How Much Does It Cost to Do Laundry In-House for a Small Business?

Doing laundry in-house can look inexpensive at first.

You already have an employee on the clock. You buy a washer and dryer. You purchase detergent. You run a few loads between other tasks.

So how expensive could it really be?

The problem is that the true cost of doing laundry in-house for a business includes much more than detergent, water, and electricity.

Employee labor is usually one of the largest expenses. Then there is the cost of washers and dryers, equipment replacement, repairs, water, sewer, gas or electricity, laundry chemicals, folding time, management time, and the space being dedicated to laundry instead of another business use.

For a business producing a significant amount of towels, sheets, uniforms, robes, or other washable goods every week, those expenses can add up quickly.

That does not mean outsourcing is always less expensive.

A small business producing a few loads per week may be perfectly suited to doing laundry in-house. As volume increases, however, it becomes increasingly important to understand what each pound or load of laundry is actually costing the business.

This guide explains how to calculate your true in-house laundry cost and compare it fairly with professional commercial laundry pickup and delivery.

Quick Answer: How Much Does It Cost a Business to Do Laundry In-House?

There isn't one universal cost per load or per pound because every business operates differently.

The true calculation is:

In-House Laundry Cost = Labor + Payroll Costs + Utilities + Detergent/Chemicals + Equipment Cost + Maintenance/Repairs + Space + Management/Operational Costs

For many businesses, labor is the expense most likely to be underestimated.

An employee may spend time:

• Collecting dirty laundry
• Sorting
• Loading washers
• Transferring loads
• Loading dryers
• Unloading dryers
• Folding
• Organizing
• Restocking
• Cleaning the laundry area
• Maintaining equipment

Even if the washer runs unattended, someone still has to manage the process.

That's why a business shouldn't compare a commercial laundry company's per-pound rate against only the water, detergent, and electricity required to operate an in-house washer.

The more useful comparison is:

What does it cost us to produce one pound of clean, dry, folded, ready-to-use laundry?

Why Is In-House Laundry Cost So Difficult to Calculate?

Most businesses don't operate their laundry room as a separate department.

Laundry is simply one of many tasks employees complete during the day.

That makes its expenses easy to hide.

Imagine a physical therapy clinic.

An employee loads towels between patients.

Twenty minutes later, someone transfers them.

Later, another employee puts them in the dryer.

Someone eventually unloads the towels.

Then they need to be folded and returned to the treatment rooms.

Nobody worked on laundry continuously for three hours.

But the business still used employee time throughout those three hours.

That labor is real.

The same problem occurs in:

• Gyms
• Hair salons
• Spas
• Massage practices
• Chiropractic offices
• Medical offices
• Dental offices
• Wellness centers
• Fitness studios
• Pet grooming businesses
• Sports facilities

Laundry work is often fragmented across multiple employees, which makes the total cost difficult to see.

What Costs Should Be Included in an In-House Laundry Calculation?

To understand what laundry actually costs your business, divide the expense into several categories.

1. Employee Labor

Start here.

Calculate how much active employee time is required to complete the laundry process.

That can include:

• Collecting dirty items
• Sorting
• Pretreating stains
• Loading
• Transferring
• Unloading
• Folding
• Organizing
• Restocking
• Cleaning lint traps
• Cleaning the laundry area
• Managing laundry inventory

Don't count the entire wash and dry cycle as employee labor if the employee is performing other productive work while the machines run.

Instead, measure how much active time employees actually spend touching or managing laundry.

Example

Suppose a business spends:

• 10 minutes collecting and sorting
• 5 minutes loading
• 5 minutes transferring
• 5 minutes unloading
• 25 minutes folding and restocking

That's 50 minutes of active labor.

At $20 per hour:

50 minutes ÷ 60 × $20 = $16.67

That is $16.67 in direct wages before considering payroll taxes, benefits, workers' compensation, or other employer costs.

