Spring Break
College cleaning services find their way to Philly
Kathy Boccella
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: News
PHILADELPHIA - Past the Bud Light can on the lawn, four empty Coors kegs in the entryway, and, in the hall, the box for a Little Whizzer statuette that "pours" liquor, there was a den of filth.
Eight fraternity brothers from the University of Pennsylvania share this West Philadelphia house, a pig sty tolerable only to undiscerning students and collegiate revelers trawling for free alcohol.
With more partying expected in a few days, the men of Sigma Alpha Epsilon had to get the place in shape. But mopping, scrubbing and vacuuming take so ... much ... time.
So, they called DormAid, which dispatched a cleaner bearing buckets and brooms the next day.
"It's really worth it. College students are so lazy," Nick Daley, 20, a burly finance-and-accounting major from Cincinnati, said with admirable self-knowledge.
Thankfully, a new array of services - there's also DormMom, CollegeBellhop and Soapy Joe's - has cropped up recently nationwide to cater to able-bodied kids who can't seem to maintain minimum standards of sanitation.
In addition to cleaning dorm rooms and off-campus residences, some wash and fold laundry, drop off cases of water, even arrange for groceries to be delivered.
"We help kids stay organized and focused on studies instead of trying to find space in the laundry room," said Mike Kopko, who cofounded DormAid two years ago while at Harvard University.
Scrubbing toilets isn't in the game plan for these coddled customers, who intend to go through life never picking up a can of Comet.
And who's footing the bill? Mom and Dad, of course.
"Parents want to make sure their baby is taken care of," said Kopko, whose "concierge" company does work at 40 schools.
"They raise a son or daughter, do their laundry, clean for them, then ship them off to college, where they have four years to identify a career path and make grades and get into graduate school," Kopko said.
"They don't want them spending three or four hours a week doing laundry," he said - though, in truth, they may never have seen Mom or Dad perform such tedious tasks, either.
Eight fraternity brothers from the University of Pennsylvania share this West Philadelphia house, a pig sty tolerable only to undiscerning students and collegiate revelers trawling for free alcohol.
With more partying expected in a few days, the men of Sigma Alpha Epsilon had to get the place in shape. But mopping, scrubbing and vacuuming take so ... much ... time.
So, they called DormAid, which dispatched a cleaner bearing buckets and brooms the next day.
"It's really worth it. College students are so lazy," Nick Daley, 20, a burly finance-and-accounting major from Cincinnati, said with admirable self-knowledge.
Thankfully, a new array of services - there's also DormMom, CollegeBellhop and Soapy Joe's - has cropped up recently nationwide to cater to able-bodied kids who can't seem to maintain minimum standards of sanitation.
In addition to cleaning dorm rooms and off-campus residences, some wash and fold laundry, drop off cases of water, even arrange for groceries to be delivered.
"We help kids stay organized and focused on studies instead of trying to find space in the laundry room," said Mike Kopko, who cofounded DormAid two years ago while at Harvard University.
Scrubbing toilets isn't in the game plan for these coddled customers, who intend to go through life never picking up a can of Comet.
And who's footing the bill? Mom and Dad, of course.
"Parents want to make sure their baby is taken care of," said Kopko, whose "concierge" company does work at 40 schools.
"They raise a son or daughter, do their laundry, clean for them, then ship them off to college, where they have four years to identify a career path and make grades and get into graduate school," Kopko said.
"They don't want them spending three or four hours a week doing laundry," he said - though, in truth, they may never have seen Mom or Dad perform such tedious tasks, either.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Michael Hyatt
posted 10/24/07 @ 2:33 PM EST
priviledge makes you
blind as a bat
Michael Hyatt,
Architecture/Philosophy '04
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