The Laundry Fairy with Lila Taylor

This is episode number 220 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Greg Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for another episode here live in the studio.

What's going on, Kev? Oh, well, you know, I'm here.

You're here. Everything's good.

Yeah.

2 in a row.

2 in a row.

Back in the studio.

Yeah. And it's— man, it was weird today. Like, did you walk outside at all?

I was outside all day.

It was weird.

What was weird about it?

It was like—

You said it was like overcast?

Muggy and hot and like—

Yeah, I'm not used to it. It's like muggy when it's like also like warm.

Yeah, I don't know. It was— I did not enjoy it.

It's like a really wet oven.

I walked out and I was like, I don't like this. I don't like this at all. And then tomorrow it's gonna be crazy.

Tomorrow's supposed to rain, right?

We got a weird storm coming in, so who knows. Anyway, life's good, everything's good. It's crazy busy because we're still building my mother-in-law's house, and all the red iron is up, which is awesome. All the what? The red iron.

Red iron?

Yeah.

Okay, I've never heard it called that before. Um, I mean, I know what it is, but yeah, I don't—

that's what I call it. It's iron that's red. I don't know.

Did you just make that up, or is that like?

No, I mean, I think that's what it's called.

Yeah. Did one of the guys working on it call it that?

No.

Okay. Just kind of made it up. Pulled it out of the. Mm-hmm.

Okay. That's what I'm calling it.

That's fine.

You can call it Red Iron. It's up.

It's on your property. You can call it what you want.

Yeah. So anyway, that's what's going on with me. How are you?

I'm just like we threw up the jingly bob.

The hoobly ha.

We had a hoot nenny.

We did, but it's up. Well, I— it's mostly up. They're waiting on— so no, I think all of it is up. We're just waiting on the skin to come in. And as soon as, uh, the, uh, you know, the metal skin comes in, we're— and which should be Monday, we should be good to go on that. And then the studs go up, and then the insulation goes in, and the plumbing goes in, and the electrical goes in. And it's just kind of that whole process.

Yeah, it's like a giant Lego set.

Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah. So I, I took a— I was in a class, uh, a week before last. And, um, real quick, I mean, we, we've, we've got Lila Taylor in the studio tonight from Laundry Fairy. Uh, we've been talking about doing this episode for a while, so we're excited about her being in the studio. If you want to say hi real quick.

Hi.

There you go. So, and I'm, I'm, I'm doing a brief intro because I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk about something, and I'm interested to hear if you guys have ever heard about this before because it blew my mind. Um, and, and I wanted to talk about it because I think it's something— one, I think it's something that parents need to be aware of. Um, and anyway, I was, I was taking a class and this, this guy was talking about drinking and driving.

Hmm.

And he said— he was talking about how it's become a complicated thing because it's not just a, uh, a breathalyzer that can detect these things anymore because there's new ways that people are absorbing alcohol. And I was like, okay. And then he goes into it and he goes like, the reason we found out about this is because kids started doing this in school. And then he went into it. So sorry if, you know, if you've got kids in the car, turn the volume down. Have you guys heard of— sorry, anal absorption of alcohol?

No, I haven't. No. I assume you're going to continue to tell us about it.

I am.

Oh, great.

But I was just curious if you'd even heard about it.

No, I have not. I've heard of anal absorption of other things, but not alcohol.

Yeah. So, so here's, here's the thing is young men and women are soaking tampons.

Oh my goodness.

Vodka. And then inserting it.

What?

And it takes like half the amount of alcohol to get drunk doing it that way.

Oh my goodness.

Because it absorbs directly into your bloodstream. And you can do it and you can be drunk at school and they can't detect it because they can't smell it on your breath.

Oh my goodness.

Because you didn't drink it. And the reason it absorbs faster and it affects you quicker is because it bypasses the liver and the stomach. So, and I, I was taking this class and I was like, this guy is of it. Like, no one would actually do that. So I have a physician buddy of mine. He's, he's worked in, like, emergency care for years and years and years. And I was, and I was, I was just at a party with him, and I was like, I gotta run something by you because I heard about this today, and I want to know if you've ever heard of—

Here, here's a tampon. Was that it? Is that how you introduced yourself that night?

Hold this for me.

Hold this.

You know what to do.

That's right. You know what to do.

And I was like, I was like, I was like, dude, do people actually do this? And he goes, oh dude, they've been doing it for a long time.

What?

Yes.

I seriously—

And there's like— This is the first time. You can look into it. There's other ways other than the tampons to do it that to me are just way weirder, which—

It gets weirder.

I know, I know. I'm saying that and I'm like, people are going like, how could it be weirder? It can get weirder.

Okay.

And I didn't want to know about the weirder because, like, you know, like once you're like curious about something, you're like, what is this? And like, yeah, you know. So anyway, so my physician friend was like telling me like all the different ways that people do it. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like the most disturbing thing I've ever—

like, like, how bad do you have to want to be drunk? See, look, okay. In the one time that's happened to me, I—

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. The one time— what?

The drunk part.

But how?

No, the regular how.

The normal how.

The way that normal people decide to drink.

Okay.

The one time that ever happened to me, I hated it so much that I never wanted to do it again. And I realized that I'm— some people do love the feeling of being drunk and love that sort of thing. I don't. Right. And so there's nothing appealing, literally nothing appealing about this process. And, or, or the—

in all of the many ways that you could achieve it.

No, there's—

Well, it's like drinking is supposed to be this social event that you do with your friends. And that is You're not— I'm doing that with my friends.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We're gonna go out and have a few drinks together, you know, via mouth.

Right.

Yeah. No.

Right. No. Like, it's a social interaction. It's not—

Yeah. There's nothing social about that.

No. Uh-uh. Nah.

So anyway, I'm actually relieved to know that I was like, I'm not alone in my surprise.

Dude, we are so old.

And I think it's going on for a long time. How long is a long time? Have people been— because that wasn't a thing when I was in school. Absolutely not.

