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So you've been on your own away from home for about a month now, and you have no clean clothes left. Not even any that are somewhat clean; no "it doesn't look dirty when I kind of squint my eyes and tilt my head" kind of cleans at all. There are several approaches you can take to conquering this problem:

1. Bring it home.
This is where a hockey bag comes in. If you're lucky, and you fill it as full as possible, you won't be able to lift it, and someone else will even carry it for you. Ideally, if you happen to be one of those beloved only children, your mom might wash and fold your laundry for you. If you're like the rest of the world, you'll have to learn how to do your own. Not a problem...

2. Ask someone to show you how.
It's not difficult, and if you get a professional (like someone who's had to do their own laundry since they were 12) to show you, chances are they'll get exasperated at your shoddy attempts to imitate their example, and they'll do it for you.

3. Pay someone else to do your laundry.
This will work best if you know someone who is going to do their own laundry anyway, isn't averse to some extra cash, and who happens to agree that watching an extra machine doesn't seem like a tremendous amount of intellectual effort on their part. This option can get expensive, though, since you have to not only pay for the machines and the soap, but the laundry doer as well; use this as a last resort, for a minimal number of loads--just enough clothes washed to tide you over till you can revert to option 1 (see above.)

4. Buy more clothes
If paying for laundry to be done for you is too pricey, you can go buy some clean clothes. At exclusive boutiques like the Villageand Zellers, sometimes it really is cheaper to buy clothes than to wash them. Think of it as an investment in your future spare time. If you end up with three months worth of clothes and underwear, then you won't have to do any laundry during the semester.

5. Do some laundry yourself
Like suicide, this is taking the quick way out. But you've gotta do what you've gotta do, I guess. Here are some handy (if a little obvious) tips for when you can't escape it:

-You don't need those expensive little Tide tablets that are portioned out to be one load's worth of soap. Laundry is not a science. If iguanas wore clothes, they could do it. Just dump in a fistfull of soap and the clothes will get clean.

-Don't sort your laundry unless you own something that's brand new and never been washed (because then there's a good chance the dye will run and everything you own will be the same colour from then on.)

-Don't bother folding your socks. Who cares if they're wrinkly? It's a huge waste of effort. If you're anal enough to care that they match, then only buy one colour of socks. Problem solved.

-Towels don't really need to be folded, either. Wrinkles are immaterial if you're just trying to mop up a pitcher of juice.

-You don't need to turn your clothes right-side-out to fold them. You can do that before you wear them. What if you waste all that energy right-side-outing a pair of shorts, only to find that it snows the next day so you can't wear them till summer? Especially t-shirts; if you're going to be wearing a sweatshirt over them in the winter anyway, what does it matter if they're inside out?

-If you hang your sweatshirts and fuzzy clothes to dry, they won't be unfuzzy so fast, and you don't have to pay for a dryer load.

-If you turn your dark jeans and stuff inside out, they'll fade more slowly.

One last time-saving strategy: if it's tight, you don't need to fold it, since the wrinkles will stretch out. So if you're lazy, just buy more skanky clothes.