By Timothy Oommen, Owner — Laundini Laundromat | laundinilaundromat.com
This post is a commitment made in public so that I’m accountable to it.
By the end of this year, Laundini will donate 100 loads of laundry to people in Cook County who need it and cannot afford it. Free of charge. No strings. Just clean laundry.
Here is why I’m doing it, how it’s going to work, and who it’s for.
Where This Came From
I’ve been thinking about this since before Laundini was generating consistent revenue. Which might sound backwards — committing to give something away before you’re sure you can afford to — but it actually makes sense to me.
The businesses I respect most are not the ones that announce charitable programs after they’ve hit a certain revenue milestone. They’re the ones that build the obligation in from the start, when it costs something real to honor it, because that’s when it actually means something.
A donation program funded entirely by surplus is easy. A donation program that exists before the surplus does is a statement of what the business is actually about.
Laundini is about clean laundry for people in Cook County. All of them. Not just the ones who can pay $1.50 a pound.
Who This Is For
There are people in this city for whom laundry is not a convenience problem. It’s a genuine hardship.
The single mother working two jobs whose laundromat trip requires a babysitter she can’t afford on top of machine costs she’s already stretching to cover. The recently housed individual rebuilding a life after a period of instability, for whom clean clothes are directly connected to job interviews, dignity, and forward momentum. The family in a shelter situation where laundry access is inconsistent or nonexistent. The elderly resident on a fixed income for whom carrying a hamper is physically not possible and delivery services feel financially out of reach.
These are not edge cases. They are people living in the same zip codes as our laundromats and our delivery routes. They are neighbors.
Clean laundry is not a luxury. It is a basic necessity tied directly to health, employment, self-respect, and social participation. When access to it is a barrier, the consequences ripple outward in ways that are disproportionate to the simple act of washing clothes.
We can do something about that. So we will.
How It’s Going to Work
I’m working on partnerships with local organizations — shelters, transitional housing programs, social service agencies, community organizations in Evanston, Chicago, and the surrounding Cook County area — who work directly with people who need this kind of support.
The model I’m working toward:
Partner organizations identify recipients. We don’t want to create a bureaucratic application process that adds friction for people who are already navigating enough of it. Partner organizations who work with these communities daily are better positioned to identify who needs this and ensure it reaches the right people.
We handle the pickup and delivery. Same process as any other order. Pickup from the recipient’s location, washed at one of our four facilities, folded, delivered back. No difference in the quality of service — the same standard we hold every order to.
No means testing at the door. When a partner organization sends us a recipient, we trust the referral. We are not in the business of interrogating need. We are in the business of washing laundry.
100 loads this year. More in years to come. The commitment scales with the business. As Laundini grows, so does this program. 100 loads is the starting point, not the ceiling.
The Senior Living Home Across the Street
I wrote in a recent post about the 140-bed subsidized senior living facility directly across the street from our Evanston location. I’m in early conversations with their management about a discounted ongoing partnership.
The donated loads program and the senior living partnership are related but separate initiatives. The donated loads are for people with no means to pay at all. The senior living partnership is a deeply discounted service for a community of fixed-income residents. Together they represent the same commitment expressed two different ways — that Laundini’s proximity to people who need clean laundry and can’t easily access it is an opportunity, not just a coincidence.
What I’m Asking From the Community
If you run or work for a shelter, transitional housing program, social service agency, or community organization in Cook County — I want to talk to you. Email info@laundinilaundromat.com with the subject line “Community Partnership.” Tell me about your organization and who you serve. Let’s figure out how this works in your specific context.
If you’re an individual who wants to contribute to this program — the most direct way is to book a pickup for yourself. Every paid order funds the operation that makes the donated loads possible. The program doesn’t exist without the business, and the business doesn’t grow without customers.
If you know someone who needs this — a specific person, a family, a neighbor — reach out. We’ll figure it out.
Why I’m Announcing This Before It’s Done
Some people will read this and wonder why I’m publishing a commitment before it’s fully operational. Why not wait until the 100 loads are done and announce it then?
Because accountability works better in public than in private.
Writing this post means I’ve told you what I’m going to do. Now I have to do it. The follow-up post — the one where I tell you we did it, who it helped, what we learned — is only possible if this one exists first. And I want to write that follow-up post. So this one has to be real.
That’s how I operate. Put the commitment out there. Then meet it.
The Bigger Picture
Laundini is a laundromat. We wash clothes. That’s the business.
But a business that washes clothes sits at the intersection of something basic and something profound — the daily human need for cleanliness and dignity. Most of our customers pay for the convenience. Some of our commercial clients pay for the operational reliability. But underneath all of it is the same thing: clean laundry matters to people’s lives in ways that go beyond the transactional.
If we have the means to extend that to people who can’t pay for it — and we do, even at this early stage — then not doing so is a choice I’m not willing to make.
100 loads. This year. Cook County. Starting now.
Hold us to it.
Want to be part of this? Share this post. Refer a community organization. Book a pickup at laundinilaundromat.com — every order helps fund the operation that makes this possible. Community partnership inquiries: info@laundinilaundromat.com, subject line “Community Partnership.”
Timothy Oommen is the founder and owner of Laundini Laundromat, with locations in Evanston, Bucktown, Skokie, and Wheeling, IL.