New laundry services sees loads of customers

new laundry service company will pick up bags of dirty laundry from your home

and return them cleaned, folded, grouped or on hangers within 48 hours.

“This is basically DoorDash for your laundry,” said Richelle Davis, owner of U nhampered Laundry.

With

weekly service starting at $36 for a large bag that holds up to three loads,

Davis said her business has grown every week since she opened this spring.

“Nobody

likes to do their own laundry. And if you’re going to be involved in the

service business, you need to do something that people don’t want to do for

themselves,” she said.

Hannah

Ungricht of Richland has been using the service for a few months and she’s a

believer.

“The

ease of never having to leave my house has made this a service I can’t live

without. Richelle ironed all of my husband’s work clothes and with a newborn at

home, this was such a major relief to me. She made it easy and quick. Richelle

is personable and professional. I would recommend her to anyone. And honestly,

seeing the clothes on their hangers and in the nice plastic bags made my heart

leap with joy,” Ungricht said.

Davis

said she comes from a family of entrepreneurs involved in multiple businesses.

“I’ve always known that’s just the way to go for me,” she said.

After

past careers as a hair dresser and a preschool teacher, she brainstormed with

her mother to come up with a business she could undertake on her own.

“I

am big on filling needs in the market and we needed a laundry service. There

are zero pickup and delivery services here,” Davis said. “I’m good with

laundry. I’m good with learning things I need to learn and how to be good at

whatever I need to be good at, so I went for it.”

After

starting out with a standard washer and dryer based out of her Richland home,

Davis is already looking at expanding due to immediate demand.

She

said word of mouth has been strong and she isn’t just doing laundry for

families, but has a number of commercial accounts for the health care industry,

massage therapists and long-haul truckers. Even companies who fly in corporate

executives use her 24-hour express service while in town temporarily.

Unhampered

Laundry differs from a dry cleaner by offering pickup and delivery and also the

service of washing clothes versus dry cleaning.

“It’s

quite expensive for a dry cleaner to do your laundry because that’s not their

specialty. That’s kind of a side service for them, whereas that’s my main

service,” Davis said. “You can save money by going through me, but you also get

the pickup and delivery. Big cities have this service but we hadn’t gotten

there yet.”

start service with Unhampered Laundry, Davis meets with a customer in person to

assess the amount of laundry needing to be cleaned and delivers the bags for

clothes and linens to be picked up in.

Clients

sign a damage waiver and complete a detailed questionnaire on preferences.

For the first visit, a customer must be home, but after that, laundry can be left outside the door and returned to the same spot cleaned, folded uniformly and wrapped in commercial-grade plastic wrap, grouping like items together so customers just needs to unwrap and put away.

“If

they want me to never use hot water or if they use softener, or no softener,

scented or unscented, so it’s done exactly the way they like,” Davis said. “We

decide if everything’s going to be folded or hung. All of that is included. If

I provide the hangers, it’s 20 cents a hanger. If they provide the hangers, that

service is included.”

For

the first visit, a customer must be home, but after that, laundry can be left

outside the door and returned to the same spot cleaned, folded uniformly and

wrapped in commercial-grade plastic wrap, grouping like items together so

customers just needs to unwrap and put away.

“I haven’t had an unhappy customer. I haven’t had anyone