A commercial laundry facility looks like any other manufacturing building, but it’s not until you get inside that the first big difference hits you: It smells really clean. Depending on the time of day and year, there may be many people, carts, and linens in various washing, drying, ironing, and folding stages. It may be quiet or humming with high-tech laundry equipment. Ever wonder how commercial laundry service works on any given day? Check out this step-by-step account. Share on X
Commercial Laundry Service: Here For You
There are so many reasons to outsource your linen management and laundry service, but perhaps the most powerful is the amount of work it takes to get it all done! On any given day doing laundry in-house would require an entire team. Here’s what that looks like:
Linen Arrival
We pick up linens from various hotels, resorts, healthcare facilities, and restaurants. Then, we bring them to the plant, line them up, and process them. We then enter each load’s information into a computer system and weigh the linens.
Sorting
Trained staff sorts the linens with gloves and other gear. They sort materials by type and color (white towels, bedsheets, and robes go into their own compartments, for example).
Washing
Our high-capacity industrial washing machines thoroughly launder the linens according to the standards and guidelines for each industry. (For example, healthcare linens have much more stringent guidelines than the restaurant industry.)
Drying
We then place damp laundry in large capacity dryers and the kind of material determines the level of drying. We usually dry the sheets just enough to pull out excess moisture and then press (iron) them while still slightly damp.
Pressing
Our pressing machines are big enough to efficiently dry and iron king-sized sheets and banquet-sized tablecloths. Our staff hand loads the linens into the ironers where they dry and neatly fold them.
Folding
Very little is folded by hand, as that is time-consuming and less than efficient. Instead, machines fold, sort, and stack clean linens.
Weighing
Staff at the end of the laundry process check to make sure there are no major weight discrepancies. Damaged or stained linens are bagged separately so they aren’t mixed in with the rest of the linens during delivery.
An Efficient Operation
While this gave you some insight into what a commercial laundry facility does, there are always exceptions to how things are done. Perhaps there are special circumstances that require more care, and Wilkins Linen has done it all!
Contact Us to learn more about commercial laundry service and linen management.
