How to Get Laundry and Groceries Home Without a Car

The setup

With two people, the errand run splits itself: one takes the laundry bag, one takes the groceries, and someone stays at the laundromat to watch the dryer. Alone and on foot, you're carrying a load of laundry in one arm and a gallon of milk in the other, and every errand is its own trip.

Why it's hard alone

When you walk, your arms are the vehicle. Laundry is bulky, groceries are heavy and fragile, and you still need a free hand for doors, keys, crosswalk buttons and your phone. At the laundromat there's no one to watch your things, so every stop is a choice between waiting around and taking a chance.

The solo method

1. Make it one trip, not two. Laundry and groceries on the same outing, with one cart doing the carrying. Wash first, shop, then dry and head home.
2. Pick the laundromat by what's next to it. One near a grocery store lets you start the wash, shop during the cycle, and be back before it ends. Set a phone timer and come back early.
3. Leave during the wash, if at all. Wet clothes are the least tempting thing in the room. A dryer load that finishes while you're out is the one that ends up on the folding table, handled by a stranger.
4. Fold at the laundromat. Their tables are bigger than anything in your apartment, and folded clothes take far less room in the cart than a heap, which leaves space for groceries.
5. Pack in layers. Groceries in their own bag on the bottom, clean laundry on top in a bag or liner, so a leaking package of chicken doesn't undo the wash.
6. Shop to the size of the cart. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't come home today. Water, litter and paper towels go on a delivery order instead.
7. Take curbs backward. Tip the cart onto its big wheels and pull it up and down curbs behind you. Pushing it forward jams the wheels and tips the load.

What nobody tells you

The classic folding wire cart is great on a flat sidewalk and miserable everywhere else. It's awkward on the subway, it bangs down every stair, and small things fall through the wire unless you line it. If you take the train or live in a walk-up, a rolling tote you can pick up by the handles beats a bigger cart you can only roll. And keep it folded by the door. A cart behind the vacuum in the closet is a cart you won't use.