---
title: "A Laundry Delivery Startup Keeps Losing Doctors’ Clothes"
description: "A laundry delivery startup called Cleanly attempted to help medical workers clean their clothes. Instead, it kept losing all of their stuff."
date: "2020-05-01"
modified: "2020-05-01"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/laundry-delivery-startup-keeps-losing-doctors-clothes"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "cleanly"
  - "coronavirus"
  - "laundry"
  - "Startups"
  - "the digest"
---

# A Laundry Delivery Startup Keeps Losing Doctors’ Clothes

![A laundry delivery startup called Cleanly attempted to help medical workers clean their clothes. Instead, it kept losing all of their stuff.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/laundry-delivery-startup-keeps-losing-doctors-clothes.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Petar Milošević\</em\>*

## Great Job

A laundry delivery startup called Cleanly recently drummed up a massive amount of new business by offering to help, donate to, and otherwise support medical workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

The company crafted an inspirational narrative around its work, but there was one small problem. [*Vice* reports](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v745kj/where-is-the-rest-of-my-laundry>) that Cleanly keeps losing its customers' clothes, often forcing them to [go without garments](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/laundry-robot-slow-mira-robotics>) — or medical scrubs — for days or weeks at a time.

## Going Commando

Several Cleanly customers, including medical workers, told *Vice* that they specifically used Cleanly because of the support it claimed to offer medical workers — but that the actual experience was hellish**.** Multiple customers reported having their delivery dates repeatedly bumped back by days at a time. Others were informed by Cleanly that their clothes had been lost altogether.

"They kept thanking me for my service, all that shit," psychiatric nurse practitioner Jason Meisel told *Vice*. "An employee called me, telling me, like, that she was from New York, and this was important to her. That I was important to her. Like, I don't care anymore. You're fucking thankful? You're stealing my clothes. On top of all that, you're stealing health care workers' clothes."

## Scavenger Hunt

Because it attracted so many new customers, *Vice* reports that Cleanly workers ended up sorting and organizing customers' clothes outside in a laundromat parking lot.

And that's where customers who organized an impromptu scavenger hunt for their missing garments found them: outside, on the street, frozen together and reeking of mildew.

**READ MORE:** [‘WHERE IS THE REST OF MY LAUNDRY??’](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v745kj/where-is-the-rest-of-my-laundry>) \[*Vice*\]

**More on startups:** *[This Ridiculous Startup Wants to Roast Coffee in Space](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-roasters>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)