If you enjoy washing and it is your favourite household chore you’re going to love Bubbles. Sounds quite like a paradox doesn’t it? How can someone enjoy doing the household chores? Let’s just take a second to make things clear: those who like washing the laundry are enjoying it, because all they have to do is to put the clothes in the washing machine, push a button and then take out the fresh, sweet-scented laundry. But if things are easy like that why would anyone need to go to a laundromat where everything is self-service?
Bubbly factsn Bubbles there are four washing machines and three driers with different capacities. We arrived in the afternoon, when none of these machines was operating. There are washing machines with double and triple capacities as well which means we can easily wash 11 or even 16 kilos of clothes at the same time. This is indeed twice or three times the amount of what we can wash at home in our own domestic washing machines.
A week’s laundry can easily be washed all at once so we already wasted some money as we only brought a few kilos of stuff only. Fortunately we can mix everything together; colourful pieces can be washed with white clothes, sensitive items can be washed together with the dirty stuff and we can even put our bikinis and our cocktail dresses in the washing machine at the same time – we just have to choose the right washing programme out of the five possibilities. We had to choose the sensitive programme for 950 forints. If we would’ve brought more stuff with us we would’ve had to pay 1350 forints.
We only have to bring the laundry and the money – everything else is provided, including the washing powder. We throw our clothes in the machine, we choose a programme and we pay. We should check the instructions on the wall before we do anything just for the sake of safety. Now all we have to do is wait for about 30 minutes. Then we can use the driers – 10 minutes cost 380 forints. Unfortunately 10 minutes are not enough for the laundry to dry, so a whole programme (including the washing and the drying) takes about an hour and cost about 2000 forints. However, if we take everything into consideration – including energy, water, washing powders and washing products, water softeners and service fees – it’s still 10% cheaper to get 1kg of your laundry washed in Bubbles than at home. Of course the washing machines need to be full to be as economic as possible. We accidentally wasted our money but we are still more than satisfied with the results.
Going out for a laundry party?How does a simple household chore become a social experience? The answer is easy. We should grab some laundry soap and a trough and we should go to the riverside with some friends to do the laundry with an enthusiastic and cheerful attitude. Or maybe we could just go to Bubbles with our weekly laundry and have a nice cup of coffee and a friendly chat while the washing machines are working. This might sound a bit weird as we could just go and have an ice-cream instead or we could just go to each other’s place while the washing machine is on. Nowadays, however, more and more people decide to mix pleasure and duty. Not to mention that kids love it here; they enjoy the sweet scents and the blue and orange colours. If we want to we can ask for sterilization, for an industrial wash and of course we can get our clothes back completely dry. Very convincing isn’t it? Just like the machines that can wash sheets, curtains and even sleeping bags.
Inspired by Italian bubbles Bubbles is becoming more and more popular – they are open non-stop now, they have an international clientele and they are planning to open other blue and bubbly laundries as well both in the city and on the countryside too.
The test was successful, let’s see the results: impeccably white socks and blouses, a clear bikini and a fresh cocktail dress. Not to mention the office next day that became just as good-smelling as our clothes. We still have different ideas about having fun but we will return to Bubbles for sure (right after we came back from a camping trip, after packing out the wardrobe or when the sheets need to be cleaned for example).
Bubbles Laundry was inspired by an Italian laundry franchise. The washing machines were all developed in Italy and the programmes that run the machines are also part of the Bubble mechanism. In Hungary, the first, the one and the only self-service laundry is in the 13th district on Bessenyei Street.
The interior design was created by the Hungarian owners. Italy, and the Western- European countries have hundreds and hundreds of such laundries but the one in Budapest is by far the best from this respect. Hungarians still need a bit of encouragement to come in though.
