One of the biggest headaches of living in New York is doing laundry. Sure, some of us hit the Holy Grail of New York apartment amenities — an in-unit washer and dryer — but, the vast majority of us are forced to lug our soiled clothing to the nearest wash and fold or its ever scarcer and infinitely less expensive cousin, the laundromat. And, let’s face it, it’s a chore that most of us would happily throw a couple of bucks at to make go away. Lucky for us, New York tech is always happy to trade money for an innovative solution.
Here are five laundry startups that have successfully used tech to take the stink out of doing laundry.
Notable Laundry Startups in NYC
- Hamperville
- WashClubNYC
- Boomerang NYC
- Cleanly
- FlyCleaners
Hamperville has an app for iOS and Android, where you can customize just about everything about your wash through their online ordering system. You can set up a recurring service, let them know if you’re allergic to certain detergents and even track your laundry on the web. The company offers a discounted rate if you sign up for a subscription, which is a no-brainer, as one of the certainties in life is that your clothes will get dirty again. Hamperville also offers deals for workplaces that want to offer dry cleaning and laundry service as a perk for employees.
Area Serviced: Manhattan, parts of Queens and Brooklyn
Services: Wash and Fold, dry cleaning
Wash and Fold Price: $1.48 per pound, eligible for up to 15 percent off if you prepay
Headquarters: 232 E 89th St, New York, NY 10128
WashClub is a big laundry service that offers pick up and delivery service for consumers, as well as big commercial players. They do the cleaning for a lot of gyms in the city, including Equinox, so at the very least you know they can make your grossest garments smell like cucumbers.
Area serviced: Manhattan and Brooklyn
Services: Wash and fold, dry cleaning and tailoring
Wash and Fold Price: $1.34 per pound, plus 8 percent gratuity added onto every order.
Headquarters: 6305 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11220
Boomerang NYC operates an iOS app that promises to whisk your laundry to a cleaner near you within an hour of you pressing a button on your phone. When your laundry’s clean, they’ll send you a notification and, when you’re ready, you let them know and your laundry will be brought back to you within another hour.
Area Serviced: Manhattan
Services: Wash and fold, dry cleaning
Wash and Fold Price: $1.25 per pound
Headquarters: 149 Elizabeth St. New York, NY 10012 United States
If you’ve heard of any of these services, you’ve probably heard of Y-Combinator backed Cleanly. The company has received a lot of press and recently expanded service to include Washington D.C. The process is pretty similar to the others, you schedule a time to have a ‘laundry valet’ come pick up your dirty laundry, they take it, process it and then send it to be cleaned. Once everything is spick and span, they drop it back off at your door at a time that’s convenient for you.
Area Serviced: Most of Manhattan and some of Brooklyn
Services: Wash and fold, dry cleaning
Wash and Fold Price: $1.50 per pound, plus $4.99 delivery (waived if your order is over $30)
Headquarters: New York
FlyCleaners is another company that has had a lot of media attention. The company's service works similarly to Cleanly’s, except that FlyCleaners says they can get your laundry delivered to you in as little as 20 minutes, seven days a week. That’s pretty impressive, given most pizza places will take an hour and most wash and fold places are closed on Sundays. The app also lets you do things like track your laundry, schedule delivery or specify special instructions. So far, the company said they’ve washed over two million pounds of NYC’s laundry, which is a lot.
Area Serviced: Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn
Services: Wash and fold, dry cleaning
Wash and Fold Price: Depends on location, but most of Manhattan and Brooklyn is $1.50 per pound or less
Headquarters: 630 Flushing Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206
Know of a company that deserves coverage? Let us know or tweet us @builtinnewyork.
