The hum of the washer and dryer is a common sound in Laurie Fulford’s Carolina Forest home – possibly even more common than it is in most homes.
“I am a stay-at-home mom and I have always been looking for something that I could do from home to make some extra money but that was not tied down to a phone or customer service,” she said.
In September 2021, Fulford discovered and became involved in SudShare, a laundry service that uses a similar business model to popular food delivery services such as DoorDash or Instacart.
As an executive Sudster, Fulford often gets around five requests a day from Horry County locals needing their clothes washed.
She can choose to accept the order using her SudShare app, go pick it up in a contactless fashion, bring it back to her home where she separates, washes, dries, folds and packages the customer’s laundry, then she drops it off within 24 hours of picking up the laundry.
For orders with over 100 lbs of laundry, SudShare allots the Sudster 48 hours to complete the order.
Being a Sudster is not for everyone, she said.
“It does take a certain personality type," Fulford said. "You need to be an organized person.”
Fulford estimates there are about 20 Sudsters in Horry County and she said that there is not a need for more Sudsters, only more customers.
“If you wanna sign up, you can, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to get orders. It’s all based on rank. I am the highest rank in this area so all new orders come to me first and if I pass, it goes to the next ranked,” she said.
When Fulford first became a Sudster, it took her a while to get her first order. After over a year of building up her list of regular customers, she now makes around $30,000 per year, but not all of that goes into her pockets.
SudShare does not provide laundry machines, gas money or other necessities such as detergent. Fulford said she was worried at first that being a Sudster would end up costing more money than she would make because of how much she had to drive at first.
“Now, I can be more picky, because I got my regular base built up and I don’t have to drive as far,” she said.
Fulford said after spending money on gas and laundry supplies, she gets to keep around $20,000 of her earnings. She said it has helped her family be able to save more and spend more on things they need and want.
“SudShare is meant for residential families or single guys for example. We’re not a wash and fold, we’re not a laundromat, we are just ourselves at our homes,” she said.
Fulford has two washers and two dryers in her home, which is a luxury not many Sudsters have, she said. Having multiple machines has enabled her to help more customers who utilize SudShare for a variety of reasons.
“I had a lady on Facebook say when I was doing an ad not too long ago say, ‘Oh, we’re that lazy now that we can’t even do laundry? We have a laundry service now?’ And I just took a deep breath,” she said. “I listed off some of the types of people that I’ve helped like I’ve had a widower that had lost his wife and he had two small girls and he was overwhelmed and gave me like 20 bags of laundry and who knows what mental help I gave him by just getting that out of his hair.”
Fulford said that some people utilize SudShare as a treat to themselves while others use it out of necessity.
“I have an elderly lady who was taking her stuff to a wash-n-fold and it was getting hard for her to get her stuff up and down the stairs so now I pick up and drop off for her and it’s so much easier for her,” she said. “Are there some people that just hate doing laundry? Yes, but it’s not always that. … The goal is to make people’s lives easier.”
Fulford said trust is a large factor when it comes to doing strangers’ laundry. She has found cash, car keys and other valuables and odd items in her customers’ pockets. She puts those items in a bag and returns them to the customer.
SudShare offers same day service for $2 per pound or next day service for $1 per pound and Sudsters make 75 cents of the dollar per pound for next day service or they make $1.50 of that $2 per pound for same day service. Sudsters also earn tips.
Orders can be placed through the SudShare app.
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