8Jun/1249
Laundry
by Jeff
Image text: During the second semester, the path is briefly routed through the dishwasher.
This comic is all about college laundry habits and how as time goes by, you end up just throwing clothes on the floor and then wearing them again. Also applicable in real life.
June 8th, 2012
So college is not real life?
I’m also kind of surprised that it takes the floor that long to become part of the cycle. I would’ve expected it to show up as an intermediate step pretty quickly – in week 3 or so…
June 12th, 2012
So college is not real life?
Um, no. Of course not. I take it you’ve never been to college (or are still in college).
June 18th, 2012
As graduation approaches 1, I’m becoming more and more convinced that it’s all just a dream.
June 18th, 2012
Implying I actually have time to sleep.
June 8th, 2012
The floor becomes the entirety of the cycle during spring break (and reading week). Sadly for very different reasons.
June 8th, 2012
Since the [Floor] doesn’t have a circle and arrow lines going to it, it’s hard to tell from these graphs where it enters into the equation. It is third week, or not until end of semester? Or is it never?
June 8th, 2012
My guess is that the floor is where the laundry can end up at any time that it is traversing between one state and the next.
June 8th, 2012
I have given a little thought to that question.
1st week: Everything is fine, nothing lands on the floor.
2nd week: laundry is taken from the washer/dryer and sorted into the dresser. Dropping them on the floor and later putting them in the dresser makes little sense, at least to me.
3rd week: dresser is omitted, and the floor takes over that role. Dirty laundry is still collected, though.
2nd month: dirty laundry is not collected any more, so it lands on the floor as well. So dirty and clean clothes could get mixed up.
End of semester: consequently, laundry is skipped. Who can distinguish anyway between clean or used, at this stage? Anyways, they loose some of their scent overnight, and skipping laundry saves not only time, but money!1!!one!1eleven
June 8th, 2012
On Saturday night to Sunday morning, the clothes don’t actually leave your body. (Walk of shame.)
June 8th, 2012
Hopefully the chlothes hit the floor at somepoint in the evening.
June 8th, 2012
That depends on whether you are boy or a girl, doesn’t it?
Especially in IT/Math/Physics circles, like the core audience of XKCD is.
June 8th, 2012
Im surprised there is not a Body to Hamper to Body circle. That’s how I survived half the time in college. “This smells fine. I can re-wear this, its not that dirty.”
June 8th, 2012
When you get to be older in college you will learn to not only smell the clothes, but also check for stains.
June 8th, 2012
You also develop an unfortunate tolerance for (your own) dirty laundry odors, and a stain-blindness, which makes it difficult to escape out of the inevitable end-of-semester cycle.
June 10th, 2012
I reserved the hamper for one-time use clothes like socks and underwear. It’s only dirty if it’s in the hamper. If it’s a shirt or pants I wore and I put it on the floor (or if it got trapped in the chair-bed-chair-bed cycle), then it’s totally legit as long as it passes the smell test. Jeans? Washed once a semester or if I spilled something on them.
June 8th, 2012
I think that the floor can represent any in-between state (think of the floor as water, and the other locations as islands)
June 8th, 2012
I prefer to think of it as lava, and that you have to jump from the washer/dryer to the folding area, etc.
June 8th, 2012
But then that makes the last panel harder to work with.
June 8th, 2012
I get the overall progression and see the truth in it.
But what’s the grey line? An acceptable alternate routing? The “briefly routed” option mentioned in the image text? The path less taken?
I am not familiar with reading this type of diagram.
June 8th, 2012
Oh, maybe it’s an “off the floor” path. Or black is “off floor” and grey is “via floor.”
June 8th, 2012
The gray line is the previous path.
June 8th, 2012
Thanks.
I have a whole house now, and still dream of having a “folding area.”
June 8th, 2012
You already have a folding area. It’s wherever you fold your clothes now, if you fold them. When I was a child it was the living room couch.
June 8th, 2012
We’d need a 3D chart, I think (if I fold them it’s up in the air standing in front of the dryer).
June 8th, 2012
Mine is the kitchen island, or the bed.
June 8th, 2012
I think the grey is the remainder of the previous week. It shows the previous habit fading as the new one takes over. Of course, the progression is gradual. It’s not like every weekend he suddenly decides to start being a little less clean than the week before.
June 9th, 2012
Thanks for mentioning the grey line. In my browser I didn’t even see the grey unless I CTRL-A to highlight the whole page. Firefox.
June 11th, 2012
This has more to do with your OS, monitor, graphics card, and video preferences than it does your browser. Most likely, your monitor is not properly calibrated.
June 8th, 2012
I actually just have two hampers – a clean hamper and a dirty hamper. Clothes go from body, to dirty hamper, to washer/dryer, then to the clean hamper, though in practice they often ride from the dryer to the clean hamper by way of the dirty hamper. Is that bad?
June 9th, 2012
Yes, for shame.
June 11th, 2012
you only need the one hamper if you can properly utilize the floor! (see my below comment)
June 8th, 2012
As a germophobe, this comic makes me shudder, though I know it’s probably true in a lot of cases.
June 8th, 2012
Am I the only one that stay at the “First week cycle” during all my superior study years?
