The campground laundromat is a nice convenience for RVers. There are far more RVs without a washer/dryer on board than there are with one. Therefore, campground laundry facilities are important to a lot of people.
While you may have a “combo” washer/dryer in your coach, access to the larger “home” machines is handy especially when washing extra heavy items like throw rugs or blankets.
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Campground laundromats are typically small—often with maybe just a couple of machines. Therefore, some “rules” of etiquette should be followed…
- Don’t start your laundry and leave since they may only have one or two machines. You don’t want to deal with someone’s laundry that is done, simply sitting in the machine, and waiting for them to return. Plus, you likely don’t want anyone else to deal with your laundry, either. They may not handle it with the same care as you.
- Don’t wash really filthy stuff such as items containing pet hair, sand, mud, or grease. This always leaves some residue in and around the machines and can be a mess.
- Don’t put anything in campground machines that you wouldn’t put in yours at home.
- Wipe up after yourself. There is typically no attendant on duty for the campground laundry like you will find in many commercial laundromats.
- Use a damp cloth and wipe out the machine when finished if you left a residue of pet hair or lint.
For most campground laundromats, there will be a cost. However, we have found a few that did not charge for the machines.
For those older campgrounds that are still using a dial-up modem connection for getting online, the campground laundromat was a common place to find the phone line (jack) connection. You usually will have to take your own phone cord.
Campground laundromats are also excellent places for meeting other RVers and exchanging information. It is also common to find a paperback book exchange housed in the laundromat. It’s usually the “take one and leave one” honor system. It works. We have taken several and left several over the years.