No room to dry washing? Laundry options for Brisbane apartments

The apartment laundry problem

Apartment living in New Farm, Newstead, Kangaroo Point or the inner city is great until laundry day. The usual problems:

• A small machine tucked in a cupboard, and often no dryer
• Nowhere to hang sheets or towels
• Many buildings have by-laws against hanging washing on the balcony
• Brisbane humidity, which means washing dried indoors can take a day or more and still smell damp

Towels and bedding are the worst of it. A queen sheet set simply doesn't fit on a clothes airer.

Option 1: Do it all at home

Good for: everyday clothes, small loads.

The catch: bedding and towels. Drying them indoors in a Brisbane summer is slow, and damp towels are where mildew starts. A dehumidifier helps, but it's another appliance in a small space.

Option 2: The building's shared laundry

Good for: buildings that have one, and people with flexible hours.

The catch: you're competing with your neighbours for machines on the weekend, and you need to be there to swap loads.

Option 3: A laundromat

Good for: cost. Roughly $20 to $26 in machine fees for two loads, and the big dryers make short work of bedding.

The catch: the trip and the wait. Carrying a fortnight of washing down in the lift and across town takes a good chunk of a Saturday.

Option 4: Pickup and delivery

Good for: getting the hours back. The bag goes out, and it comes back clean, dry and folded.

The catch: it costs more than a laundromat, and we won't pretend otherwise.

A lot of our apartment customers split it. Everyday clothes at home, and sheets, towels and bulky bedding to us. That solves the drying problem without paying to have every t-shirt washed.

How pickup works in an apartment building

This is the part people worry about, and it's simple:

• Leave the bag at your door, in the lobby, or with the concierge — whatever suits your building
• Tell us about access in the booking notes: intercom, a lobby drop spot, a safe place
• You don't need to be home. We text when we collect and when we deliver
• Evening pickups run 5 to 8pm, so it works around office hours

What it costs

• First 2 loads: $66 including GST — the minimum booking
• Each extra load: $27.50, and one load is up to 5kg
• A king-size doona usually counts as one load on its own
• Free pickup and delivery across inner Brisbane

New customers get their first 2 loads for $33 — the second load is free. Nothing to pay when you book.

A sensible way to try it

Strip the beds and gather the towels — the stuff that's hardest to dry in an apartment — and send that as your first order. Get your first 2 loads for $33. If you set up a regular pickup afterwards, ask us for a free reusable laundry bag.