Self-service laundry

A self-service laundry, coin laundry or coin wash is a facility where clothes are washed and dried. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as laundromats (from the genericized trademark of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) or washaterias. George Edward Pendray created the word "laundromat" for Westinghouse.

Staffed laundries

Some laundries employ staff to provide service for the customers. Minimal service centres may simply provide an attendant behind a counter to provide change, sell washing powder, and watch unattended machines for potential theft of clothing. Others allow customers to drop off clothing to be washed, dried, and folded. This is often referred to as Fluff & Fold, Wash-n-Fold, Drop Off, bachelor bundles, a service wash or full-service wash. Some staffed laundry facilities also provide dry cleaning pick-up and drop-off. There are over 35,000 laundries throughout the United States. Similar services exist in the United Kingdom where the terms service wash or full-service wash are also in use.

Coin Laundry

"Coin Laundry" is a song performed and written by Australian singer–songwriter Lisa Mitchell from her first studio album, Wonder (2009). It was released as the lead single from the album on 24 April 2009 by Scorpio Music. The song was produced by Dann Hume and is about finding love at the coin laundry. "Coin Laundry" charted inside the top thirty in Australia and was nominated for an ARIA Award in late 2009.

Writing and concept

Mitchell said that the concept of the song was developed when she was waiting for the spin cycle to finish in a coin laundry in South Melbourne, Australia. While at the coin laundry, Mitchell was doodling on a notebook and when she arrived home, she wrote the song from a verse she had written at the laundry. She explains:

I was thinking about love, of course, and if I'd ever find that special one. Maybe I'd find love right there in the coin laundry. I had a little stage-play going on in my head where this striking young man came in to do his washing. I would be putting coins into the machine and pretend to realise that I was a dollar short. I'd ask him if he had a dollar he could spare me as a way of getting the conversation rolling. Little did he know, there were a lot of other questions that I wanted to ask him.