Perseverance Through Peroxide

CONTENT WARNING: Gross

I own a laundry here in rural Ireland. Two customers are a pair of bachelor farmers, brothers, who inherited a large farm and a lot of money but live in absolute squalor. Once a month, they bring their suits, shirts, and undergarments in for cleaning. The garments are covered inside and out with dirt, dried saliva, and fecal matter.

The first time they came in, I told them that in no universe in existence would they be allowed to load their clothes in that state into our machines, so we literally had to hose everything down in the yard and soak it in a barrel of peracetic acid solution, usually used for nappies (diapers), before they put them through the machines.

When we finished cleaning one load in the yard, one of them said:

Customer: “Okay, so that takes care of the animal s***.”

Me: *Concerned.* “As opposed to…?”

Customer: “This second load is human s***.”

Me: *Concern becoming alarm.* “Why would these have human s***?”

Customer: “Well, sometimes when you’re out on the farm and you’re far from the house but you really need to go…”

I should have banned them after that, but I felt sorry for them, and they did follow all my instructions about the deep cleaning in the yard before using the machines.

I still put the machines through several deep clean boil washes after they came through once a month.