Is doing laundry taking up too much of your time? It certainly can be a time-consuming task, washing and folding everything you and perhaps your family members wear. The good news is there are services that will do this for you. Wash-and-fold laundry services wash, dry, and fold whatever you bring them, and in some cases, they might even pick up and drop off your laundry at your home. Here are a few questions you may have if you're considering using one of these services for the first time.

Do you need to sort your clothing?

Some laundry services may request that your laundry is sorted into darks and whites, but usually, these services do this part for you. You can simply drop off (or arrange for them to pick up) whatever clothing you need to be washed. They'll take care of checking the tags to see how things should be washed, sorting items by color and washing instructions, and so forth.

What happens if your clothing is lost?

These services typically have several systems in place to make sure this does not happen. For instance, they will wash your clothes only with your own clothes -- not with anyone else's. However, on the odd occasion a piece of your clothing does go missing, the service will usually compensate you a set amount. For example, they may give you a standard $20 for a shirt and $40 for a pair of pants. (Those are just example numbers; contact the laundry service you plan to use for their replacement policy and amounts.) 

Can they dry clean clothing?

Most wash-and-fold laundry services do also offer dry cleaning, though some do not. If your service offers dry cleaning, you'll need to drop those items off in a separate bag so they can be treated and handled separately. The wait time may be different for dry cleaning versus clothes washed normally.

How do they decide how much you owe?

Most wash and fold laundry services charge by the pound. So, for example, if your clothing weighs 20 pounds, they will charge you to wash and fold 20 pounds of clothing, regardless of what pieces of clothing are contained in the batch.

Hopefully these questions and answers have given you a better understanding of wash-and-fold laundry services and how they can work for you. If you have additional questions or concerns, reach out to the company you plan on using.