If the process happens five times each week:

$16.67 × 5 = $83.35 per week

Over 52 weeks:

$83.35 × 52 = $4,334.20 per year

And that's only direct employee wages.

2. Payroll Burden

An employee who earns $20 per hour usually costs the employer more than $20 per hour.

Depending on the business and employee, additional labor costs can include:

• Employer payroll taxes
• Workers' compensation
• Paid time off
• Health benefits
• Retirement contributions
• Other benefits

Your accounting or payroll system can give you a better estimate of the employee's fully loaded hourly cost.

For example, if an employee earns $20 per hour but actually costs the company $25 per hour after applicable employer expenses, laundry calculations should use the $25 figure when you're trying to understand the full economic cost.

This is one reason looking only at hourly wages can underestimate laundry labor.

3. Folding Time

Folding deserves separate attention because businesses often underestimate it.

Washing and drying are largely machine processes.

Folding is not.

Every towel still needs to be handled.

For a towel-heavy business, the process may look like:

Pick up towel → fold → stack → repeat

hundreds of times.

Imagine your business uses 300 towels every week.

If folding each towel averages just 15 seconds:

300 × 15 seconds = 4,500 seconds

That's:

75 minutes per week

At a fully loaded labor cost of $25 per hour:

1.25 hours × $25 = $31.25 per week

Over 52 weeks:

$1,625 per year

just to fold towels.

And that's before collecting, sorting, washing, transferring, drying, restocking, or cleaning the laundry area.

Small repetitive tasks become significant when multiplied across an entire year.

4. Washer and Dryer Purchase Cost

Laundry equipment isn't free simply because you've already purchased it.

Equipment is a capital expense that should be spread across its useful life.

Suppose your business spends:

$2,000 on a washer

and

$2,000 on a dryer

That's a $4,000 equipment investment.

If you expect to replace the equipment after five years, a simple straight-line estimate would be:

$4,000 ÷ 5 = $800 per year

That means the business is effectively consuming about $800 of equipment value each year, before maintenance and repairs.

The actual accounting treatment may differ, and commercial-grade equipment can have very different purchase prices and useful lives. The point is that the equipment cost shouldn't disappear from the calculation simply because the purchase happened several years ago.

5. Maintenance and Repairs

Washers and dryers require maintenance.

And eventually, something breaks.

Possible expenses include:

• Service calls
• Replacement parts
• Belts
• Pumps
• Heating elements
• Drain problems
• Door or lid components
• Sensors
• Electrical repairs
• Dryer vent maintenance

The exact amount varies tremendously based on:

• Equipment type
• Age
• Usage
• Maintenance
• Installation
• Water conditions

Rather than pretending repairs don't exist because you haven't had one this month, use your actual annual maintenance history.

For example, if you've spent $1,500 on washer and dryer repairs over three years:

$1,500 ÷ 3 = $500 per year

You can use approximately $500 as an annual maintenance estimate until you have better data.

6. What Does Laundry Equipment Downtime Cost?

The repair invoice isn't always the biggest cost of a broken washer.

The bigger problem can be downtime.

Imagine a spa that needs clean towels and robes every day.

If its washer breaks Monday morning, the business still needs clean inventory Tuesday.

Someone now needs to:

• Call a repair company
• Wait for service
• Find temporary laundry capacity
• Bring laundry somewhere else
• Purchase additional inventory
• Delay other work

A machine failure can create an operational problem far beyond the repair itself.

This is one of the hidden differences between in-house and outsourced laundry.

With in-house laundry, your business owns the equipment risk.

With an outsourced commercial laundry service, the laundry provider is responsible for maintaining enough production capacity to process customer orders.

7. Water and Sewer Costs

Every wash cycle uses water.

The exact cost depends on:

• Machine efficiency
• Cycle selected
• Load size
• Local utility rates
• Water consumption
• Sewer charges

Don't guess if you can avoid it.

Check the machine's specifications to estimate water consumption per cycle and compare that with your actual water and sewer rates.

