Mindy Knows Launderland

Fortunately I was able to salvage my mood last night thanks to GLM Launderland. It's conveniently located in the same strip as Frozos and Hungry Hound across Lafayette Street from the university in Santa Clara. Aside from the dorm's washers and dryers at SCU, I'd been spoiled enough to not have to use a laundromat. (I dated a guy in college who was from the area and his family always let me use their washer and dryer.) Therefore, this was my first experience frequenting one and you know what? I'd go back!

One, this place is immaculately clean. Two, no waiting. In fact, I'd say there is less waiting. I know that sounds impossible since, How can you have less than zero? But allow my to clarify: you can spread out all your washing and drying over multiple machines. In other words, 3 loads takes the same amount of time to wash and dry as it does to wash and dry a single load. Also, their washers and dryers are industrial-sized; I could've fit 3 regular-sized loads in one dryer. Finally, the dryers are SUPER hot, meaning even bulky sweatshirts and towels dry SUPER fast. I greatly overestimated the amount of quarters it'd take to dry mine, even with the temp set at Medium. The instructions said $0.25 got you 8 minutes. I figured since the dryer back at the apartment got you 45 minutes with 3 quarters and that rarely dried everything thoroughly (it's not uncommon to find clothing and towels draped all around the apartment hang-drying), I'd put 5 quarters in for 40 minutes. After a few rounds of Uno with Shrek, I went to remove my jeans at 20 minutes and everything was bone dry and scorching hot. I freaked at first because these were my new never-before-been-washed $180 Paige jeans, but they fit just fine when I tried them on back at the apartment. Must be all that stretchy denim.

The feel good moment of the night, though? No, not when I realized my pants still fit. There was a tired-looking couple sitting on the hood of their car which was parked next to ours outside, waiting for their laundry to finish drying when we left. Earlier, I'd watched them out of the corner of my eye (over)stuff all their laundry into one dryer. We offered them the remaining time on ours. See, once I realized I was going to end up at the laundromat with access to multiple dryers, I went ahead and did a few loads of wash at the apartment so we actually had two dryers with about 20 minutes of dry time each when we left. The couple thanked us and immediately jumped up and went inside to separate their huge load of laundry into multiple smaller ones. It was a very small gesture but it made my trip to the laundromat more worthwhile than if I'd just, you know, done the damn thing.

GLM Launderland

1000 Lafayette Street

Suite B

Santa Clara, CA 95050

Open 7 days a week

Hours: 6 a.m. - 10 p.m.

They do offer Wi-Fi and like I mentioned, they are located in the same strip as Frozos and Hungry Hound, as well as Togos.