No, I don't. I mean, like, I would imagine it's— I mean, I could, I could probably do some research and find out. I don't want to.

Um, don't— I'm not Googling that.

No, I'm just saying you don't want that in the cookies.

No, no, incognito window won't even fix that.

Nope.

Wow.

Yeah.

Now my phone is right here. I'm gonna have all these weird things.

Oh, that's the truth.

That's right.

Craig, the Homeowner Studio has been infiltrated with words that Google is listening to right now.

Kind of a metaphorical and an actual enema. I do not—

I'll tell you this, y'all do not scroll Facebook tonight. You do not want to know what's going to come across your feed.

Yeah. But like, it's also hilarious that people that were tuning in live—

You're welcome.

I'm just gonna take my phone and set it down.

That's right, just put it on silent.

KSBJ Radio.

Do not disturb, please.

Do not disturb. Airplane mode activated.

That's right.

Wow, what other fun things can you tell us about Craig?

There are other things I could talk about from that class that I had to take, but no, we're not gonna do any of those.

Good.

But anyway, so this is an episode we've been talking about doing for a while.

Yeah, great.

We've been excited about having you on. And so, so much so that my wife actually performed another interview in the driveway as we were trying to get to the studio.

We literally told her not to do that.

And she did it anyway. So, so I apologize for that.

We told her, look, if you want to come on and ask questions.

Yeah, you can come on.

She declined.

She wants to troll us on the interwebs.

She will. Hi, Brandy.

So anyway, so Lila Taylor, the Laundry Fairy, right? And I think the first time I actually met you, you were wearing fairy wings.

Oh, yes.

Yeah. Is that, is that part of a usual getup at the events that you go to?

Yes.

Yeah, it's adorable.

Well, thank you.

So, but the name kind of says it. You're the Laundry Fairy.

That's exactly it.

Yeah.

So tell people a little bit how you got into this.

Well, like, sorry, uh, I've been cleaning houses and doing laundry for 18 years.

Okay.

Um, and, uh, I kind of chose that avenue because my husband and I moved a lot over the years.

Okay.

But in the very most recent season of our life, my husband in his current job, he was able to make roots somewhere. So then when I started cleaning houses and doing laundry here. My kids are older. We're a homeschool family. I'm sorry, this is a long answer. But anyways—

You're good. Bring it.

So I needed a source of income because like we're a homeschool family. My kids are older. So it got to this complicated age where I couldn't really take them with me where I went because they're, you know, they're children. And, um, so I thought, well, if I could go pick up someone's laundry in the morning, Bring it home, homeschool the kids, clean the house, cook the dinner, take the laundry back in the afternoon. They can kind of build this whole life around it. And then I just kind of sort of did.

Yeah, there you did. Wow. Yeah. So, so I want to know, so what does that look like for anybody that you're helping? Like, what, what do you do? I mean, I appreciate the process of getting there, but you've evolved since then, I'm sure. And things are different on some level. So first question first, how long have you been doing this? And then secondly, what does that look like for the consumer?

So we've been the Laundry Fairy for 4 years in January. And so it's very exciting.

So this coming January, it will be four years. Okay.

January is our four-year anniversary. Super exciting. Yeah. But what does that look like to the consumer? Do you mean like in literally?

Yeah, I want to know the process. Like if I like let's say you know Kevin wanted your services. What is what do I what do I do? Like how does that what do you keep it?

We keep things easy peasy mac and cheesy as possible. So you just go to the website. There's a little pink button that says. Summon a Fairy. And then you click Summon a Fairy, and then you go down, and then you pick whatever you want to do. And then we come and pick up your laundry. And it could vary from a morning pickup to an afternoon pickup, an afternoon pickup that's an emergency turnaround for the next morning. You need a moving service or whatever you may need, we come, we pick up your laundry, wash, dry, fold, hang, and then we bring it back same day, next day, your way.

Oh, it's just one day?

Yeah.

Wow. Every time.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

Whoa. Unless you like are moving and you need a couple days of a hold or whatever it may be. So because we have people that are just kind of moving within the area, that's definitely some of those popular in '20 and early '21 is, uh, people would send their laundry because moving 13 times, you know, one time we moved and we lost all my husband's work uniforms.

Oh my gosh.

They're all gone and they were like $35 per shirt, $70 per pants. Why?

Why that box?

Right? So, um, so people will send us their laundry, their school uniforms, work uniforms, office attire for a couple days, and we'll wash, dry, fold, hang, and then we'll hold that and we'll deliver it to their new address.

Wow.

If it's local.

Okay, so only local. You can't like ship it or—

No, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I'm just saying, like, the delivery person's like, oh, what's in this? What, what, what is in this box? Sorry, the mechanic's clothes.

Well, so with, with the way that you guys do it, what I mean, obviously there's the convenience thing. Like, most people just don't enjoy doing the laundry, right? But like, what are, what are most people doing wrong with their laundry that they're like, look, I just need somebody to do this?

Oh, I don't think anybody does anything wrong per se.

Oh, I can do it wrong.

I'm told I do it wrong.

We have a lot of situations where the, the husband will do it a certain way and the wife does it a certain way. And one person cares this way and one person cares that way. Let's be clear, different detergents.

He's doing it wrong.

Yeah, every time.

It doesn't matter if he's actually doing it right. He's doing it wrong because he's not doing it like she does it.

Right. Perfect. He said it right.

Yeah.

It's true.

Everybody's thinking it. Right.

Right. I mean, look, I might or might not use that excuse for why I don't do laundry. But yeah, I don't want to do it wrong. And it's your—

It's like the old Bill Cosby bit about making the kids breakfast.

Yes.

Right?

Yes.

So she sent me to my room.

Yep.

which is where I wanted to be in the first place.

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Yeah, sorry.

Oh no, you're good.

So they— so seriously, so like, why— what's the most common reason why people would use your service?

