Courtesy of Crisia Nuñez
- Crisia Nuñez, 34, provides on-demand laundry services through the app SudShare.
- As a Sudster, she makes about $1,300 a week — more than she ever did driving for ride-hailing apps.
- Here's what her job is like and how she stays organized, as told to Lauryn Haas.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Crisia Nuñez, a 34-year-old launderer in Orlando, Florida, about working for SudShare. The following has been edited for length and clarity and translated from Spanish to English.
I was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Puerto Rico, but now I live in Orlando, Florida. Before I found out about SudShare, I drove for ride-hailing companies like Uber and cleaned houses with different companies.
SudShare is a laundry-service app. I found out about the app through Facebook. I started investigating, I applied, and they called me and said I was approved. My first day of work was November 16, 2020.
As a Sudster, I started earning between $600 to $700 a week at the beginning, then more clients started placing orders. It took me about five to six months to reach making $1,000 a week. Now I'm making about $1,300 per week, or about $5,000 monthly.
I wash about 15 loads of clothes a day, but it varies depending on the volume of customers in the app
I make $15 to $20 per bag of laundry on average. On a good day, bags are from $55 to $60, sometimes upward of $120, as it's $1 per pound of clothes. We receive 75 cents per pound as Sudsters plus bonuses sometimes from the company. If the load is under 20 pounds, the client is charged the minimum rate of $20, of which we receive $15, regardless of the weight.
When there are fewer than three bags of clothes, I wash them at my house, but if there's more, I do them at my local laundromat for efficiency.
I usually put a piece of paper with the names of the people on the loads corresponding to the clients. When folding clothes, I don't fold all of them at the same time but rather separate the loads by clients.
I work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but if I need to extend a little more, I discuss it with the client beforehand
When I get up at 8 a.m. I check the app right away because I have to answer when someone places an order. Then I start taking orders and tell clients a range of when I'll be by to pick up the laundry. I don't tell them a specific time.
If it rings at 8 a.m., I put a pickup time from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., for example. That way I'm not constantly changing the time if something comes up.
I always try to collect all my orders by 1 p.m. and deliver them back by the end of the afternoon. Usually if I pick up a lot of clothes, I don't deliver them the same day, but I deliver them all by the next morning.
I work eight hours straight in the afternoon after I take the orders in the morning. But since it's an app, you don't know when it will ring or when orders will arrive. I take advantage of the moment when I don't have orders to eat. I don't really take days off.
I started leaving doughnuts when I drop off an order about three months ago. I do it mostly for my frequent clients as a token of appreciation for the trust and value they give to my work.
My clients get quite excited. They tell me, ''You are the best!'' ''I have the best of the best." I always love their expressions, and I always try to hand them the doughnuts personally so I can see their reactions.
It's always our decision if we want to take an order. We aren't obliged to do so.
If we don't feel comfortable with the state of the clothes, like if they're extremely dirty, they're sent to another Sudster or the client is informed that they can't send the clothes in that state.
I once had a client whose clothes were shockingly dirty. There were even worms. I wrote to him and said that he shouldn't send the garments in that state, but I made an exception for him that one time.
I've had three instances in which people have said they have socks missing or things like that, and I just look everywhere, but in the end, those are just minor issues. Normally the company doesn't work with bleach, as we use a different product that removes stains and I can't use bleach unless the client asks me to do so, but once I received a complaint from a client who said the clothes hadn't arrived white enough.
I work with my boyfriend, and normally I mark the loads with the clients' names, but one day I didn't get to mark one load and he accidentally mixed it up with another. That was a disaster. I didn't know what to do, and I had to start reviewing garment by garment, size by size, to figure out what belonged to each client. I contacted the company, and I let both clients know so that they were aware of the inconvenience. But in the end we were able to solve it, and we delivered everything in order.
SudShare has been one of the best things that's happened to me
My advice is don't despair and be consistent in what you do. It's a slow start, as you're limited to the number of orders and bags you can take on until you have ratings. As your ratings and experience grow, so will the number of bags that they give you. You have to have perseverance and discipline yourself.
Before this job, I'd never earned more than $400 per week. This job is also very comfortable because I choose my own work hours, and it allows me to be close to my children, take care of them, and spend time with them. At the same time, it's an excellent income. I'm very happy and grateful for this work.
I would like to open my own laundromat one day to have the advantage of serving many more people.
Do you make money doing gig work and want to share your story? Email Lauryn Haas at lhaas@insider.com
This story was originally published in December 2021.