+
upworthy
What Comes Next Project

This group is bringing clean clothes to anyone who needs them, one laundromat at a time.

This group is bringing clean clothes to anyone who needs them, one laundromat at a time.

It all started with a man named T-Bone and a simple desire.

His name was Eric, but he was T-Bone to the people he knew and liked. Greg Russinger met him in 2003, when he and his friends were working with under-resourced individuals and families in Ventura, California.


Russinger remembers asking T-Bone one question: "What would it look like for us to come alongside your life in a way that would matter to you specifically?"

"He just said 'If I had clean clothes, I think people would treat me as a human being,'" Russinger recalls.

This lack of clean clothes is sadly all too common. According to a 2013 survey, up to 21 percent of families that qualify as low-income forego household necessities such as laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid in order to get food on the table. And that number is even higher among the homeless population.

The emotional toll this takes on people is only part of the problem. There are also health risks to not washing clothes and bedding. All that combined makes people who already have very little feel even less than.

T-Bone's basic desire lit a fire under Russinger and his friends.

"That very simple statement of desiring worth, wanting people to see him as a dignified human being, it really kinda set [events into motion]," says Russinger.

So Russinger and his friends partnered with a local laundromat. They took over the space once a month and paid for everyone's laundry. But providing clean clothes to those in need was only the beginning.

Think about the last time you went to the laundromat. It takes a few minutes to get change, put your clothes in the machine, add the detergent and hit the "wash" button. After that, all you've got is time, which gives you plenty of chances to connect with the people around you.

"Relationships, conversations, all kinds of things get stirred and spurred," says Russinger. Russinger and his friends found that the same people came back every time they took over the laundromat. They started bringing friends and family, and forming long-lasting relationships.

"There are two places where you can go to still experience the world, and that's either a post office or a laundromat," explains Russinger. "Diverse cultures, diverse histories, diverse peoples."

Soon, Russinger's initiative had a name: Laundry Love. And the organization had a mission to occupy as many laundromats as it could manage.

Today, 16 years since Russinger's conversation with T-Bone, Laundry Love hosts events at 325 locations across America.

"We go alongside people," says Russinger. "We help them find jobs, housing or pro-bono lawyers for people that are undocumented to find avenues of documentation. We're working to lessen the fear and anxiety that seems to be a part of our political culture. We're helping tutor children inside these spaces."

The list goes on and on. The more ingrained that Laundry Love becomes in a community, the more other businesses become involved, creating a support network that the people who need it never thought possible.

In Huntington Beach, for example, laundry night has been happening at Beach Coin Laundry for more than five years. The barber shop next to the laundromat offers free haircuts and shaves at the same time. Food is provided by members of the community and local food trucks.

The movement is transforming thousands upon thousands of lives a year.

What's most important, Russinger says, is that people who take advantage of Laundry Love feel cared for — they feel like they have an opportunity to be seen and supported in reaching their goals. They feel connected and involved in their community. They come to get their clothes clean, and they leave with a brighter outlook on their future.

When these people get to a better place, they come back to the initiative as volunteers, empowering others to get the help that they need.

If you're wondering what you can do to help your community transform in a similar way, start by asking someone in need what would make their life a little easier.

Many of us wonder how we can help others, but that wondering doesn't always lead to action. If you're truly ready to make a difference in the lives of those who live around you, Russinger says that starting a Laundry Love campaign at a local laundromat or volunteering your time, skills, or services with an already established group is an important way to transform lives. Especially your own.

"That's the gift. It's not about what we do for whoever the other is, it's how the other actually allows you to see yourself clearer. That's the transforming moment, right."

"The best thing we can give to people is our own transforming selves, and that's so important. And I think people offer that gift back to us."

Clorox believes clean has the power to transforms lives, which is why they've partnered with Upworthy to promote those same traits in people, actions and ideas. Cleaning up and transformation are important aspects of many of our social good stories. Check out the rest in the campaign to read more.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less
Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

Keep ReadingShow less

An English doctor named Edward Jenner took incredible risks to try to rid his world of smallpox. Because of his efforts and the efforts of scientists like him, the only thing between deadly diseases like the ones below and extinction are people who refuse to vaccinate their kids. Don't be that parent.

Unfortunately, because of the misinformation from the anti-vaccination movement, some of these diseases have trended up in a really bad way over the past several years.

Keep ReadingShow less

A beautiful cruise ship crossing the seas.

Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

Keep ReadingShow less