'Dust Got Everywhere': Laundromat Worker's Burning Man Laundry Horror Story Goes Viral
A woman’s story about an unpleasant experience involving a customer bringing Burning Man laundry into her laundromat has gone viral on social media.
Dewi Redpath is a San Francisco-based Instagram creator, former baker and new laundromat owner. Her content mostly focuses on her work in the laundromat that she co-owns with her husband, which opened in late August.
In the time since she opened her laundromat, Bali Laundry, Redpath has already been learning a few things the hard way. However, one of her recent clients became her nightmare by bringing in some laundry that would affect her whole business.
"POV: Someone brings their Burning Man laundry to your laundromat," reads the text on the video, posted on September 10th, as it begins, showing the window of a moving bus.
As Chopin's "Nocturne No.2" plays, Redpath tells her story via text in the video. "So … something happened at our laundromat that I definitely was NOT prepared for," she writes, showing one of her washing machines.
"A customer came in with a huge amount of extremely dusty laundry and rugs," Redpath continues, showing a floor covered in white dust.
"They used our biggest 60-lb washer, and when it finished," she writes, showing said washer, "it was covered in fine dust, and then the same dirt got caked inside multiple dryers," she continues, adding a crying emoji and showing an out-of-order machine.
"But it wasn't just the machines," Redpath writes, showing the inside of a machine, "THE DUST GOT EVERYWHERE."
"All over the floor, around the machines, and throughout the entire laundromat," she added. "We basically had to deep-clean the whole laundromat after they were done."
"At first, we had no idea what this stuff even was," Redpath writes, showing out-of-service machines, "then we found where all of this dusty laundry came from … BURNING MAN," she expresses, showing herself cleaning one of the machines.
"We spent HOURS trying to clean the dryers ourselves," she states. "We vacuumed, scrubbed, wiped them down. But the dirt was so caked on that we couldn't get everything completely clean," she writes, as she continues to clean the machines in the video.
"And at the end of the day, we decided it wasn't worth taking any chances," Redpath says. "Now we have to call a technician to inspect the dryers and make sure they are safe, and everything is working properly."
"Thankfully, our 60-lb washer finished its cycle and drained normally," she writes. "But this was definitely another lesson we learned the hard way as new laundromat owners."
"Maybe next year we need a Burning Man laundry policy," she concludes, adding a crying laughing emoji, as the video shows her cleaning the laundromat's floor.
In the caption, Redpath explains that this person loaded their clothes while the laundromat was unattended, and that the dust was already everywhere by the time she saw it.
Commenters reacting to the viral post expressed how they felt the client’s actions were unacceptable and went against Burning Man traditions and their “leave no trace” motto.
Redpath has also made an update to the story following the original video’s virality, which continues the saga of the Burning Man laundry nightmare.