Then multiply by the number of loads you process.

Example

If a washer uses 20 gallons per cycle and the business runs 15 loads per week:

20 × 15 = 300 gallons per week

Over a year:

300 × 52 = 15,600 gallons

That's the annual water consumption attributable to those wash cycles before considering any additional cleaning or laundry-related water use.

The dollar amount should be calculated using your actual local utility costs.

8. Electricity and Gas

Washers use electricity.

Dryers may use electricity or gas.

Dryers can be particularly energy intensive because removing moisture requires heat and airflow.

Your cost depends on:

• Machine efficiency
• Load size
• Cycle duration
• Dryer temperature
• Electric rates
• Gas rates
• How efficiently the washer extracts water before drying

An overloaded washer can also indirectly increase drying expense if the load doesn't spin effectively and leaves textiles wetter than they should be.

Use equipment specifications and actual utility rates whenever possible instead of relying on a generic national estimate.

9. Detergent and Laundry Chemicals

This category can include more than detergent.

Depending on the business, you may use:

• Laundry detergent
• Stain remover
• Bleach
• Oxygen bleach
• Fabric treatments
• Specialty products

Calculate the cost per dose rather than the cost of the entire container.

If a $30 detergent container produces 100 properly measured loads:

$30 ÷ 100 = $0.30 per load

If you run 20 loads each week:

$0.30 × 20 = $6 per week

or:

$312 per year

Then add any other chemicals used regularly.

Also be careful about overusing detergent. More detergent does not necessarily produce cleaner laundry and can create residue or rinsing problems.

Our residential guide to how much laundry detergent you should use explains why detergent concentration, machine type, load size, and soil level all matter.

10. Laundry Bags, Baskets, Carts, Shelving, and Supplies

Laundry operations require supporting equipment too.

Depending on the business, that might include:

• Laundry baskets
• Carts
• Hampers
• Bags
• Shelving
• Folding tables
• Storage racks
• Gloves
• Labels
• Cleaning supplies

Individually, these expenses may seem minor.

But if you're trying to determine the true cost of doing laundry in-house, include everything required to operate the process.

11. Laundry Room Space

This is one of the most overlooked expenses.

Your washer and dryer occupy physical space.

So does:

• Dirty laundry storage
• Clean laundry storage
• Folding
• Chemicals
• Carts
• Shelving

That space has value.

If your business pays rent for 2,000 square feet and dedicates 150 square feet to laundry operations, then approximately 7.5% of the physical footprint is being used for laundry.

That doesn't necessarily mean 7.5% of rent should automatically be assigned to laundry—the economics of each property are different—but the space is not free.

Ask:

If we didn't operate laundry in-house, could this area be used for something more valuable?

For some businesses, the answer is no.

For others, it could become:

• Another treatment room
• Storage
• Employee space
• Retail space
• Another workstation
• Revenue-generating floor area

That's an opportunity cost.

12. Management Time

Someone has to make sure laundry gets done.

That may involve:

• Assigning employees
• Monitoring inventory
• Ordering detergent
• Scheduling equipment repairs
• Dealing with machine failures
• Handling shortages
• Correcting mistakes
• Training new employees on laundry procedures

A manager spending 15 minutes here and 20 minutes there may not think of it as “laundry labor.”

But the business is still paying for that time.

For a truly comprehensive cost analysis, management overhead belongs in the calculation too.

The Formula for Calculating Your True In-House Laundry Cost

A useful starting formula is:

Annual In-House Laundry Cost =

Direct Labor

• Payroll Burden
• Utilities
• Detergent and Chemicals
• Equipment Depreciation/Replacement
• Maintenance and Repairs
• Laundry Supplies
• Facility/Space Cost
• Management and Administrative Time

Once you calculate annual cost, divide it by your annual laundry volume.

Cost Per Pound Formula

Annual In-House Laundry Cost ÷ Annual Pounds Processed = In-House Cost Per Pound

That number gives you a much more useful benchmark for comparing in-house laundry with a professional service.

