Lakshami Laundry

You can find us at the shopping centre, unit 279. It is usually pretty easy to find because you can hear the machines humming from the walkway. We spend most of our time surrounded by piles of clothes, sheets, and towels. The air is almost always warm and smells like soap and steam. We have a few big washing machines and some heavy irons that we use all day long. Some people bring in their daily clothes, while others have big curtains or heavy blankets that they can't wash at home. It’s a lot of folding and sorting, making sure the socks stay together and nothing gets mixed up. We have a counter where we take in the bags and write out the slips by hand. Sometimes we have a lot of work piled up, especially after a long weekend when everyone seems to run out of clean shirts at the same time. The floor is often a bit damp from the steam, and we have racks everywhere to hang things up once they are finished. We don’t have a big team, just a few of us making sure everything gets dried and ironed properly. It is a lot of standing on your feet, but we like the routine of it. We just keep the water running and the irons hot until it is time to close up the shop and head home for a rest.