• There are no laundromats in Sweden

    Date: 2010.05.24 | Category: Sweden | Tags:

    My friend Neal sent me an article on the musical duo The Handsome Family, whom he recently presented in concert. The Handsomes are almost as renowned for their between-song patter as they are for their music. “If we spent the day doing laundry, I’ll talk about it on stage,” said singer/lyricist Rennie Sparks. “Once we were in Sweden and Brett [Sparks] had hung his underwear out the hotel window to dry. Of course, it all blew away. I couldn’t help telling everyone at the show that night.”

    “In Sweden, she noted, there are no laundromats because everyone can afford a washer/dryer.”

    A socialist paradise indeed! I felt compelled to do a bit of fact-checking. Are there truly no laundromats in Sweden?

    When Joe & I were living in Stockholm a couple of years ago, we stayed in an apartment building that had a shared laundry room in the basement. That is also the case in my aunt’s building. You sign up for a time slot, and as a nice, polite Swede, you make sure you do your wash and clear it from the machines in time for the next person. The machines were all free of charge, and the facility was quite pleasant — everything was top quality, and there was even an iron and ironing board available. One of the two washers broke down during our stay, but it was swiftly repaired. You do have to bring your own detergent. I wasn’t sure if they had fabric softener sheets in Sweden, so I had packed a few in my luggage before leaving home.

    Anyway, it turns out that Rennie Sparks was (almost) right! According to a 2008 article from Sydsvenskan newspaper, Stockholm — a city of over 800,000 people — has but a single tvättomat, or laundromat, centrally located in the Odenplan neighborhood. According to the owner, Elisabeth Gordon, “When I took over in the 80s, there were four [laundromats] here in Vasastan. Now I’m the only one in Sweden to my knowledge.”

    Who uses the laundromat? “It could be someone who is renovating their laundry room. Or older people who do not know how to use the new machines available in the laundry. Or someone who does not dare to be him/herself in the laundry room and feels safe here.”

    The article then goes into a helpful history of laundry in Sweden. From 1800-1900, being a washerwoman or a mangler was a growing occupation. In the mid-1900s, most people did their own washing at home; many used klappbryggor, or washing-bats, at the waterfront, to help beat the dirt out of their garments. In 1925, housing cooperative HSB introduced electrical washing machines, centrifuges and dryers in their Stockholm properties. They were expensive and required constant manning.

    In the 1940s, common-area laundry rooms were placed in apartment houses with the help of government loans. By the early 1950s, 8 percent of all households had access to public laundry facilities and 12 percent had private washing machines. 70 percent of households still washed by hand.

    In the mid-1950s, 80 percent of all households in apartment buildings had laundry facilities. Ten years later, the proportion had grown to 90 percent. By the early 70s, it was 94 percent. Nowadays, commercial laundries fill few needs — mostly dry-cleaning and the washing of oversized items like rugs that can’t be washed in a normal-sized machine… except for that single tvättomat in Odenplan.

    What about in the U.S.? A census survey from 2002 reports that 80% of Americans own washing machines, which leaves a lot of people who still have to rely on their local laundromat. There are about 35,000 of them, according to the Coin Laundry Association, and it’s a good time to own such a business: “During periods of recession, when home ownership decreases, the self-service laundry market expands as more people are unable to afford to repair, replace or purchase new washers and dryers, or as they move to apartment housing with inadequate or nonexistent laundry facilities. The market size grows proportionately to the increase in population. The public will always need this basic health service — people always need to wash clothes!” Clearly, at least in this regard, we have a way to go before we catch up with Sweden, where people never need to worry about saving their coins to feed the washer and dryer.