Example: Calculating the Cost of In-House Laundry

Consider a hypothetical small wellness business processing 200 pounds of laundry per week.

That's:

200 × 52 = 10,400 pounds per year

Suppose its estimated annual laundry expenses are:

The estimated cost per pound would be:

$16,000 ÷ 10,400 = approximately $1.54 per pound

That does not mean $1.54 is a typical or universal in-house laundry cost.

This is a hypothetical example designed to demonstrate the calculation.

Change the labor rate, laundry volume, equipment, utility rates, or productivity and the answer changes substantially.

That's precisely why businesses should calculate their own numbers.

How Does Employee Pay Affect In-House Laundry Cost?

Labor cost can change the equation dramatically.

Suppose laundry requires six active employee hours every week.

At $18 per hour:

6 × $18 = $108/week

At $22 per hour:

6 × $22 = $132/week

At $25 per hour:

6 × $25 = $150/week

At $30 per hour:

6 × $30 = $180/week

Over 52 weeks, those direct wage costs become:

And those figures still don't include employer payroll costs or benefits.

This is why the same laundry volume can make financial sense in-house for one business and not for another.

The Most Important Question: What Else Could That Employee Be Doing?

Labor cost alone doesn't tell the entire story.

Suppose an employee earns $25 per hour.

If laundry requires five hours of active work every week, the obvious cost is:

5 × $25 = $125 per week

But ask another question:

What would that employee be doing if they weren't doing laundry?

If laundry is performed during genuine downtime and doesn't interfere with anything else, the opportunity cost may be relatively low.

But if that employee could instead be:

• Assisting customers
• Preparing treatment rooms
• Answering calls
• Scheduling appointments
• Selling products
• Cleaning revenue-producing areas
• Supporting clinicians
• Performing billable work

then laundry competes with more valuable activities.

This is one of the most important considerations when deciding between in-house laundry and commercial laundry service.

Does In-House Laundry Get Cheaper as Volume Increases?

Some expenses do become more efficient as volume increases.

For example, if you already own equipment and have unused capacity, processing additional laundry may spread fixed costs across more pounds.

But other expenses increase with volume:

• Labor
• Water
• Energy
• Chemicals
• Equipment wear
• Folding
• Storage requirements

Eventually, additional volume may also require:

• Another washer
• Another dryer
• More employee hours
• More inventory
• More floor space
• More frequent repairs

So the relationship isn't simply:

More laundry = lower cost per pound.

Capacity matters.

What Happens When Your Business Outgrows Its Washer and Dryer?

This is an important transition point.

At low volume, one washer and dryer may be perfectly adequate.

Then the business grows.

You add customers.

You add appointments.

You use more towels.

Laundry starts accumulating faster than the machines can process it.

Now you have three choices:

Run Laundry for More Hours

This consumes additional employee time and may push laundry earlier in the morning or later into the evening.

Purchase More or Larger Equipment

That requires capital, space, installation, utilities, and maintenance.

Outsource Some or All of the Laundry

The business pays a professional laundry provider instead of expanding its own production capacity.

This is often the right moment to calculate both options rather than automatically buying another machine.

How Much Laundry Does a Small Business Generate?

It varies enormously by industry.

A small office with a few reusable towels may generate very little.

A busy spa, physical therapy clinic, gym, or grooming operation can generate hundreds of pounds.

That's why volume should be measured instead of guessed.

For several weeks, record:

Total pounds processed ÷ number of weeks = average weekly laundry volume

If weighing everything isn't practical, you can begin by tracking:

• Number of loads
• Machine capacity
• How full each load is
• Number of towels or linens

Then improve the measurement over time.

How Many Towels Can Create 100 Pounds of Laundry?

It depends heavily on towel size, material, and dry weight.

That's why towel-count estimates should not replace actual weighing when you're calculating cost.

But businesses should understand the principle:

A single towel seems insignificant.