Well, there's a variation of reasons. Uh, multi-generational households, and they don't want to push You know, when your parents move in and then kids moving together and you've got grandkids and great-grandkids in some situations, it becomes a lot. And you're doing whatever it takes to keep your community strong and not a lot of strife within it.

Yeah.

And laundry is one of those things, you know, around Valentine's Day. Hey, get her laundry service. Laundry service is cheaper than marriage counseling.

So you heard it here, folks.

It's, uh, it's also, you know, busy husband and wives.

Yeah.

It's, you know, I know my daughters, even though we're a homeschool family, they've still got track practice, they've got their church things they do, they've got their own little YouTube channels and businesses they want to own and school that they have to do. So families are busier now than ever, but the family as a whole, because it's not just mom's busy, dad's busy, kids are busy, right? So you'll have, um, you know, busy families that'll send their laundry. So things like that.

I, I'm, I'm actually curious, do you— I, one, I know that like the homeschool community is like a strong network. Do you, do you get a lot of business from the homeschool kind of community?

I feel like we get some business, not as much as you would think because it is— I hope this doesn't come off wrong, but it, it is more of a luxury service.

Sure.

And most homeschool families are single income. So, but we have so much support from the homeschool family, from the homeschool community.

Yeah. Well, I just, I mean, like, knowing so many homeschool families, like, I know how much work that takes for— I mean, typically mom, but also dad. And so like, that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for extra things like Laundry, lawn mowing, you know, all those other things that, you know, you have to do to maintain the home. And so like, I'm looking at it going like, man, if I could just get this one thing off my plate, I would have so much— like, I might actually have a free moment.

Exactly.

You know, so, well, I mean, laundry takes a long time.

I'm surprised you get it back in one day. I mean, because I— yeah, it is. It's very like, um, I think that When it's always like this all-day event at our house, and it's like I can't do anything else because I got to do the laundry, and I can't play with the kids because I gotta do laundry, I can't go anywhere because I gotta do laundry. And typically, I mean, anybody who's had— I mean, a lot of families these days have— are two-income families.

Oh yeah.

And because of that, if you've got kids, you're two-income families, you've got friends, you've got all these things, and it's like doing laundry is it's a chore. And, and it really— I realize it is literally a chore, but like, when, when are you gonna do it? And a lot of people, like, we don't like leaving our dryer going at night. It's just not something we like doing.

Oh, my in-laws are like that.

And so I'm, I'm probably more fine with it than my wife is, but she does not like going because of the off chance that something crazy happens and, you know, we're not awake be around, right? So that even limits whenever you can do laundry, you know, because you can't just set something and then, you know, be done with it, um, or leave the house and, you know, keep, you know, something going or whatever. So I think that there's just a lot of, a lot of reasons why someone's going, okay, tell me more. So, you know.

It does take the average family 4 to 5 hours per load of laundry. So if you're throwing in 3 or 4 loads, that is literally an all-day project. So we buy you back, you know, laundry service is the gift of time.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And so let me ask you this. So, um, so I give you my clothes all like just in one bag.

13-gallon kitchen trash bag.

Okay, so I— 2 bags then. Uh, so I give you all the laundry in bags And give it to you, how does it come back to me?

Uh, wash, dry, fold, hun. Now you have kids, right? You both have kids. So, uh, for us, we have 4 daughters. So what I try to model the business off of what I would like as a mom, as busy family, and all these things. So if you'll write your— if you'll set separate your laundry by bag by name, like write your kids' names on the bag is what I'm trying to say.

Yeah, yeah.

We'll return it with the coordinating labels. That way the kids can just put it away.

Really?

See, I love it. And you'll hang things too? Yep.

Fold and hang.

Okay. So do we spec— how do we— how do we— how do you know?

So some people have instructions, some people send special hangers, but I mean, just kind of a rule of thumb, we don't hang t-shirts and we don't hang athleisure wear. We don't hang pajamas. We pretty much hang everything else.

Okay. Wow. That— I just, I love that so much. Like, so here's what I think. Here's what I think is true for most families. I think most families are like, okay, washing, no big deal. Drying, I can do that. It's right next door, you know? And, uh, it's laundry adjacent.

Yeah.

But then what happens is it goes in the laundry basket and then it goes to the couch.

Yeah.

And then from the couch it might make it to a bedroom, um, because everybody does like a little naked dance getting out to the, to the, uh, uh, to the couch. And so I don't want to do that anymore. So then they take it to the bedroom where they can close the door, but it just stays in the laundry hamper.

Oh yeah. Most of the time the The same shirts and pants come through, come through, but never worn, but it's in the dirty clothes, and it's a vicious cycle.

Yeah, no, no, I, I will— here's where I give my wife a ton of credit, because she— we, we have our things that we do. I don't do the laundry unless it's— unless I have to. I know how. I do know how. I, I didn't know how for a long time, but I, I— since I've been married, I've known how the whole time.

Uh-huh.

You've been educated.

Yeah, well, when I went to college, I had to learn. Uh, so, but I know how to do laundry, but I just don't because that's one of the things that she does, and she's very good about getting it folded and put away. I'm very, very thankful for her for doing that, but I know a lot of families just don't. And so it's like—

Don't what?

They don't fold their laundry and put it away.

Oh, okay.

They just—

totally normal.

Yeah, I think it's totally normal for it to just stay in the hamper that they take it out of the dryer and put it into, and it just stays there.

Oh yeah. So like, for us, this time of the year is— mind you, we don't judge, we just do the laundry.

I judge.

Been there. And, uh, but no, I get, I get phone calls every day. Hey, I haven't seen my table since last Thanksgiving. Can I just send it to you? Absolutely.

Yeah.

Just send it off.

And I think it's even worse than that. Whenever you talk about the fact that you give people back time, here's what they also do. I, I'm keenly aware of other people, apparently. That goes into that laundry basket, the clean laundry basket, the clean laundry basket, and it stays there. And what does it do? It just gets wrinkled. Well, people don't want to wear wrinkled stuff. So what do they do?