.. until I live with my girlfriend which included the floor between the “On body” and the “Hamper” states!
June 8th, 2012
The floor is in the ~center of all the circles which means to me it’s more or less present in all the cycles. Perhaps in the first few weeks it’s just not as often. (regardless of all the other clothes, the pajamas always go to the floor when i don’t use them.)
June 8th, 2012
I don’t remember it being nearly this bad when I was in college. Well, except for one or two individuals, whom everyone else tended to ignore.
.
What I am still trying to figure out, is how the workflow changes PC (post college): how one eventually gets back to a semi normal(?) workflow again. Does that happen? Is there any hope???
June 8th, 2012
“Folding Area”?
I must have started in week two, ever since I left my parents’ home. And the hamper was always makeshift – the bottom of the cupboard that serves as the “dresser”.
June 8th, 2012
In the early ’70s, I took a Tuesday-Thursday literature class at MIT, which had 17 women and four men (the student body ratio was about 1:8 at that time). One Tuesday, the teacher asked how many people could remember what they wore to the previous class. Every woman could, while only two of the four men said that they knew. The teacher expressed surprise about those two men, saying the usual percentage when she asked this question was 0% of the men remembered.
The two men explained that they remembered, because they were wearing the same things now. The teacher took this to mean that they each wore “a t-shirt and a pair of jeans” on both days. Almost right, the men explained, “It’s the very same t-shirt and jeans on both days.”
You may speculate whether my housemate and I were the two men who remembered, or the two that didn’t remember. And whether the repeated clothes had been washed in between the two class meetings.
June 9th, 2012
Koninda: Best possible comment. Love it!
June 9th, 2012
That was definitely an enjoyable read. I liked the way you concluded it, too.
June 10th, 2012
I am still struggling with the image text. Any ideas?
June 10th, 2012
In the second semester, everything is like in the “End of semester”. – except that the laundry is simply too disgusting, so it is one time only put into the dishwasher for a short time.
June 10th, 2012
Hmm. In looking at the flow chart again, I think the washer and dryer could be separated for another pathway, though guys? you can tell me if this is a gal thing or not.
I will sometimes refresh a piece of clothing by simply running it through the dryer for a few minutes, with a damp towel and a dryer sheet. This can get rid of wrinkles and freshen up a stale but otherwise clean item, something that’s been in the bottom of the dresser for a few months for instance. Wearing clothes doesn’t always get them dirty.
I also use this technique for dry-clean-only items like fancy sweaters or jackets. If I only wear them once or twice a year, why spring $20 to essentially do what the dryer will do for nothing in 5 or 10 minutes?
Gotta watch the timing, though. I don’t need any more Yoda sweaters.
June 11th, 2012
I think this chart assumes that you have a private laundry room, which was never my experience in college. Laundry day was a Saturday or Sunday, usually two or three weeks from the previous laundry day. Once I settled into a stable state of not using the dresser and closet as they were intended, my path was this:
Body >> Floor >> Laundry basket (very briefly) >> Washer >> Dryer >> Laundry basket (0-3 weeks, until use) >> Body.
If there was an inspection or the potential for visitors (at least, female visitors) then floor temporarily was replaced by closet floor.
Since you have to use the laundry basket to transport the clothes both to and from the laundry room / laundromat, the basket comes back full of clean clothes, which usually stays that way, so the dirty ones have to go on the floor. Of course, if they’re not THAT dirty then they will get worn again… jeans and sweatshirts were usually good for weeks (or months!) at a time. If they got muddy, you waited until they dried and then you could just knock the dried mud off.
I hope I’m not alone in this…
June 11th, 2012
oh, and if the laundry basket isn’t empty yet by laundry day, then the dresser and closet actually get some proper use for those clean clothes remaining… or else the clean clothes go on the bed and then into the “clean laundry basket” when it comes back home.
June 11th, 2012
I actually had a streak of brilliance when I realized I could wash my re-usable shopping bags. I carry my clothes down to the laundromat in them, wash them, and carry them back. Sometimes I’ll add a pillowsack if the load is particularly large. Being able to sling them over your shoulders is much easier for large loads than carrying a heavy basket, I think.
June 11th, 2012
We had shared laundry rooms too. The choice of day was influenced by whether one wanted to hear a flute being played, or violin, sax, etc. as the students got in practice time while their clothes ran.
Practice rooms were in such high demand that stairwells were often filled with music rising from the bottom landing (great acoustics in stairwells!). Mail room was sunken two feet below the main floor, so there was always a row of drummers there, “paradiddling” on the carpet of the higher hallway…
June 13th, 2012
Of course, my husband’s pathway is usually:
Body >> Floor >> Wife. (Wife takes care of the rest.)
June 13th, 2012
That’s standard post {college|university} and post honeymoon. The preceding phases are Wife >> Bed >> Body (she selects what husband is to wear, and leaves them out ready to be put on). The entire progression of post-university laundry could be the subject of another series of diagrams.
June 18th, 2012
That’s interesting. My parents handled their clothes independently. Then again, pretty much everyone in my family is responsible for their own clothes, in both determining what to wear, as well as washing (or abstaining from washing).