Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag, The Story

Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag: The Story

My Father, Henry. That's Me Sitting In His Lap. My Mother Elizabeth. And My Older Sister Janet With Her Favourite Doll.

I learned about laundry bags as a little girl in New York City. From Mr Chin and my mother. We lived on East 82nd Street, not far from 2nd Avenue. Mr Chin’s Laundry was on 2nd Avenue.

Our home was on the 4th floor of a 5-story walk up apartment building, with no garden or accessible outdoor area.

Our apartment building was built in a previous century. The late 1800’s. And was typical of its era.

It had wide, wide (to a child’s eye) stone steps leading up to the stoop. This is where all the neighbours congregated to chat and watch their children while we played cowboys and Indians and/or stick ball in the street.

My sister Janet and me on the stoop at 423 E 82nd Street, New York City. It's the first day of school and we're not happy!

The steps are where my sister and I sat and licked our ice cream cones in summer. We were so engrossed in our ice cream, we forgot to bicker and squabble.

The double entry doors, which were never locked, opened to a vestibule which housed the mail boxes for the tenants.

Then there was another set of swinging double doors that led to the immense hallway with its winding staircase that went from floor to floor.

My mother did her laundry in the kitchen using a wringer washing machine. She hung her laundry on the clothesline outside our kitchen window, which was strung from one telegraph pole to the next. It all worked on a pulley system. And a prayer that you wouldn’t fall out the window while you were hanging the clothes!

On the ground floor, if you walked past the staircase to the very back, was the apartment of our super, Mr Stumple.

He’s the door you knocked on if your laundry fell off the wash line.

Because his apartment was the only one with a rear entrance to the courtyard.

Where all the laundry landed. As well as the toys and balls tossed out windows by wayward children.

Me And My Sister Janet In Central Park. My Mother Made Our Coats, Leggings And Hats.

The wringer was OK for sheets and towels. But wasn’t appropriate for the finer fabrics of my father’s shirts and my mother’s hand made dresses or me and my sister’s hand sewn Sunday best.

That was taken in a laundry bag to Mr. Chin’s Laundry on 2nd Avenue. And Mr Chin was very fussy about the quality of the laundry bag you gave him.

I accompanied my mother to Mr Chin’s every week until I went to school. He always met us at the door to his laundry. I was mesmerised by the way he would reverentially take my mother’s bag, embrace it with both hands, and tell my mother, in his broken English, how strong and beautiful her laundry bag was.

Strong and functional were Mr Chin’s criteria. He didn’t want the bag to break on the walk to his laundry. And he marvelled at her carry handle. So easy to manage, he would say.

My mother’s one of a kind, hand made laundry bag exceeded Mr Chin’s criteria.

It was made of tapestry and had a rope carry handle, so she could easily manage the rough and tumble of the walk up and down 4 flights of stairs, down 82nd Street to 2nd Avenue and then half way down 2nd Avenue to Mr Chin’s.

We had no car in New York City, so we walked everywhere. And this handle was crucial to making it very easy for her to carry her laundry bag.

And it had one extra special ingredient. It was beautiful!

My mother was a couture dressmaker and my father was a commercial artist. Between the two of them, they designed and made a bag of beauty. Just for our laundry.

But the essential ingredients were its strength and its functionality.

My mother took great pride in knowing Mr Chin approved of her bag and always referred to it as ‘Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag’. I’m sure it started out as ‘the laundry bag to take to Mr Chin’s’ and over time was shortened to ‘Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag’.

And this is the bag we replicated for you.

Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag is strong, beautiful and functional. You can take it anywhere with pride. Hang it in your apartment, take it on a short break, slip it over a hook in the best hotel, or show it off on your weekly trip to the Laundromat.

And just to make it easy for you to use, we designed a special collar that stays open while it’s hanging, so you never have to struggle to get your clothes inside.

When you want to take it with you to your Laundromat or downstairs to your laundry, just slip the button on the hanging cord through a brass ring, and you have a perfectly closed, secure bag with a strong carry handle.

The fabrics are outstanding. You can choose between luxurious tapestry or smooth, velvety, textured cotton. As with all our fabrics, they’re fully colourfast, machine washable and very durable.

Just as my mother added her special ingredient of beauty, we’ve added a special ingredient just for you. The hanging cord is finished with a distinctive glass bead with a silver lining for good luck!

What more can you ask for?

You only need one for the rest of your life. And Mr Chin would approve!

To learn more about Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag, click here.

Take care,

Carol