Put it back in.

They put it back in the dryer with a wet washcloth to, to get the steam or whatever going because they didn't buy the steam kind of dryer. And now they're waiting another 20 minutes or however long it is.

It gets a funny smell.

And it gets another funny smell. And, um, it just wears it out quicker, like you're wearing your clothes out quicker. And so You're wasting more time and putting it through a wash or a dry that it didn't need to go through anyway. So there's so much time involved in this process if you would have just folded it and put it away. So whenever they give it to you, it comes back folded. Like, I think there's a whole level of love that happens in that process, you know?

Yeah, you're like, this is— you're talking about someone that has a, a thought of ambition, right? Because they're throwing the whole load back in the dryer again with this wet rag. bag, man. I, I know these, these people that just, they pull from the basket and it's like the one shirt.

No. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. It's one, one shirt. Oh, one pair of pants. Yeah.

I'm not saying the whole laundry load. Okay.

Okay. No.

No. No.

It's one. It's the one garment that they wanna wear.

I thought we were talking about, like, delusional goal people that are like, alright. This is the, this is the time. I'm gonna get it now.

Not gonna happen. No. There, that, that takes too much effort. Like, oh, I've, I've already rifled through to find the shirt that I actually wanna wear.

Yeah.

And I'm not gonna then take everything and put it in the dryer. I'm just going to take that one shirt. Yeah.

Okay.

So, and that happens, right? I'm not, I'm not delusional, am I?

Oh, it happens.

Okay.

One does not necessarily mean the other isn't true.

Okay. Yeah, I agree.

You can be both.

Yeah, I think so too.

You can be right and delusional.

I think that's true.

I was in the right place.

I love, I love the fact that it comes now. Okay, let me ask you this. Do you starch things?

No, because we don't iron.

Oh, you don't iron?

It's just strict laundry.

Yeah, just your basic laundry, which, which I think is good.

I mean, who starches things? Lots of people, actually.

I do.

A lot of people do.

No, it's funny, a lot of people do. And then you need to take them to the dry cleaners if that's the case, right?

We should take it to the dry cleaner. Dry cleaners are—

Dry cleaners are good. Although my dad had— my dad had a really bad experience.

Oh, he did? He's like—

I, I've heard that story like 4 times now.

Yeah, one of them was whenever he was telling it to me. No, no, he told it to me recently.

Yeah, so here's what happened is he bought a brand new pair of dress pants.

Never been worn.

Never been worn, which he will tell you when— if you ever meet him, he'll tell you the story. Um, and they were like $50 pants, right? And so, you know, dry cleaner, it's like usually like 24-hour turnaround. You know, we'll launder the pants, starch the pants, press the pants, come back and pick them up. Came back the next day. He's, hey, I'm here to get my pants. They're like, oh, they're not, they're not, they're not back yet. No problem, I'll be back tomorrow. Comes back tomorrow, say, hey, I'm here to pick up my pants. And they're like, um, they're not, they're not here. And he's like, no, they're right there. Like, I see them, like, right there. And she's like, oh, my mistake. So she goes and gets the pants and she brings them over

there and she goes, there's a problem with the pants. And she pulls them out. And apparently what had happened is they've got those big industrial presses.

Oh, yes.

So a piece of plastic had fallen on the pants before they noticed it, and they pulled the press down and it melted the plastic into the pants. And then they tried to clean it and had rubbed a hole in the pants. And he was like, did you not think I was gonna see this? And she's like, no, we— I mean, he's like, what happened? She's like, I don't know. He's like, well, can you at least pay me for the pants? And she's like, yeah, I can pay you $25 for the pants.

No, no.

And he's like, I like— I haven't even worn these, they're brand new and you ruined them, they're $50 pants. And she goes, it's a store policy, it's $25. He goes, no, it's $50. It's $50. And she's like— he told me, he's like, eventually she just like gave him like $25 store credit and handed him $25 cash. And he was like, he was like, it was the worst experience I've ever had. Like, it's like you clearly screwed them up. Like, I know it's your policy, but like, just replace the pants.

Yeah. I mean, like, that story was way shorter than when he told it. I doubt it. No, he told it.

It took a while.

There's more detail. Yeah, there's a lot.

Yeah. But yeah, so I mean, like, anyway, it can go really bad at the dry cleaner sometimes. Most of the time they're all great. I mean, they do a really good job.

Nobody is ever without fault.

No, but like, it's like when you stuff up, fix it.

Fix it.

You know, that's the end of the deal.

Take ownership.

Right.

I was wrong. I apologize. Let me make this right.

Yes. You don't even have to be wrong. You can just be sorry.

Yeah.

You know, a good apology goes a long way.

Well, and I think in those moments, it's not even necessarily like, hey, I'm going to fix this for you, which is the case. But I think sometimes it's like, what's the best way for me to fix this for you? Because I think some people's idea of what is fixed is not the same as my idea of fixed. Right? Like, hey, I'm going to replace these pants for you. Maybe that wasn't even what your dad wanted.

Who knows?

Who knows?

Who knows?

I mean, honestly, he probably just wanted $50 in his pocket. Probably.

I want to get out of here.

Yeah, exactly. And so I don't know. I just think that there's ways to fix things, um, yes, differently than, than others. But, but yeah, I, I don't know what other— okay, I've got some more questions. Do you have some more?

I do.

Okay, I'll let you go next.

I, I was actually curious how you do your pricing. Do you do it by the pound? Do you do it by the bag?

We measure by the 13-gallon kitchen trash bag.

Okay.

Just so that when you send your laundry, when you send your laundry, you know exactly what you're going to pay. So also, when I started my company, I didn't have any money to buy a scale, Oh, there you go. I'm really bad at math.

We found a better way to do this.

I'm like, by the bag.

How can I do the least amount of math? Just charge by the bag.

So do you, do you do the load by the bag then, or do you sometimes combine bags because you've got a higher capacity washer?

