Laundromat manager.
There are not really any bad things about helping people get clean clothes. I mean like when I was working in bars all I felt like I was doing was helping people drink and act stupider. When I was working in allied health I felt the most lasting thing I was doing would be helping insurance rates go up.
No one sells drugs in the laundromat. There's no prostitution going on either. No one gets wasted and throws up. There's no money laundering going on. It's not a drug front.
No one dies in the laundromat. No one tells me I have to bill the people who come in for stuff they didn't need. There's no up selling.
We have a system the tracks where every single quarter goes. There's an honest profit margin. Machines break, we fix them. Problem solved. Someone complains, we decide to give them a refund, Problem solved. Someone acts like an idiot? We throw them out. Problem solved.
For the most part, people come in, do laundry and leave. We provide a needed service. We see the same families every week. When we see new folks we know they're new folks. I like that I can be with my husband. I also like that the mat has no public restroom so I don't ever have to clean up someone else's ANYTHING.
It's not glamorous, that's for sure. It's not a full time gig, either. It HAS kept a roof over our heads though. We go in everyday to clean, check messages and machines. Two days a week we do admin stuff and that takes 2 hours each time. Whenever we do maintenance/repair on the machines it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours depending on what happened.
The good and bad thing about laundry is that everyone has to do it. Even homeless people. The ones who are NOT junkies wash their clothes like normal people... junkies just throw their wet uriney/unwashed/muddy clothes in a dryer because they just want to be dry and don't care they smell bad. Then the dryer has to be sanitized before anyone else can use it because it smells like death.
Whenever I see homeless people doing their laundry with soap I give them free soap to use the next time they come in. Because I, myself, know how hard it is to stay clean when you are on the street. And they are probably doing laundry instead of getting to eat. I also slip an extra quarter into their dryers when no one is looking.
No one sells drugs in the laundromat. There's no prostitution going on either. No one gets wasted and throws up. There's no money laundering going on. It's not a drug front.
No one dies in the laundromat. No one tells me I have to bill the people who come in for stuff they didn't need. There's no up selling.
We have a system the tracks where every single quarter goes. There's an honest profit margin. Machines break, we fix them. Problem solved. Someone complains, we decide to give them a refund, Problem solved. Someone acts like an idiot? We throw them out. Problem solved.
For the most part, people come in, do laundry and leave. We provide a needed service. We see the same families every week. When we see new folks we know they're new folks. I like that I can be with my husband. I also like that the mat has no public restroom so I don't ever have to clean up someone else's ANYTHING.
It's not glamorous, that's for sure. It's not a full time gig, either. It HAS kept a roof over our heads though. We go in everyday to clean, check messages and machines. Two days a week we do admin stuff and that takes 2 hours each time. Whenever we do maintenance/repair on the machines it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours depending on what happened.
The good and bad thing about laundry is that everyone has to do it. Even homeless people. The ones who are NOT junkies wash their clothes like normal people... junkies just throw their wet uriney/unwashed/muddy clothes in a dryer because they just want to be dry and don't care they smell bad. Then the dryer has to be sanitized before anyone else can use it because it smells like death.
Whenever I see homeless people doing their laundry with soap I give them free soap to use the next time they come in. Because I, myself, know how hard it is to stay clean when you are on the street. And they are probably doing laundry instead of getting to eat. I also slip an extra quarter into their dryers when no one is looking.