Hundreds of towels every week aren't.

For a physical therapy practice specifically, we've created a separate guide explaining how many towels a physical therapy clinic needs.

Inventory and laundry capacity need to work together.

If you process laundry less frequently, you generally need enough clean inventory to operate while dirty inventory is waiting to be cleaned.

What Does In-House Laundry Cost at 50 Pounds Per Week?

At 50 pounds per week, a small business processes:

2,600 pounds per year.

At this volume, in-house laundry can be practical if:

• Equipment already exists
• Labor is genuinely available
• Laundry doesn't interfere with customer-facing work
• Space isn't valuable
• Equipment capacity is sufficient

Fixed pickup minimums can also make outsourcing relatively less attractive at very low volume.

This is why we don't believe every business should automatically outsource.

The numbers should decide.

What About 100 Pounds Per Week?

At 100 pounds per week:

100 × 52 = 5,200 pounds per year

At this point, start measuring labor carefully.

If the business is processing several loads throughout the week and employees are repeatedly interrupted to transfer, dry, fold, and restock items, laundry may be consuming more time than management realizes.

This is an excellent volume at which to calculate a real cost per pound and compare options.

What About 250 Pounds Per Week?

At 250 pounds per week:

13,000 pounds per year

Now laundry is becoming a meaningful operation.

The business should know:

• Employee hours devoted to laundry
• Equipment capacity
• Utility costs
• Folding productivity
• Repair history
• Inventory requirements

At this volume, “we just do it between other things” is no longer a very useful cost-accounting system.

The laundry operation deserves measurement.

What About 500 Pounds Per Week?

At 500 pounds per week:

26,000 pounds per year

Now the business is processing more than 2,000 pounds in an average month.

At that level, equipment capacity and labor utilization become increasingly important.

That doesn't automatically mean outsourcing is cheaper.

A well-designed in-house commercial laundry operation with efficient equipment and dedicated staff may perform very well.

But a small business trying to process 500 pounds per week using undersized machines and employees who have unrelated primary jobs may be operating inefficiently.

Again:

Measure before deciding.

What Does Commercial Laundry Service Cost?

Professional commercial laundry services generally structure pricing based on factors such as:

• Laundry volume
• Textile type
• Pickup frequency
• Turnaround
• Sorting requirements
• Location
• Special handling
• Minimums

Some providers charge by the pound.

Others use rental programs, item pricing, service fees, or other structures.

Fresh Start specializes in customer-owned commercial laundry, meaning businesses can continue using their own towels, linens, and other eligible goods rather than automatically entering a linen-rental model.

For a complete explanation of the different pricing models, read How Much Does Commercial Laundry Service Cost? Understanding Per-Pound vs. Linen Rental Pricing.

How Should You Compare In-House Laundry With a Commercial Laundry Service?

Use the same unit.

If the commercial provider charges by the pound, calculate your in-house cost per pound.

Don't compare:

Commercial price per pound

against

In-house detergent cost per load.

That's not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Instead:

In-House

Calculate:

Total annual laundry cost ÷ annual pounds

Outsourced

Calculate:

Total annual commercial laundry charges ÷ annual pounds

Then consider operational differences that aren't completely captured by the number.

What Does Outsourcing Laundry Remove From the Business?

Depending on the provider and service agreement, outsourcing can reduce or eliminate the need for the business to manage:

• Washing
• Drying
• Folding
• Laundry chemicals
• Washer maintenance
• Dryer maintenance
• Laundry equipment replacement
• Laundry utilities
• Equipment downtime
• Some laundry-room space
• Employee laundry labor

With pickup and delivery, it can also eliminate employee trips to a laundromat or cleaner.

Fresh Start provides scheduled commercial laundry pickup and delivery throughout its service area.

What Doesn't Outsourcing Eliminate?

Your business still needs to manage its textile inventory.