No, what— whatever's in the bag together stays together, gets washed together, dried together, fold together, bag together.

Okay, so it's, it's, it's our responsibility at home to separate if we want to.

Yes, because everybody separates their clothes all kinds of different ways. You know, some people, it's laissez-faire, I do not care, throw it all in a bag. Voilà, you're done.

Right.

And then some people put their purples and their greens and their green blues and their gray blacks and yeah, all the things. And that's fine. And then some people—

But that's a separate bag.

Exactly.

Right.

And then they'll separate it out by materials and things like that. So it's just an array of ways.

Depends on what you want.

Well, so, so I mean, I'm not asking like specifically what the prices are, because that can change, obviously, you know, Because there's a starting price on our website. Oh, okay. I haven't been on the website.

I mean, I think that's fair.

The price, it is what it is. We measure by the 13-gallon kitchen trash bag. It's $25 per bag. If you only send one bag, it's $35. After that, it's $25. If you send one bag, $35. If you send more than one bag, it's $25. So 2 bags is $50, 3 bags is $75, so on, plus tax.

Okay.

But that's an out-the-door price. There's no additional fees because I'm not Doing that, right? That's pickup, simple pricing. That's out-the-door price.

That's good. Like, pickup— I mean, you get pickup, delivery, wash, dry, fold, hang. That's pretty good.

That is pretty good.

And there's the bags, because we also give you a reusable Laundry Fairy bag.

Beautiful. Is it 13 gallons?

It is.

Nice. How convenient. So, um, When it comes to a couple of different things, so first question is, what if I give you all of my laundry and it's all different colors, all in one bag, and you know this guy is not very savvy? He's, he's the dad doing the laundry and he just put it all in a bag because his wife said get this taken care of.

Okay.

Um, like, do you at that point just go, I'm still doing one load because that's the bag and that's how I'm doing it, but it's definitely on cold. Like, how do you, how do you wash it at that point to make sure that things don't— or do you use color catchers? I mean, what do you do?

We do use color catchers in every single load. I do not care if it's white sheets with white sheets and white shirts and all the things. Color catcher every single load.

Those are magic.

Yes.

Yeah.

And laundry—

I don't know what those are.

Oh yeah, it's okay.

It's like a little sheet out of the box, like a dryer sheet.

Okay.

And it just goes in every single load and it collects the colors. Yes, it prevents colors from bleeding.

Okay, I got you.

It works.

Yes, it does. Swear by them.

Oh yeah, I got to put an affiliate link up there. So yeah, no doubt. But like, okay, so in that moment you're using Color Catcher, but how do you wash your loads? Do you wash them on hot, warm, cold, or is that— do we have to specify?

We wash everything on cold, but if you want it on hot, all you have to do is ask Okay. It's your laundry, we do it your way.

Okay.

So you find, you find cold is good enough?

Yeah, cold's good enough. Okay. With the— now I would say like, you know, 20 years ago materials were just different and things were just different back then. The way the, you know, washers, the way the washers processed and the way that the water was filtered and the way the materials were, you know, put together, different things like that, different variables. But nowadays cold is sufficient enough.

Good to know.

Isn't that like the ad that's going on? Like, the Stone Cold Steve Austin is like, wash your clothes on cold or I'm gonna come over there and suplex you or something.

I don't know. I don't know, but that's funny.

Something like that.

All right, so next question.

I'm gonna look it up. Y'all keep chatting.

What kind of— like, do you use a specific type of detergent, and can I request something different?

So if any of our customers who have been with us for like 3 or 4 years are listening, this is a 2-part answer. So we have customers that have been with us for years and they were members, and we're bringing back our membership, and I'll tell you about that in a minute. Um, but so we used to have it to where you could pick your detergent, and those customers that were grandfathered in, we still cater to their specific detergent— the Tide, Gain, all the things.

Yeah.

But we don't do that anymore. Now we use a special detergent. It's very clean, and it, um, I like the way that it makes your clothes feel, and it has a lot of safe additives in it. It has a sanitizer in it that is safe and clean, and it has a stain remover in it that's safe and clean, and things like that.

Okay, can you tell us the brand?

Oh yeah, it's Drops.

Okay, Drops.

D-R-O-P-P-S.

Okay, we love them. I have a new bunny. It does the same thing. That's how I got the fact that I got a new bunny. That's right.

You got to get that in there.

Yeah, I got to get that in there.

So I looked it up. It is— it's a, uh, Tide Cold Collars commercial, and he's doing it with iced tea.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah, and apparently there's other— oh, Vanilla Ice does a Does a—

anyway, a little cameo, apparently. Oh, my goodness. Yep. You need to send that to me so I can link it up in the show notes.

I didn't know the guys were so well connected.

Right? Who knew? Who knew? Okay, so what if I send laundry that is super soiled?

That's okay.

Like, for example, I mentioned mechanic earlier. Like, what if it's something that's like something crazy? It's got grease stains on it or anything like that. Um, and it needs a little extra love. What do you do in those moments?

Uh, we charge an additional $3 for a heavy load and we just do it that way.

I mean, that's, that's amazing. Like, because these washers these days, they can do amazing things.

Oh yeah.

I mean, my son plays baseball, so does Craig's. That dirt doesn't come out, that red dirt. it doesn't come out of things. And you got grass stains and red dirt, and it's like, oh my goodness. There's—

It's a badge of honor.

It is, yeah. And but it's like, those don't come clean. There, there are a couple of, um, additives that you can put in apparently that we have not purchased because you can't find them in our local store. But I think you have to maybe order them on Amazon or something that can really help with that. Um, I know OxiClean can help on certain levels, so Um, if we—

She's not buying it, by the way. She's— yeah, she disagrees.

I can tell.

OxiClean does okay for some things. I wouldn't recommend— how do I say this?

Say it.

I think, I think OxiClean is fine for some jobs, but baseball dirt, the red dirt, no, doesn't help. Save your money.

