So I have a little secret, I had never been to a laundrymat or lavaderia before my trip to one in Madrid. Unfortunately, this was not by choice but necessity, since our washing machine or lavadora decided to stop working. So, I stuffed what I thought would only be two loads of laundry into some shopping bags and walked four blocks over to our neighborhood lavaderia. They have six washers and three commerical size dryers, I unfortunately needed four of those washers, which is when I learned the drum size for their washers is a little smaller than back in the states. The owner felt sorry me and helped load the clothes in and fill them with complimentary detergent. She even asked if I wanted anything ironed, including the sheets. So all in all not a bad experience, except I did have to shell out 3 euros per load in the washer and an euro per load for the dryer. They are open M-Th 8:00am-8:00pm, Sat and Suns 8am-11pm (Calle de Leon, 6 near Metro Anton Martin)
I have enjoyed our new washer (thank you Carmen and Lou) because it has a couple of “new features” on it, that sometimes you don’t see on all Spanish lavadoras. It has a rapido or fast wash setting for 30 mins, I can’t tell what a convenience it is to have this because most of my friends here complain that a cycle can take at least an hour and a half. It also has a very fast spin cycle so that the clothes aren’t dripping wet when you pull them out. This is important because most Spanish apartments don’t have dryers or secadoras, instead they hang their clothes to dry on their terrace. We’re lucky its just the two of us, so I’ll do laundry twice a week in order to have enough drying space. (i.e. two clothesline in the bathtub)
One last option is the dry cleaners. We go to Saigon Dry Cleaning near the laundrymat on Leon St, 12. (open M-F 9:15am-2pm and 5pm-8:10pm, Sat 9-11:30am, closed on Sun) One time we took two pairs of pants and six sweaters, and the bill was only 25 euros. (not bad compared to Hawaii’s prices) It took three days before they were ready for pickup, but they also have overnight cleaning as well. Everything was the same as back home except they aren’t open on Sundays, and instead of leaving your clothes on hangers to take home, they neatly fold them and wrap them in tissue paper.
