Prior to the beginning of the 2024 spring semester, St. Olaf installed a black pillar of lockers in every dorm building, each bearing instructions for depositing one’s laundry to be washed off-campus. The service includes washing, drying, and folding for delivery the day after pickup. Using the service requires a $20 payment plus tax per load, as well as the creation of an account on the website of the company that runs the service. Students received notice of the new service in a Feb. 21 Residence Life Updates newsletter, which stated that the company, Washed Again, had “partnered with St. Olaf to enhance the Residential Life experience” — a statement repeated on Washed Again’s own website.
Washed Again is a family-run company owned by Luke and Heather Lacroix, which started in early 2023. In addition to their presence at St. Olaf, the company services households throughout Rice County, and is based out of the Northfield-Dundas area.
In an email interview with The Olaf Messenger, Dean Christopher Medley stated that St. Olaf began discussions of a drop-off laundry service in spring of 2023, and were approached by Washed Again later in the year. While the College’s existing laundry machine provider, CSC Serviceworks, does offer a drop-off laundry program, Medley stated that the provider’s mode of operation “has many more nuances that would have to be navigated” in comparison to Washed Again, as CSC Serviceworks directly hires students on-campus to wash, fold, and dry clothing.
The drop-off laundry service will be offered as a trial run for the remainder of the 2024 spring semester and through the 2024 – 2025 academic year. The program is intended to offer students a more convenient, flexible, and time-saving option for doing their laundry, providing an alternative to the hour-plus time commitment of using on-campus facilities. Residence Life will be assessing student usage of the service for the duration of its trial run in order to determine on-campus demand for the program.
“We welcome feedback from those who are utilizing Washed Again,” Medley said.
In addition to Washed Again, Residence Life is continuing to assess current campus laundry facilities with an eye towards increasing accessibility for residents. Goals this academic year have included improved turnaround times on fulfilling laundry machine maintenance requests, as well as encouraging tidiness in community laundry rooms. For the time being, however, Residence Life has announced no plans for further significant changes to campus laundry offerings.
