Editor’s Corner: Students sing laundry blues

Survival of the fittest is something that we as humans deal with throughout our entire lives. Only the strongest survive, right? It’s basic instinct for humans to take care of themselves and fight for the essential food, water and shelter. This is no different here at Rider when it’s time to do laundry: Only the strongest prevail in the end.

Doing laundry on campus is like hiking up a snowy mountain. It’s possible to do; however, it’s going to be a lot of work and a long process to actually complete the task. One would think that washing clothes would be simple, but why should it be that easy? The laundry rooms in the dorms are war zones — you never know what you’re going to face.

First of all, if you actually go into the laundry room and find an available washing machine, you are really lucky. Most of the time they’re all full (usually all by the same greedy person who hasn’t done laundry in at least a month).

Not only are all the washers and dryers always full, the room usually looks like a clothes-bomb exploded. Piles of clothes, both wet and dry, usually cover every surface because of rude and impatient people.

There really is nothing more annoying than a person who just takes your clothes out of the washer or dryer if they aren’t done. It’s OK if someone’s clothes are done, as long as they’re not just tossed around somewhere. There’s a polite way of going about it. Taking wet clothes out of the washer and putting them in a dryer for the person is the right way to use the washer.

However, taking clothes out of the dryer and leaving them on top in a wet lump just so you can use the machine is not OK. There’s common courtesy when it comes to the laundry rooms, and it’s a shame that no one at Rider follows these rules.

It also doesn’t help that many people forget they even went downstairs to wash their clothes, in the first place. Countless times I’ve gone into the laundry room to see a pile of laundry on the table and return a week later to find that same pile there. Laundry is really important, and it makes me wonder how some people could just forget about it.

We’re all taught at a young age what it means to be polite, take our turn and to share with others, which is why I’m surprised that people become brutes before the spin cycle. If someone’s clothes aren’t done, don’t just take them out and leave them in a heap. It won’t kill you to wait for a machine to be open. Your laundry can wait.

Unfortunately for us, Rider only allots a certain amount of washers per residence hall. If only, with the amount of problems and complaints we deal with on a daily basis in these laundry rooms, Rider could possibly provide an extra machine or two in each hall. Until then, we only have these machines and we will continue to build the Laundry Rights Movement.

-Danielle Gittleman

Assistant opinion editor

Printed in the 2/22/13 edition.