Can I really get a laundry service for just $1 per pound?

Is $1 per pound to do my laundry legitimate?

How many of us have looked at the laundry and realized "This is never going to end. I will be doing laundry for the rest. of. my. life."? Chances are, you've had that thought.

But if you didn't already know, there is an option to never do laundry again. Yes, you read that right. Never. Do. Laundry. Again.

Omaha has a few full-service laundry options for busy parents and professionals, or really for anyone who just hates doing laundry. These services pick up your dirty laundry (even socks and undies!) from your home or office, and then wash, dry, fold and package your laundry up, and return it to you in 1-2 days. Cost of a laundry service can vary some — more on that later.

While some people see a wash dry fold laundry service as a luxury or an indulgence, many more look at it as a time-saving service that they want to prioritize when doing their household budget. This is because of the amount of time and stress that letting someone else do your laundry can save a mom, a dad, a student, or a busy professional.

Remember how we said most of us have just *looked* at our laundry basket and gotten super stressed out? With a wash and fold service for all your laundry, you can look at your laundry basket and just smile. This is because you know it's not your problem anymore. Outsourcing — what a beautiful thing!

You can take the time you were going to spend doing that laundry, and go out with friends, play with your kiddo, walk the dog, or just relax and do... nothing. It's your time, and you've bought it back, so you can do whatever you want with it!

Now, onto the pricing we mentioned. There are some companies offering to do laundry for just $1 per pound. That is the cheapest option we know of in the Omaha market. But what does that really mean? Most people understand that "you get what you pay for." But the $1/lb laundry company isn't being totally honest with you about what you're getting, or at least how you're getting it.

First of all, every order will cost you $20 minimum. Even if you send 10 pounds of laundry, it's still $20. Once you go over 20 pounds, that is the only time it will cost you $1 per pound. Something they're not up front about when you request the service. Plus, who is weighing the laundry? Are they being honest?

Also, they are able to offer such a cheap price for laundry services because they are a "sharing" service. What's that? Well, we're all familiar with "ride sharing." We request a ride, and someone picks us up and takes us to our destination in their own car. This laundry service operates in a similar way: they hire independent contractors to come and pick up your laundry, and those contractors take your laundry back to their own houses and wash it there, in their personal washing machine. Yet this tidbit is also never disclosed to you when you place an order with the cheap laundry service!

But there's a pretty big difference between ride sharing and laundry sharing. If you get picked up for a ride, you can immediately look in the car and at the driver, see if the car is clean, check how the car smells, and know pretty fast if you feel comfortable riding with that driver.

But if you request a laundry sharing pickup from the $1/lb service, you won't meet the person who does your laundry. And you don't know where they are taking your clothes to be laundered. What if their car is gross? Is their house clean? Do they have pets? Do they smoke inside? Is their washing machine nice and in good working order, or is it going to ruin your clothes? How about the dryer? How do they keep it organized so your stuff doesn't get mixed up with someone else's stuff? What if you have a piece of clothing they really like, and it mysteriously goes missing?

And maybe most importantly, if you pay just $1/lb for that laundry to get done, how much does that contractor actually get paid out of that money? Is it a living wage? Is the company paying them in a way that allows them to pay their bills? These are all good questions to ask yourself when looking for a laundry pickup service.

The good news is, there are plenty of reputable, professional laundry services in the metro. Of course Max I. Walker is one of them. Our Wash & Fold Laundry Service is priced at a flat fee for a bag of laundry that holds 3-4 loads. Click here to see the current price for this service.We can wash almost anything, like jeans and shorts, t-shirts and sweatshirts, towels, sheets, workout clothes, kids' clothes and baby items, socks, underwear, etc. And while you pay a slightly higher price than the cheap guys, it comes with extra benefits that you can feel good about!

• Max I. Walker has been in the dry cleaning and laundry business since 1917 — we have over 100 years of experience doing this
• An experienced team member, who is in a uniform, will do laundry pickup from you, and take your laundry in a company vehicle
• We have a dedicated business location where all laundry orders get taken + a dedicated employee who does all our customers' laundry orders
• Our laundry facility is spacious and well organized, so we don't have mix-ups
• Our facility has nice, new washers and dryers, and we have a full-time maintenance team if we need repairs done
• We treat our employees fairly and offer full-time employment plus benefits — we have some team members who have been with us for 20 or even 30 years because of our company culture

Any reputable laundry service can and should guarantee these things to their customers. Whichever laundry provider you go with, make sure to think about what you're getting for the price you pay, but also what you're not getting. Cheaper is not better.