The OCC Student's Guide to Doing Laundry in Costa Mesa

1. 1.Sort into lights and darks. If you're in a hurry, cold water on everything is safe and won't fade or shrink most clothes.
2. 2.Don't overstuff — clothes need room to move to get clean. Two normal loads in our big machines beats cramming one.
3. 3.Wash on cold for almost everything. Hot water shrinks cotton and fades color; cold is fine for day-to-day clothes.
4. 4.Dry on medium and pull things out a little early — over-drying is what shrinks and wrecks clothes. Hang-dry anything you really care about.
5. 5.Check pockets first. AirPods do not survive a wash cycle. Neither does your student ID.

This is where being five minutes from campus pays off. Our high-capacity machines wash and dry roughly a month of laundry in one trip — so instead of weekly loads, a lot of students just come once and knock it all out. While it runs (a full wash-and-dry is under about 45 minutes), there's free Wi-Fi and comfortable seating, so it's an easy place to get a reading done or grind through a problem set. We're open 4 AM to 11 PM every day, which fits around early labs and late shifts alike, and there's plenty of free parking right out front so hauling your basket in is painless. Curious what it costs? Here are our self-service prices.

A couple of times a year laundry gets heavy — move-in, move-out, and that finals stretch where you finally wash everything you own. Our big machines handle comforters, bedding, and bulky blankets that never fit a home washer (here's our guide to washing comforters and bulky bedding if you want to do it right). And during finals, when you genuinely don't have time? You can drop it off and we'll wash, dry, and fold it for you.