So, so what do you do in the— for those types of things? Do you have Like, what if I sent something and it's like, hey, I think this might work to get it? Or do you have something like for baseball specifically?

Like, well, you know, uh, yeah, you put me on the spot.

Finally found a question she didn't know what to do with.

My little Rolodex is like, I know you know the answer.

Let's say something now.

I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you, it's like 9 o'clock at night. I don't know.

Yeah, no, it's okay. I mean, because I don't remember what the product is. Um, in fact, I'm gonna go look for it because I think it Nope, I'm not gonna look for it because it's on my phone and my phone's right here.

So, um, now I will say there are good products out there that can get those stains out, but as far as the Laundry Fairy, we don't guarantee stains because—

I love it.

The, um, the stain removers that you put in those products, the clothes have to sit and things like that, and it puts a huge liability on us. I agree with that. So I have no problem. sending the pants, but I don't guarantee stain removal, just improvement.

Okay. And in those moments, I could always be like, just don't dry this. And you wouldn't dry it, I guess.

Oh yeah, we have, uh, like if you want something line dried, we can line dry it. That's no problem. Okay, you will receive your clothes back wet, but I mean, people expect that.

Yeah, sure. I mean, that, that's fair. I mean, especially if you want to get same-day service, it's definitely not going to happen.

Right.

And we live in a very wet community, so you're gonna get wet clothes if you want them line dried sometimes. We'll line dry it.

It's supposed to rain today, but I'm gonna stick it out there for you.

If you want it out there overnight, it's gonna wake up wet.

That's right.

You know, it's just the way it works.

You know, we do have a rain check because the weather this week is just nuts. It's been nuts. So we do have a rain check where if you have a porch or you don't have a, like, a covered porch or something where we'll hold your laundry because it's not your fault that it rained and the meteorologist lied again.

That's right.

Well, so those guys struggle with the truth.

Yeah, every time they just can't find it. No. Yeah. So I, I don't know, I'm trying to ask all the obscure questions and try to figure out, like, what are all the ways that I can think of laundry questions?

Are there, are there things other than clothes that you guys get to wash?

So short answer, yes. But there would just be things, you know, for instance, your tablecloths and things like that. You're more than welcome to send those things, but I would recommend more of a dry cleaner because they serve better. That's more their niche. I'll do it, but I want to serve the customer as well as they deserve to be treated, if that makes sense. Sure. I want to, I want to be the best fit for somebody, and if we're not, that's okay because I just want them to have the best laundry experience.

No, I mean, I think that's fair because it, you know, there, there's a lot of companies that specialize in certain things.

Exactly.

And if they specialize in it, let them do it. Let me do what I do. Let them do what they do. That's no big deal. I think that's normal.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Now bedding, we do your bedding and Things like that.

Okay. What about like recurring service? Do you, do you have like a subscription service set up? Or is it, is it always just kind of à la carte?

So you can go both ways because we're just a come-as-you-are kind of company. But we are also the Netflix of the laundry service where we have a membership. And we're opening our memberships back up on— it's possibly December 5th. It's the first Monday in December. And I'm thinking that's December 5th. But either way, so when you sign up for a membership, I think it's like a dollar to sign up because our processing payment thing wants to pay a dollar, and that's rude, but it's fine. Like, why?

So, uh, but it is just because we can.

Yeah, but it's like a laundry subscription and you just resubscribe every 30 days, and if you want to cancel after 30 days, that's fine. No judgment. Just cancel your laundry service subscription. But it is a weekly membership and a biweekly membership. And so if you have, uh, they just offer different types of discounts.

Okay.

Okay.

So how— what, what do those different, uh, memberships look like?

Once more, we put her on the spot. Well, she said that they just—

they're fixing to roll it back out in December.

So, like, Yes, well, we canceled them kind of early in the summer because the— it just— we had a roster of almost 100 people on it, and we just needed to kind of pause for a minute, kind of reorganize.

Reorganize, yes.

And then come back, you know, bigger, better, stronger, ready to serve our customers. We've upgraded some things, upgraded some staffing things, and now we're Ready to go.

Okay, got it.

So, and I, I think that that's one of the best ways to, to do this because—

so the, the 2 memberships, one is weekly, the other one's biweekly. So is biweekly every other week or twice a week?

No, every other week.

Oh, every other week. Okay.

You can come twice a week if you want to. We have a couple people that come twice a week.

Okay, big families, I'm guessing.

Yes.

Yeah, well, it's the multi-generational families. So like mom and dad's clothes get sent out on Monday, and then grandma's, grandpa's clothes get sent out Thursday, Friday. And it's just kind of the way of that they go.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

Well, what, what other, like, what other pieces of your business have we not hit on yet?

Because I feel like we've done quite a bit, but I don't know, because it's just your basic Simple laundry service.

Yeah. Yeah.

Are there any other services that you guys offer outside of just laundry? Are you guys just solely focused on the laundry?

Nope, just solely focused on laundry.

That's awesome. No, I think that's really good. I mean, like, I mean, like, I think if you try and kind of get outside that lane, um, you know, it dilutes things sometimes.

Yes.

I mean, you're having to create new processes, new models, new—

I mean, just all the whole thing. Nope, we do laundry.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Do you— what is your radius?

So we go from Willis to Cypress and Tomball to Spring and everything in between. So basically you're Montgomery County and you're North Harris County.

Okay, okay, we're in, Kev.

Yeah, we're in the bubble. We're barely— you, you are closer in the bubble than I am, but yes.

We do have a service area range, so like we serve that area, but you have to go 15 miles from our facility, and after that 15 miles there's a $15 fee.

Okay, that makes sense.

I think that's her telling us we're gonna pay $15.

Yeah, she was like, you guys, you are gonna pay more, you hicks in the sticks. That's right. Do you know how far out you live? It's a long way.

Worth it.

