Use a lot of cologne? Try some hand washing? Have a weekly laundry and Netflix night at your friend’s place?
Or how about this: Use one of the dozens of high-quality, Russian or foreign laundry and dry cleaning services. True, they aren’t cheap, but they do laundry by the kilo or piece, with men’s shirts averaging about 200 rubles each. Diana is the city’s largest chain, with over 500 collections points scattered virtually everywhere in the city, followed by Leda with over 200. If you don’t like the Greek myth theme for your clothes-cleaning, try Kontrast.
There’s only one drawback to all these services: the white-gloved women taking your laundry will count, examine, and note every item of clothing or undergarment you hand over — usually in front of an avid crowd of spectators, i.e., other customers. If you don’t want to air your dirty laundry, use their door-to-door service. If that’s out of your price range or the white gloves on your skivvies creeps you out, use one of the city’s laundromats. Although self-service laundromats haven’t really caught on, there is one with the Soviet-era name of Laundry No. 25 that has a bunch of machines soap and conditioner packets, dryers and even self-service dry cleaning machines (up to 10 kilos for 900 rubles, about $14). Or find one of the Chistoff franchises near you. The company has nearly a dozen clean and modern laundromats in various parts of the city, with prices averaging about 350 rubles ($4.50) for a big load.
Laundry No. 25: 11 Ulitsa Vavilova. Metro Leninsky Prospekt. +7 (499) 135 2083 and +7 (499) 135 5014.