writing
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There is a box in my closet that I open carefully. Not because it’s fragile. Not because it’s heavy. But because I know what’s waiting on the other side of the lid — a smell so specific, so stubbornly, impossibly him, that opening it feels less like accessing storage and more like stepping through a…
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There is a reason so many cults wear white. There is a reason brides walk down the aisle in it. There is a reason the “saved,” the “reborn,” the “enlightened,” the “chosen” — across religions and centuries — so often end up in the same color. White. Not red.Not blue.Not green. White. And when you…
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It’s been a while since I’ve written here at The Laundry Club. Three months. Long enough for the leaves to fall, the clocks to shift, and the days to shrink into something that feels smaller than it should. Long enough for the sun to start clocking out before dinner. Long enough for the quiet to…
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Long before peppermint lattes, inflatable yard reindeer, and online shopping took over December, there was a different kind of holiday anticipation — the kind that made Alpine children double- and triple-check their behavior. Because in the snow-covered villages of Germany, Austria, Bavaria, and the sloping valleys of the Alps, December didn’t begin with sugarplums. It…
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It’s been a while since I’ve written here at The Laundry Club. I’ve missed this little corner of the internet—and I’ve missed you, whether that’s a whole crowd of readers or just the echo of my own words. Life has been loud lately. Projects, dreams, goals—they’ve been tugging me in all directions. But laundry? Laundry…
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I didn’t start writing about laundry because I thought it was chic or glamorous. Or because I felt the world needed another tutorial on separating reds from whites. I started writing about laundry because I didn’t know what else to do. “Back in the day”, I had a dream: my own laundromat, The Laundry Club.…
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France’s Public Washhouses and the Heartbeat of Village Life Laundry is never just about clothes. It’s about people, ritual, and the rhythms of daily life. In 18th- and 19th-century France, laundry wasn’t tucked away in a basement machine or folded quickly in front of the TV—it was out in the open, woven into the very…
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There are love letters we write on paper, sealed with ink, perfume, and the trembling urgency of our hands. And then there are the love letters we never realize we’re writing—the ones etched into the fabric of everyday life. These are the shirts that carry the scent of someone’s skin, the socks we fold into…
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Human trafficking is not a new crime—it’s just had many names over time. From indentured servitude and peonage in the 19th century, to “domestic service” arrangements that trapped women and children in hidden labor, trafficking has long relied on the anonymity of certain spaces: farms, factories, restaurants, massage parlors—and yes, laundry services. Back in the…
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What if every knot in your laundry wasn’t just a nuisance—but a spell? In the folds of old Germanic folk tradition lies a sensual, secret magic—knot binding—a ritual practice where emotions, fate, and desire were tied, quite literally, into fabric. Underwear wasn’t just a place for elastic and lace—it was a spiritual battlefield, a love…
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Remember 2020? The world went on pause, toilet paper became a currency, and banana bread had a full-blown renaissance. But tucked away beneath the sourdough starters and Zoom fatigue was another, lesser-known pandemic casualty: the American quarter. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Mint did what many businesses did—it scaled back operations.…
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“The blood must be scrubbed, but never spoken of.” That might as well be the tagline of every gothic novel ever written. When it comes to vampire fiction and gothic literature, certain symbols repeat like clockwork: castles, ravens, candlelight… and blood-stained linens. But behind the velvet curtains and moonlit manors lies a curiously overlooked detail…
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It sounds like the setup for a dark comedy or a twisted Agatha Christie plot: death by laundry. But across history and into modern times, laundry—mundane, necessary, and often overlooked—has played a grim role in many real-life tragedies. From deadly industrial dryers to poison-laced garments, the world of laundry holds secrets soaked in sorrow and…
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A cheeky exposé on intimate organization, laundry habits, and the bizarre tribalism surrounding underthings. There are few things in life more polarizing than pineapple on pizza, cats vs. dogs, or whether you should text back “haha” or “lol.” But hidden deep in your dresser drawer lies a lesser-known domestic battlefield: how in the holy hamper…
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By the year 2085, laundry is no longer a chore. It is infrastructure. It hums beneath cities like a circulatory system. It pulses through residential walls. It moves in narrow, dedicated lanes beside commuters who barely glance at it anymore. Children do not know what lint is. Teenagers have never argued over whose turn it…
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The laundromats of Fukushima, Japan, offer a haunting snapshot of lives interrupted, their silence echoing through a space once filled with the hum of machines and the soft chatter of neighbors. When the catastrophic earthquake and nuclear disaster struck in March 2011, residents were forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their…
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Alaska: Eskimo, C1906. /Nan Inuit Man Doing Laundry In Tub Outside His Tent, With Clothes Hanging To Dry In The Background, Nome, Alaska. Photograph, C1906. In the early 20th century, daily life in Alaska for the Inuit people, often referred to as Eskimos in historical texts, was deeply tied to their environment and the challenges…
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A Hard Day’s Work On every Indian Wars Army post was an area called, variously, soapsuds row, suds row, or sudsville, where the company laundresses lived and worked. Most mornings would find these women preparing for their day’s work. Some might be struggling with heavy buckets of water to fill their large washtubs, while others…
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Sometimes, I miss going to the laundromat. It provided a much-needed third space in an area that offers few of them. It also provided a place to think. Well, sometimes, anyway. Afternoon talk shows and sometimes the evening news played on the TV, and children often skidded around the washer and dryer banks, their screams…
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