The Cultcha
The college experience now includes laundry and maid service
By Grey Battle The Washington Post
Published August 24, 2026
Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
The summer before starting college, Elijah Hurewitz-Ravitch sat in the family room with his dad, discussing what to pack for Yale. His dad handed him one of E&R Laundry's fliers, assuring Hurewitz-Ravitch that a campus laundry service would save him time.
Hurewitz-Ravitch, now headed into his junior year of college, says that laundry is "a basic domestic skill that everyone should probably know" but that his parents still don't know how to do their laundry, much less how to teach him. His parents had acted like helicopters - overprotective and micromanaging - throughout his life, and Hurewitz-Ravitch says a college laundry service was "a way to extend the parental veil" even after he moved away from home.
So, when he started school, he fell into a routine. He'd finish work for the Yale Daily News by 10 p.m., read for his history classes until 2 a.m., and then drop off a blue bag full of dirty clothes at the E&R pickup point, tucked away in a campus basement.
"Everyone who gets [E&R] is a little embarrassed," Hurewitz-Ravitch adds. "I know plenty of people who would not want to admit it, and the only way to find out would be to go into the basement and see their names on the bag."
Nevertheless, personal service providers to college students have exploded in the past decade. Laundry, dorm cleaning, moving and meal-prep companies target elite schools, where wealthy families will fork over thousands to save their child a few extra hours each week.
E&R Laundry advertises up to 100 hours saved. "There are better things you could do with your time in college," reads the website of Dorm Mom, which offers laundry, dorm cleaning, grocery delivery and moving services. Meal-prep companies for students make similar claims: "Planning what to make for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week quickly becomes exhausting as a student with a full schedule."
Rick Botnick had just graduated from college when his family bought E&R Laundry in 1986. He immediately began work folding, sorting dirty clothes and pressing shirts. Back then, E&R did laundry for students at 24 schools. Now, it has more than 10,000 customers spanning 106 schools.
It costs between $800 and $1,800 each academic year to have a student's dirty laundry driven to a central plant in Manchester, New Hampshire, to be cleaned. But, as tuition costs rise, Botnick says, this price seems reasonable.
Students not only save time, Botnick adds, but "when you dress well, when your clothes are clean, you act better." The heart of the personal service industry's marketing campaign is about maximizing a student's productivity.
John Grant, who owns the Maids of Capitol Hill, says college students are becoming a significant part of his client base. "A clean and clutter-free environment gives them the best opportunity to excel and focus," he says.
Maids of Capitol Hill also offers reassurance to parents that "there's at least someone there straightening up" for their child. Grant says he often receives calls from mothers worried about how best to ease their child's transition to college.
Grant remarks, "When my generation went to school, it was, 'You're 18. Pack up. Good luck.'" Family dynamics have since changed, he said, and "students look for any edge that they can get." It costs about $160 to clean a student's apartment. The Maids of Capitol Hill also offers an add-on laundry service.
But, for TikTok influencer Meadow Manfredini, the Maids of Capitol Hill offered a free college house cleaning. In return, she posted about the experience on social media. She hadn't used any kind of personal service before - "I think every college student should learn how to do all that," she says.
Using a maid service for the first time felt odd, she says. "I wasn't used to it," Manfredini says. "Going about my daily routine, forgetting there were maids in the house, made it awkward."
Manfredini hasn't used a maid, laundry or moving service since. She says managing those tasks are an important part of the college experience: "It helps you become responsible. You're not only cleaning for yourself, but if you're sharing a space with someone, you learn how to respect their boundaries."
Steve Kuhn, CEO of MG Moving Services, says his parents wouldn't have paid for a moving service, much less a maid or laundry service. Working with college students is "something new" for the business.
MG Moving Services has operated since 1978 but started serving college students only two years ago. This summer, the business gathered up the belongings of 800 students in the D.C. area, inventoried them and stored them. Students pay about $500 each.
Holly Benjamin, who leads marketing at the moving platform Lugg, recalled carrying boxes up the stairs, trip after trip. It was hot and exhausting, she says. "But when I was in college, it was 'Rent a truck and do the labor yourself.'"
That's not the case anymore, at least not for students whose parents have the money to spare. Lugg has handled more than 2,400 college moves since its founding in 2014. The typical cost is $156 for each student, and demand is accelerating - up by about 40 percent since just last year.
Benjamin says the rise of dorm decorators as a full-fledged field has helped Lugg. There's more stuff to move in and out.
Benjamin says that when she was in college, she " didn't know anything like this existed." This is, in part, why Lugg has invested in a creator program, like the Maids of Capitol Hill did. Lugg partners with online influencers, who then film their college move-out and effectively advertise the service.
Benjamin explains, "Students can see other students across the country who have these services provided to them or live in a specific way. They're getting inspired."
Some students are inspired by their own ability, once they find themselves without the extra help. Hurewitz-Ravitch says that it wasn't until he lived on his own, away from college one summer, that he realized: "Laundry is easy."
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.