That includes:

• Collecting dirty items
• Storing them until pickup
• Maintaining sufficient clean inventory
• Communicating unusual requirements
• Putting clean inventory back into use

If a business doesn't own enough towels to last between pickups, outsourcing doesn't magically solve the inventory shortage.

Sometimes the solution isn't more frequent laundry.

It's more inventory.

That's why pickup frequency should be determined by both laundry volume and how much inventory the business owns.

Our guide to how often a business should schedule commercial laundry pickup explains this relationship in more detail.

Is Daily Commercial Laundry Pickup Necessary?

Usually not for smaller businesses.

More frequent pickup can be useful when:

• Volume is extremely high
• Storage is limited
• Inventory is limited
• Turnaround requirements are unusual

But adding pickup frequency can also increase operational complexity.

A business may be better served by owning enough towels or linens to support fewer, larger pickups.

The ideal schedule is the one that keeps enough clean inventory available without creating unnecessary transportation and handling.

Which Businesses Should Pay Particular Attention to Laundry Labor?

Businesses where employees have more valuable primary responsibilities should measure laundry labor carefully.

Physical Therapy Clinics

Front-desk or clinical support staff may be repeatedly handling towels throughout the day.

For PT practices, also read our guide to commercial laundry considerations for physical therapy clinics.

Hair Salons

Towels can accumulate rapidly throughout the day, and dye or chemical exposure can add processing considerations.

Our guide to how to wash salon towels covers the cleaning side in greater detail.

Spas and Massage Practices

Sheets, towels, robes, and other textiles can create substantial volume.

Gyms and Fitness Studios

Even relatively small facilities can generate significant towel volume when customers use multiple towels per visit.

Pet Groomers

Towels can be heavily soiled and generated continuously throughout the workday.

The relevant question isn't whether these businesses can do laundry.

It's whether laundry is the best use of their equipment, space, and employee time.

When Is In-House Laundry the Better Choice?

In-house laundry can make excellent sense when:

• Volume is low
• Equipment already exists
• Machines have spare capacity
• Employees have genuine downtime
• Laundry is simple
• Turnaround needs are immediate
• Space isn't constrained
• The calculated cost is competitive

Outsourcing shouldn't be treated as automatically superior.

A business processing a few light loads each week with an existing washer and an employee who genuinely has unused time may have little financial reason to outsource.

When Does Commercial Laundry Service Make More Sense?

A professional service becomes more compelling when:

• Laundry volume is increasing
• Employees spend significant time folding
• Machines run throughout the day
• Laundry interrupts normal operations
• Equipment is aging
• Repairs are increasing
• More equipment needs to be purchased
• Laundry space could be used differently
• Managers spend time solving laundry problems
• The business wants predictable outside capacity

The decision should still be based on your actual numbers.

For a broader operational comparison, read In-House Laundry vs. Commercial Laundry Service: Which Is Better for Your Business?.

A Simple In-House Laundry Cost Worksheet

If you want to calculate your business's cost, gather these numbers for the last 12 months or create reasonable estimates.

Then calculate:

Total Annual Cost ÷ Annual Pounds of Laundry = Cost Per Pound

If you don't currently know your annual laundry volume, start weighing or tracking laundry for four weeks.

Multiply your average weekly volume by 52.

The result won't be perfect, but it will be far more useful than assuming your laundry costs “almost nothing” because the washer has already been purchased.

Don't Forget to Calculate Cost Per Finished Pound

When comparing in-house processing with a per-pound commercial laundry service, make sure you're measuring consistently.

Commercial laundry pricing is often based on dry laundry weight.

If you're trying to calculate an equivalent internal number, use dry weight too.

Wet towels can weigh dramatically more than dry towels.

Using wet laundry weight would distort the comparison.

Fresh Start uses dry weight for its per-pound laundry pricing so businesses are charged based on the textile weight rather than the amount of water trapped in the load.

Should You Outsource All of Your Laundry?

Not necessarily.

A hybrid model can also work.

