Students living off-campus don’t always have the easy access to laundry facilities that students in residence halls enjoy.

While complexes where students traditionally rent apartments may have laundry facilities, not all residents find these appliances to be the most productive way to take care of dirty laundry.

The worst time to do laundry in DeKalb is on Sunday afternoons, when business at area Laundromats is at a peak, said Pat Hinkle, one of the owners of Double Bubble, 850 Pappas Drive. Saturdays also are busy days for area Laundromats.

Still, many students do laundry when it is most convenient for them, and often go to the business closest to where they live.

“My apartment building only has one washer and one dryer, so it saves lots of time to come here and do three loads at once,” said junior elementary major Pam Richmeier as she waited for her clothes to finish drying at the Laundry Lounge, 818 W. Lincoln Highway.

Dave Melms, owner of the Laundry Lounge, said his business has a lot of customers who attend NIU, but a major portion of his clientele consists of DeKalb residents.

DeKalb resident Tiffany Porter said the washer and dryer at her apartment complex need maintenance and haven’t worked for more than a month. She also found it convenient to go to the Laundry Lounge because of its close proximity to her apartment.

Hinkle said Double Bubble also sees a lot of students, but the clientele varies, and many non-students use the service.

She said her business always has an attendant on duty during business hours, and is the newest Laundromat in town, adding the business has new washers and dryers that are cleaned daily.

“We also have the hottest dryers in town, and you know that because we are the only ones who have dryers that display the current temperature,” she said.

Other places rely less on student business to operate.

Randy Stillson, owner of First Street Cleaners and Laundry, 1110 N. First St., said about 15 percent of his business comes from students, and things really don’t slow down when most NIU students leave for the summer.

“We probably have more students using our dry cleaning services than our laundry services,” he said.