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For students whose moms don’t swing by Kent every weekend to pick up and drop off laundry, the task of getting clothes clean can be a daunting one. The more laundry stacks up, as it tends to do, the more money students can wind up spending.

Students both on and off campus have many different options around Kent to get their clothes clean.

One place to do laundry off-campus is Laundry 101, located in the Acme plaza off state Route 59. Laundry 101 is affiliated with 101 Bottles and is Kent’s only Laundromat-bar combination.

“I can sit down and have a beer while I wait for my laundry,” said Marty Cook, sophomore pre-nursing major. “I can walk to Acme or get some Chinese. Sheetz is right across the street. It’s just a great location. Laundry isn’t exactly the most entertaining thing.”

In addition to the in-house bar and snack area, Laundry 101 offers other entertainment like free Wi-Fi, pool tables, televisions and arcade games.

“The staff is great, and I love the quad loaders,” Cook said. “I usually put off laundry and this way I can get most of my laundry in a couple loads instead of five or six.”

Washers at Laundry 101 cost between $1.75 and $4.50 depending on the size of the machine, and dryers cost 25 cents for 6 minutes.

“(Laundry 101) is pricey, but that’s expected in a college area,” said Eric French, senior accounting and finance major. “I’ve never been in (Campus Coin Laundry) before; it just looks sketchy.”

Campus Coin Laundry is located just up the road from Laundry 101, off East Main Street in the Penn Station Plaza. Campus Coin is owned and managed by Bruno’s Authentic Pizza, which is in the same plaza.

“I like going (to Campus Coin) because it’s inexpensive and I don’t see a lot of people when I’m here,” said Amy Hawkins, junior history major.

Washers cost $1.25, and a quarter will buy 8 to 15 minutes of drying time, depending on the dryer.

Campus Coin doesn’t have an on-site staff, but patrons can go to Bruno’s Pizza for assistance or dollar bills for the change machine.

Like Laundry 101, Campus Coin is in a location that allows patrons to stay entertained. Students can get food at Bruno’s Pizza or Penn Station, buy beer at 101 Bottles or browse DVDs at The Exchange.

“It’s your basic Laundromat, and it’s really not as bad as it looks,” Hawkins said.

In order to do laundry on campus, students need a university laundry card. Laundry machines are located at each residence desk and do not accept $1 bills.

Washers in campus laundry rooms cost $2.50 per load and drying is free. But even with free drying, students still find the cost of laundry pricey on campus.

Kyle Little, sophomore pre-nursing major, said she combines her washing with her roommate’s each week in order to save money.

Chris Baldwin, junior theatre studies major, goes to more extreme measures to save money on laundry. “I’m a bit of a cheapskate. What I’ve been doing is I go to a Laundromat and I wash my clothes for less money and then I throw them in my bag and dry them for free on campus. It probably only saves me 2 or 3 dollars a week, but what can you do?”

For students who aren’t necessarily looking to save money but would like help with their laundry, there’s Laundry in a Flash

. Run by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation

, the service allows students to sign up online to have their clothes washed for them.

“It’s been a very successful program,” said Chris Lintner, junior entrepreneurship major and CEO of Laundry in a Flash. “We’re reaching revenue goals we never thought we would.”

A semester (14 weeks) of laundry done through Laundry in a Flash costs $229 with prorated costs for those who sign up later in the semester. Students who sign up for the program receive a key to pick up and drop off their laundry at their assigned location as well as a 17-pound laundry bag, which is a little bit less than double what you would get in the machines at the dorms, Lintner said.

Contact Julie Sickel at [email protected].