For example, a business might process:

Small urgent loads in-house

while sending:

larger routine volume to a commercial laundry service.

Or it may keep enough equipment for emergencies while outsourcing normal production.

The right system depends on:

• Volume
• Labor
• Inventory
• Equipment
• Space
• Turnaround
• Business hours

The objective isn't to outsource laundry for the sake of outsourcing.

It's to build the most efficient laundry operation for the business.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Cost of Doing Laundry In-House

How much does it cost a business to do laundry in-house?

The cost depends on labor, payroll burden, utilities, detergent, equipment, repairs, supplies, space, management time, and laundry volume. Businesses should calculate total annual laundry costs and divide by annual dry pounds processed to determine an approximate cost per pound.

What is the biggest cost of in-house laundry?

For many small businesses, employee labor can be one of the largest and most underestimated expenses, particularly when employees spend substantial time folding and restocking towels or linens.

How do you calculate laundry cost per pound?

Add the business's annual laundry-related expenses and divide the total by the annual pounds of dry laundry processed:

Annual Laundry Cost ÷ Annual Dry Pounds = Cost Per Pound

Should employee time be included in laundry cost?

Yes. Include active time employees spend collecting, sorting, loading, transferring, unloading, folding, organizing, restocking, and managing laundry.

Do you count washer and dryer run time as employee labor?

Not necessarily. If an employee can perform other productive work while the machines operate, count the employee's active laundry time rather than automatically treating the entire machine cycle as labor.

Should washer and dryer replacement be included?

Yes. Equipment has a finite useful life. A business calculating its true laundry cost should account for depreciation or expected replacement costs as well as repairs and maintenance.

Does doing laundry in-house save money?

It can. Low-volume businesses with existing equipment, available labor, and sufficient space may find in-house laundry economical. The answer changes as volume, wages, equipment needs, and operational demands change.

Is commercial laundry cheaper than doing laundry in-house?

Sometimes, but not always. A fair comparison requires calculating the full in-house cost—including labor, equipment, utilities, chemicals, maintenance, and overhead—and comparing it with the total commercial service cost.

At what laundry volume should a business outsource?

There is no universal pound threshold. Businesses should compare costs as volume grows, especially when laundry begins consuming substantial employee time, exceeding equipment capacity, or requiring additional equipment.

Does commercial laundry service include pickup and delivery?

It depends on the provider. Fresh Start offers scheduled commercial laundry pickup and delivery for eligible businesses within its service area.

Does Fresh Start require businesses to rent linens?

No. Fresh Start specializes in processing customer-owned laundry, allowing businesses to continue using their own towels, linens, and other eligible textiles rather than requiring a traditional linen-rental program.

Calculate What Laundry Is Actually Costing Your Business

The biggest mistake a business can make when evaluating in-house laundry is assuming:

“We already own the washer, so laundry is cheap.”

Maybe it is.

But you won't know until you calculate it.

Start with:

Employee labor

Then add:

Payroll costs

Water and sewer

Electricity or gas

Detergent and chemicals

Washer and dryer costs

Repairs and maintenance

Supplies

Space

Management time

Then divide the total by the amount of laundry your business actually processes.

That gives you a meaningful in-house laundry cost per pound.

From there, you can make a fair comparison between continuing to process laundry internally and using a professional service.

If in-house laundry is efficient and inexpensive, keep doing it.

If employees are spending hours every week washing and folding towels, equipment is constantly running, or you're considering purchasing additional machines, it's worth comparing the numbers before investing further.

Get Fresh Start Laundry provides commercial laundry pickup and delivery for businesses throughout Fairfield County, Connecticut and parts of Westchester County, New York.

We work with businesses that own their towels, linens, and other washable inventory and need reliable recurring processing without committing staff and equipment to doing the laundry themselves.

If you're evaluating your current operation, request a commercial quote based on your actual volume, pickup frequency, and turnaround needs.

Then compare it with your true in-house cost.

That's the number that matters.