a mystery to this day. but still, a great service.
posted by jpe at 4:40 PM on November 24, 2013

It's been more than four years, but we used this service when we were in Park Slope: http://www.laundry.bz/

It was cheap enough, fast enough, nicely folded, and they would bring it all the way up and down a third-floor walkup. We used several different nylon or canvas laundry bags, all of them utterly unremarkable like these http://goo.gl/cTVpVS.

The laundry folks also respected our request that they use our own fragrance-free detergent, which we provided.

We always tipped the delivery guy (who was one of the principal owner/operators), by the way, and gave him a nice bit extra around Christmas.

It's a low-risk proposition, something like taking your car in for repairs, or leaving your animal overnight at the vet. Accidents may happen, but it's not a risk-prone arrangement.

PS: In looking at old email, their prices in 2008 were: 90 cents per lb., minimum $18.00. Dry low at 25 cents additional per lb. and a $3.00 minimum for that.
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:15 AM on November 25, 2013