Feature Writing Sample - Student Laundry Service

LaundryU, a new business coming to the laundry rescue for Ohio State students, will soon be opening to service the campus area students and residents alike. The business concept, a first of its kind for the Ohio State community, has spurred from inspiration from similar ventures at colleges nationwide, including Indiana, Wisconsin, Baylor, TCU, and thirty-five campuses in total.

The idea is to be a professional, alternative service from students either doing their own laundry or taking it back home for the parents to bail them out. Owner and brain behind the business, Ed Knezevich explained the service.  “LaundryU is a full-service laundry company,” Knezevich said. “We’re specializing in pickup and delivery laundry service. A problem that most college kids face is they just don’t find time to do it; it piles up in dorms, it’s gross, basically we’re just trying to take care of people’s dirty work.”

As the majority of students share a laundry area – whether it is a laundry room for an apartment building, dorm laundry, or community laundry for fraternities and sororities, all of them can relate to the grit and time consumption of the college laundry experience. According to Knezevich, it will relieve this stress.

“Let’s have a service that comes and picks up the laundry and does everything for you,” He added. “The average student spends 2.75 hours a week doing laundry, so we want to give you that time back.”

Knezevich is a recent OSU grad (June 2011) who has been working on this project for over a year. His idea was inspired from a friend while taking the LSAT together. The friend informed (Knezevich) of a campus laundry service at Indiana University. “I started doing research on it about a year and a half ago,” Knezevich said. “I wondered why it couldn’t be done here and realized it’s such an expensive startup, but basically I’m learning through the whole process. It’s now becoming a reality and I’m really excited about it.”

Located on Armstrong St. in the Arena District, LaundryU plans to open on (or before) October 10^th. Hours of operation will be Monday-Friday, 9-5 (tentatively). The service offers various options for delivery and pickup plans, with various prices available on their website – www.laundryu.com. Their prices go from yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly plans with a maximum 48-hour turnaround. They also fold, sort & separate, package in plastic wrap, then place the clothing back in the laundry bag. The laundry bag itself even gets washed during each service.

“We looked at a lot of the other campuses and how they did it. We also wanted to make it as affordable as possible,” Knezevich said. “A lot of these other places, their prices are pay-per-pound (of laundry), or similar to us which is by the bag (a 25- 30 lb. bag, as long as it closes), but we’re actually cheaper than any other campus that has this product,” Knezevich added.  

He also plans to add a fun touch to the business with t-shirts with witty phrases on the back such as “U soil ‘em, we boil ‘em” and “before you air your dirty laundry, let us wash it”.

The first target customers will be dorm rooms and fraternities and sororities, but will also include campus houses and apartments on the route. If all goes according to plan, LaundryU will have fun with the new-concept business and give time and freedom back to Ohio State students.