Poplin app helps Long Islanders earn cash doing others' laundry

Melville's Danielle Olsen says if it was not for the extra money she earned washing strangers' clothing, her mother might have lost her home.

Olsen, 47, is one of around 270 Long Islanders who have turned to Poplin, a peer-to-peer app that pairs customers looking for laundry services with locals willing to wash the clothes. Together, these gig workers — Laundry Pros in Poplin parlance — completed more than 17,400 laundry gig jobs on Long Island, earning a combined total of $1.2 million, the app's internal analytics show.

Olsen typically handles five to six orders of roughly 50-pound bags of laundry a day, and said she makes around $2,500 a month from the app, her sole source of income.

Her financial contributions helped her family secure a loan modification on her mother's house, she said.

"Without it, we wouldn't even have a home," she said.

More Long Islanders are turning to gig work to bridge the gap created by the rising cost of living and stagnating wages, economists and policy experts said. In 2023, around 11% of New Yorkers said they earned money through online gig platforms like Uber, Lyft, Doordash or others in the last 12 months, according to Cornell's Industrial Labor Relations Empire State Poll. Last year, that percentage grew to 13%.

Olsen said she's struggled to maintain full-time employment due to severe social anxiety. But because she can pick up and drop off laundry orders without interacting with customers often, she said it's represented a "big turnaround."

"I really enjoy doing it," Olsen said.

And while washing a stranger's clothes may not be for everyone, it's created real opportunities for financial gain.

"I hesitated taking my first order because I didn't know what to expect," said Stephanie Zeis, of Ronkonkoma, who has used the app for about two years.

Zeis, 42, a full-time account manager for a home textiles company, said because she works remotely, she can handle washing and drying for clients throughout the day.

With the roughly $1,200 to $1,500 she makes a month, she can save for discretionary spending.

"Things are expensive and I like to be able to do things like go on vacation and buy things," Zeis said.

More people are turning to gig work to meet rising household budgets, local economists say.

"For many people, higher gas prices, higher food prices really do impact them dramatically," said Steven Kent, an economics professor at Molloy University.

Roughly 21% of Long Islanders earn money through online gig platforms, according to an April report from the Community Service Society of New York, a nonprofit that promotes equity for low-income New Yorkers.

Half of gig workers surveyed statewide rely on these platforms as their main source of income, according to the report.

"The gig economy is increasingly part of the infrastructure people use to manage economic insecurity," said Rachel Swaner, vice president of policy, research and advocacy at the Community Service Society.

But Swaner said with many larger apps, like Uber or DoorDash, gig workers have little control over the opportunities available or recourse if a platform's algorithm limits jobs access. 

"These bigger companies are controlling where they work, how they work and it's creating a financial precarity," Swaner said. 

It definitely gives me some peace of mind and comfort knowing I have this one thing in my back pocket I can always fall back on.

— Camilla Plummer-Dhana, of St. Albans

Still, the opportunity to supplement their full-time income is why many use Poplin.

Norman Dhana, 56, of St. Albans, Queens, and his wife, Camilla Plummer-Dhana, 58, were looking for a side hustle with flexibility to work around their full-time jobs.

The Dhanas earn up to $600 a week and have fulfilled the most laundry orders on the app on Long Island, according to Poplin data.

"It definitely gives me some peace of mind and comfort," said Plummer-Dhana, a full-time accountant, "knowing I have this one thing in my back pocket I can always fall back on."