Yeah, I thought it was gonna take me 10 minutes to get here, but 35 minutes later I showed up. Yeah, yeah.

I thought it was gonna take me 20 minutes to get here.

There you go.

Oh, really?

I wasn't far off on my, uh, on my guesstimations. Yeah, it's a long way. Yeah, it's a long way. We know, we know how far it is to, uh, you know, Rayford Sawdust. Yeah, we know it's a ways. So, well, cool.

Anything else you want to, you want to tell the good people?

Um, I like to give a little speech. Do it.

Speech it up.

So I think a lot of people, um, think that we're in the business of washing dirty clothes, and it's not. We're in the business of loving people through the season that they're in. So no matter what you're getting laundry service for, we like to meet people where they're at in life and just love them through that whole time.

Mm-hmm.

Whether it's having a new baby and now you're a new mom, or you're moving into a multi-generational house, or you're moving or you're, uh, separating from your spouse, whatever it may be, or now you've got new stepchildren coming into the home and you don't know how to navigate this new season of life. We just meet you where you're at and we help whatever way we can.

I mean, I guess first of all, I love that because, um, I mean, Craig and I are big on that type of philosophy in life anyway, uh, but One of the things I love about that though is people who are using a laundry service, there's a real need there somewhere.

Yeah.

Right? I mean, I think that's true with a lot of things, but you said it, it's a luxury thing. Like there's a reason that you're not willing for one reason or the other. Maybe like, frankly, like there's some things I just don't want to do in my life.

Yeah.

I don't want to do accounting in my life. I don't want to do it. Like, Craig's wife loves it. Me, hate it. I don't want to do it. And so if I need to do accounting, guess what? I'm just going to pay someone to do it because I hate doing it. So I, I, I do think that there are probably those situations where people are like, I hate doing laundry, I just hate doing it. But most likely there's always There's a time constraint. There's a physical constraint. I would assume that there are some people that just can't physically do laundry. Some of those laundry washers are deep. I can't get in there because I'm short.

And you put it on a pedestal.

That's right.

You're just out.

But I think that, like you said, there's multigenerational. There's all kinds of situations. If you're just doing something just to make money, there's a lot of ways to make money.

Yes.

Yeah. You know, there's a lot of ways to make money, and this is just a beautiful opportunity. I love it.

What about for those of us that see that need in other people's lives and we kind of want to love on them? I mean, is it possible to like get a— to like gift a Laundry Fairy to somebody else?

Oh, absolutely. So you— we have gift cards available on our website. Or, you know, just this week someone's daughter had a baby and she wanted to gift her daughter laundry service for the next 30 days.

Nice.

So the daughter books the laundry service and we just send the invoice to the mom. So just however families want to do it.

Cool. Nice.

I mean, like, what a cool gift to give somebody. I mean, especially somebody that like maybe just had a baby or, you know, or just moved into town.

Right. You know, had a death of a loved one or— yeah, there's so many reasons why someone could do that.

That is way better than some crappy casserole. Sure.

Yeah.

There was this, uh, family last year, family of 6 people got COVID. The whole family got COVID, and, uh, the mom and dad were in one hospital and the kids were in a different hospital, and I didn't know they could even do that. And, um, so their church purchased them laundry service.

It's beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. Yeah, all kinds of reasons, you know.

It's, it's more than laundry, you know. For us, it's Your, um, I know I sound like a crazy person, but you know, your clothing is the story of your life. You're not just getting your kids' clothes washed. It's their lucky socks, the jersey they're going to wear on Saturday, you know, get that winning hit. It's that shirt that you wore on the first date, and then you're going to frame it at your wedding. It's those, those jeans that make your butt look good. But look great.

Oh, I don't have any of those.

It's been a while. It's the story of your life, and we're honored that you chose to bring us into your life to share your story with us.

I mean, you're dealing with some intimates too. You see it all, I'm sure. I mean, there's some stuff that you're like, hello, we know some things because we've seen some things. It's one of those times. And literally it's like, look, I'm handing you things that other people don't get to see. Yeah, you know, that's a fairly— yeah, it's got to be love at that point. That's all I could say about that.

I'm just thinking that would be like a tremendous like baby shower gift. Yes, you know, I mean like who wouldn't like— what is it? Oh, I get my laundry done for how long? Wow, this is amazing, this is unbelievable.

And we use Dreft like if the mom specifically wanted Dreft used on the baby's laundry, we could do that.

Yeah, for people that don't know, what is Dreft?

Oh, so Dreft is a special detergent that's specially formulated for infants.

Right. And like, it's just like less harsher?

It's sensitive, but it— okay, so infants do give special stains. And I will say that Dreft is one of the only detergents that I've seen that can Really attack the special newborn stains that they give. It is like they have a different kind of saliva. How did you make this?

What color is that?

That's not that's not of human origin.

Yeah, you should probably take her back. She's not working right.

There's a there's a leak and it ain't right.

That's right.

Is there a return policy on the? I don't know, just trying to figure out.

That's okay. Like, we've had 4 daughters. We have, we have seen some things. Like, nobody has sent us anything that we haven't already experienced and seen. It's totally fine. Sure.

Yeah. Well, look, this has been really good, and we could probably keep going on, but we can't without doing the very, very special thing.

We haven't done this in a while.

No, that we haven't told her about either.

I gave her some links. If she didn't listen, it's her fault.

That's true. So are you ready for this? I don't know if you are, because now it's the thing that everybody is waiting for, which is the Final Four. That's right. Where is our— it's been so long, you don't even have the clappy thing going on. Where is it?

There it is.

I've been waiting.

The audience is not used to us doing it. There's a delayed clap.

Yeah, that's true. The studio audience out in the bars, they're all waiting.

Squirrels.

That's right. So these are the final 4 questions we ask each and every one of our guests. Are you prepared for this at all?

I'm gonna say no.

Yeah, perfect, perfect answer.

I'm not prepared, but bring me the questions.

Perfect answer.

All right. Silly man.

