1066: Laundry

Laundry

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Title text: During the second semester, the path is briefly routed through the dishwasher.

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Explanation

In the United States of America, college (or university) is the usual form of education following secondary education (e.g. high school). College life typically offers the student much more freedom in their habits, especially if they live in a dormitory. For many college students, this represents the first time they have had to do their own laundry, or at least the first time a parent isn't there to nag them into doing it properly. This comic is about how the laundry habits of such independent college students degrade over the course of time. In each panel, circles represent certain locations for clothes, while directed paths connect the locations, representing the movement of clothes. As such, each panel is a kind of graph. The black paths appear to represent the regular or usual movement of clothes, while the grey paths show the change from the previous graph and may represent the occasional/less frequent movement of (some) clothes.

Time	Graph	Explanation
First week of semester	A black circular path connecting body, hamper, washer & dryer, folding area, dresser & closet, back to body. The floor is not part of the path.	In the first week, the student undertakes a proper laundry routine, using the clothes, putting them in a hamper, washing and drying them, folding them in a designated folding area, and then putting them in the dresser.
Second week	A grey path has been added, connecting washer & dryer via dresser & closet to body. The main black path now connects body, hamper, and washer & dryer, back to body.	By the second week, due to increasing laziness or workload, they have largely abandoned folding their clothes and shove them straight in the dresser & closet. This is a common practice to save time, though it will make the clothes take up more space and may leave them wrinkled.
Third week	The grey path connects washer & dryer via dresser & closet to body. The main black path connects body, hamper, and washer & dryer in a loop.	By the third week, they no longer bother with hanging them in the closet, and simply leave clean clothes on the floor before they are worn. This is not good practice, as clothes left on the floor are very likely to get dirty before they are even worn, as well as taking up floor space. Another common practice is to leave clean clothes on a table or chair, or in the container used to transfer them from the laundry to the student's room.
Second month	The grey path now connects body via hamper to washer & dryer. The main black path connects body and washer & dryer in a loop, with the floor also part of the return path from washer & dryer to body.	After the first month, dirty clothes are no longer stored in a laundry hamper and are just dumped on the floor. This takes up floor space, makes the clothes dirtier, and may create an unpleasant stench in the room. In addition, if both dirty and clean clothing is stored the same way, then it would be possible to confuse which clothing is clean.
End of first semester	The black path connects body to itself via the floor. The grey path connects body and washer & dryer in a loop.	By the end of the semester, clothes are not washed at all — instead rotating between the floor and the student's body. This may stain or otherwise ruin the clothes over time, typically gives the student a bad odour, and may be a health hazard: however, it cuts out all the effort of laundering clothes.
Second semester	Title text	The title text seems to indicate that the student has a brainwave during the start of the second semester to wash their clothes in the dishwasher along with the dishes, presumably as a timesaver. The experiment was brief because dishwashers aren't actually any good at washing clothes: they wouldn't move the clothes about in order to effectively free the dirt. Unsubstantiated life hacks do recommend putting certain pieces of clothing (baseball caps in particular) in the dishwasher.

An unmentioned possibility is that, when the student can't be bothered, they can simply continue to wear the same pair of clothes. This would decrease the work to zero, but would increase odor problems and be a detriment to personal hygiene. Another work-eliminating trend not mentioned is saving dirty laundry until visiting parents; however, this runs the risk of either being forced to wash all the garments at the parents' residence or getting a lecture.

Transcript

College Laundry Habits

[Panel labeled "First Week". 5 ovals arranged in a rough circle, with a clockwise path connecting them: "Dresser & Closet", "On Body", "Hamper", "Washer & Dryer", "Folding Area" (and back to the first). The area outside the ovals is labeled "Floor."]

[Panel labeled "Second Week". The path has been modified so that it does not go through "Folding Area" - only through the other 4 ovals.]

[Panel labeled "Third Week". The path has been modified so that it does not go through "Dresser & Closet". Only "On Body", "Hamper", and "Washer & Dryer" remain.]

[Panel labeled "Second Month". The path no longer passes through "Hamper" - only "On Body" and "Washer & Dryer".]

[Panel labeled "End of Semester". The path no longer goes to "Washer & Dryer", instead just looping back around from "On Body" to "On Body" again after passing through the "Floor."]

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Discussion

The explanation for comic 1066: Laundry was selected by the Explanation Improvement Project as This Week's Explanation for Improvement after being nominated in August 2026 by 7amithorn. During that week, editors focused on expanding and polishing this explanation as part of an ongoing effort to keep older or under-developed explanations fresh and complete. (compare before and after)

I tend to skip straight to the last panel, unless there's a special occasion that necessitates a trip to the washing machine. Davidy²²(talk) 07:09, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

I don't really understand the dishwasher in the title text. Explanation please?75.69.96.225 21:58, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

It refers to using the dishwasher as a makeshift washing machine. 170.235.245.52 (talk) 18:53, 31 May 2013 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I've added "and stress from due assignments". As a college student that have been through 4 years (with some 2,5 still to go), I know how that can change your routine. Although I can't relate to the clothes process per se. My knowledge in English is not 100%, so please correct that phrase if needed be. 108.162.254.65 03:26, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Does this comic belong in the flowchart category? I guess it is a flowchart, but it does not seem to have multiple paths, and it does not match the rest of the flowchart comics. Reywas (talk) 22:55, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

SO DISAPPOINTED that comic 1066 does not have any references to hastings or vikings 162.158.255.113 (talk) 01:07, 8 July 2016 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Floordrobe 141.101.70.37 08:48, 16 August 2016 (UTC)martin yarwood

I vote to keep it, but why is the citation needed not in the {{citation needed}} tag?? 108.162.237.167 12:56, 10 November 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

This is my first attempt at a wikiwhatever, and am curious if it should be worth noting that many colleges tend to have large laundromat-like facilities, so many of the steps are left out due to that (not wanting to fold in fold in front of others, waiting on machines to be free, or even just dragging the clothes to facility all together). 6:06, 13 August 2024 DireMarpy -- DireMarpy (talk) 11:07, 13 August 2024 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
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