Death, taxes, and dirty laundry -- they're inevitable. You can't do anything about the first two, but dirty laundry? That's easy. Get yourself and your seven loads of smelly clothes to the Clarendon Coin-Op Laundromat, in Somerville. Unlike so many laundromats littered with used fabric-softener sheets and sticky gobs of spilled detergent, Clarendon is clean. An employee (Nancy on weekdays, Betty on weekends) is always on hand to make change for a $20 bill or advise some newly independent Tufts student how to get his whites clean. The walls are decorated with black-and-white prints of Somerville from a century ago. And every holiday brings colorful window displays. It's not quite home, but it's close.

A couple of years ago, owner Fred Vigalanti stunned the neighborhood when he closed the place down for a few days for improvements. Clarendon Coin-Op was already perfect, so what could Fred be up to? Doubling the number of dryers, that's what. Now you only rarely have to wait for one. Plus, the move eased Sunday-afternoon crunches when the post-hangover crowd comes in.

Clarendon Coin-Op Laundromat, 1244 Broadway, Somerville, (617) 623-0090.