Living Essex : cleaning

The first time you wash your own clothes at university is a pivotal moment. It means you really have made the transition to student maturity. Of course however, it’s still useful if you have enough clothes to survive the term without visiting the launderette. Giant black bin bags full of stale garments are greeted with glee by parents come holiday time - it gives them something to do; it makes them feel wanted. But most students never have enough clean clothes to last a couple of weeks, let alone a whole term! So here are a few pointers on laundry life at university…..

1. Put all your clothes on a wash cycle of 40 - even if the labels say they can handle a boil wash of 300. This prevents any unwanted shrinkage (and is much kinder to the environment). It also stops you walking round campus in clothes which used to be white, but now have a distinctive grey tinge to them.
2. The launderette on campus is fairly cheap, about £2 for a wash but you’ll need millions of 20ps for the machines; so start collecting loose change when you still have a decent supply of clean pants. And if you don’t want you’re flat to turn into the Amazon Rainforest, make use of the dryers (only about 60p) before you head back with your load.
3. Don’t bother ironing your clothes: when you hang them up, most of the creases will fall out (sort of). This works especially well if you hang them in the shower – the steam works wonders. On the other hand, if you’re planning to go out and impress the opposite sex, you won’t want to go out looking like a giant fabric prune. Every flat comes equipped with an iron (and ironing board), so make use of it if smooth is your style.
4. If you’re really desperate, you have a big night planned, you have completely run out of clean clothes and the least smelly top you have found shoved on the top of your washing bin has a massive stain on it – don’t despair! Simply dampen the stain and rub with some normal hand soap (works wonders!) before quickly drying with a hairdryer. Give it a quick spray of Febreze and ta da – there you have it – as good as new!

Other sorts of ‘cleaning’ at uni include; preventing your room from deteriorating into a squalid pit; personal hygiene (obviously); and of course, the dreaded washing-up. Henry the Hoover will help you out with the first - each flat is equipped with one, as will not leaving loads of dirty plates to build up and go mouldy, and to clean things up if they get spilt. You’re on your own with the second (it should be fairly obvious). That just leaves the washing-up.

The washing-up pile can very easily spiral out of control becoming an infested nature reserve, covered in mould and smelling like a skip. The cleaners will then dump the whole lot in a large cardboard box and threaten to take it away altogether. It’s best not to let things get this far - you will need a few knives and forks to eat with occasionally. The best way to avoid this is to go on a flat outing to Tesco at the start of term to invest in some Value cleaning products. Then nobody will have an excuse for no doing their washing up!