So here they are. The first question is this. What's the must-have tool you won't leave your house without?

My phone, I guess.

That, that is, uh, number one answer.

That is the number one answer.

That is the number one answer out of 220 episodes. It has been the most common answer.

It reigns supreme.

Yeah, it does. It absolutely does. Okay, next question. Um, what's a job you walked away from? Now we— she starts laughing immediately. We, um, We, we phrased this wrong. Uh, we meant to say, what's a project you walked away from? Like, like something at your house, because it's a homeowner show, right? That maybe you started, it was a project, and it just didn't go the way you thought it would. And so you decided, I gotta call in the professionals and finish the project for me. So if you have one of those stories, it's great. However, we phrased the question, what's a job you walked away from? So We'll ask that. What's a job you walked away from? You can take it however you want to. Um,

Jeopardy.

Sorry, the silence is deafening. I don't know, because if I'm just being honest, I was kind of a— I wouldn't say I was a wild child as a teen, but I I didn't keep jobs. Why would I keep a job? I was always meant to be an entrepreneur.

There you go.

Let me think. Could I say what's the worst job I ever had?

Sure, sure.

I love it.

Crawfish peeler. Oh, worked at a Cajun restaurant. And that's what you did is you peeled crawfish. And that's what I did. I peeled crawfish.

That sounds awful.

Just all day long.

Uh, well, from about—

I mean, that was like your job at the restaurant was crawfish peeler?

Yeah, from about 5 in the evening till 9 o'clock at night, peel crawfish.

So you're probably pretty good at it, at least.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I didn't do it very long. I only did it for like a couple months and then—

Yeah, that's a lot. 2 months is— that's a lot of crawfish.

Bought a car, quit the job.

Oh, there you go. Objective achieved.

Served in the season that it was in.

There you go.

Car for cash, so I didn't have a payment, so I'm out.

Good call.

All right, next question. How do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Gilmore Girls.

I love it.

So, so check this out.

My—

one of my wife's friends, I think it was from like middle school or something, she started a Gilmore Girls festival. in the town up in wherever that was that they filmed it. Yeah, what was it? Like, is it because like it's in like the Northeast somewhere?

Yeah, I know it's like, yeah, New York lower, right?

But it's like she found the actual town that they filmed it in, and so like she— like I think she's been doing it for like 6 or 7 years now, and like they get that— like they get some of the actors and stuff to show up. She's like a mega fan. And so yeah, and she lives in, uh, she lives in Austin. What? Yeah. So, and it's like just this Gilmore Girls festival that they put together every year. It's crazy. Well, I think it hasn't happened for the last 2 years because of COVID Oh yeah.

You're gonna have to go.

I'm gonna have to take my daughters. Oh my goodness.

Yeah, you'll have to, you'll have to ask Brandy about it. She knows, she knows the whole, the whole thing.

That is amazing.

Yeah. And like, well, she's, she's kind of an entrepreneurial person too. And like, they, it's like a business that they do now because it started, they started it, they were doing like ironic Gilmore Girl t-shirts. like little things that like characters had said in the show and they were selling them and like people from the show actually got interested in what they were doing. And so then they just blossomed from there.

Yeah, crazy. Blossoms, a whole different show.

Yeah.

Okay.

That is amazing. And just think, just did you ever think, oh, well, I think I'm just gonna watch this show. Oh, now I love the show. Now I'm a fan of the show. Now I'm a super fan. You know what I should do? Throw a festival. Yeah. And you get to—

Yeah, then you get to do it.

You have your whole dreams come true just because you're like a big fan of the show. Wow. I think that's so amazing.

It's cool. Yeah.

Wow. All right. Last question. You ready? What's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice that you've ever received?

Oh, it'd have to be from my grandma. And she's the one who— I'm pretty sure my grandma always knew that I was going to go into some sort of entrepreneurship. So she's, you know, she told me, um, don't go into business to make money. Um, go into business to use your platform to, um, for the good of mankind, and the rest will follow. Uh, you'll always get what you need. And then, you know, she's the one who taught me because she did laundry. So my great-grandmother did laundry and my grandma did laundry.

Oh, wow.

My mom kind of skipped and That's okay. And then, you know, I started doing laundry, and she's the one who, you know, taught me all these things of like, it's, it's not about the dirty clothes. It's about helping that single mom through the season that she's in and how to just kind of meet people where they're at and just love them through. And it's okay if they're not your client forever, and it's okay if they are your client forever.

Mm-hmm.

And because again, it's not about making money, it's about You know, serving mankind.

The money will always come.

Exactly.

It will.

Yep, every time. So cool. Well, there is— sorry, but there's one more question.

It's okay.

And it's a secret question that Craig asks because he's the only one he can remember.

Yep, it's true.

So, uh, he gets to ask this question.

If people want to find you, talk to you, how do they get a hold of you?

Uh, they can call us 936-436-2726. They can, uh, email us through our website, uh, thelaundryfairy.biz. You can Google us, you can find us on Facebook. Um, we started doing community events, so, um, if you're ever at a Corner Cravings Market, you'll probably see us. So yeah.

Cool, I love it.

We try to be easy to reach. You can reach out to us on Facebook through our Facebook page or Instagram or wherever. TikTok now.

Yeah.

Are you doing some stuff on TikTok now? Yeah.

TikTok's been fun.

That is one adjective for it.

We use TikTok for the creator tools, but we're really more active over in the Facebook land.

Right. Yeah.

Same.

Yep. Well, very cool. Thank you so much for coming tonight. We thoroughly appreciate it. It's been a wonderful conversation. And I'm sure our listeners would agree. Absolutely. So it's been good. And thank you all for listening and watching. And we just ask for you to go leave us a 5-star rating review on Apple Podcasts. That would be amazing. Subscribe, click the little like button.

Yeah, all the thumbs up and the stars. Do it all.

Do it all. And we just appreciate you. Till next time, we'll see you later.

See ya.