Doing laundry at UNC-Chapel Hill’s on-campus housing can be difficult for students, and many students say UNC should provide students with more laundry machines to make the process easier.

Most of UNC’s on-campus housing offers the classic dorm experience. Students sharing a laundry room with all their hall-mates is a part of that experience.  

Teague Residence Hall does not have a laundry room, so residents have to do their laundry elsewhere. Charley Vandenstockt, a freshman majoring in psychology, lives in Teague.

She said she does her laundry at Carmichael Residence Hall, which is next to Teague. Vandenstockt lives on the third floor, and Teague does not have an elevator.

“Me and my friends are athletes, so we're already sore as it is, and we have to carry our laundry all the way over to Carmichael and back,” said Vandenstockt, who is on the field hockey team.

Vandenstockt also said she does not appreciate when people take her clothes out of the machines. Many students admit to taking peers’ clothes out of machines without consent.

“Other people take out my clothes all the time,” said Vandentockt. “One of my LuluLemon bras got broken because someone took it out of the laundry.”

Jack Jones, a sophomore majoring in business and music, also lives in Teague. He said there are not enough washing machines in Carmichael. The dryers that are there are often broken, he said.

He said Teague, Carmichael and Parker residence halls all share two laundry rooms. That’s 825 students. Jones said that between the two rooms, there are about 10 washers and dryers in all.

Not every Teague resident is so unhappy, though. Sophie Schultz, a sophomore majoring in history and math, said doing laundry while living at Teague is “really easy.”

She said her room is on the second floor near the side of Teague Hall. This makes her walk to Carmichael’s laundry room easy.

However, Schultz noted that her situation is better than others’.

“I think I'm a great exception because I'm literally right on that side,” said Schultz. “I'm practically in Carmichael.”

Geneva Paison, a sophomore media and journalism major, said her experience doing laundry at Granville Towers last year was “pretty awful.”

When she went to do laundry, the working machines—some were broken—were often already in use, she said. When she was able to wash her clothes, the dryers would be in use. Her clothes stayed wet until one opened up, she said.

Sometimes, residents did not remove their clothes from the machines when the cycle ended, Paison said. She felt bad about taking others’ clothes out, but she did.

“I would sit and wait, and if it's 10 minutes, your clothes are getting taken out.  But I did always put them on top of the washer and drying machine.”

Despite her complaints, Paison did not blame her fellow students.

“I feel like everyone's just trying their best to get their laundry done, so I feel like students are doing okay,” she said.

UNC, on the other hand, should supply more laundry machines, Paison said. Jones agreed, saying more laundry machines would make doing laundry easier on students.