Tenisha Neal wasn’t looking for a side hustle. She was looking for a way forward.
A few years ago, the St. Louis mom was working as a truck driver when a high-risk pregnancy forced her off the road. The job that paid the bills was suddenly no longer an option. A baby was on the way, doctor’s appointments were piling up, and Neal needed to find a way to earn money without leaving home for long stretches of time.
“I really just needed something that I could do from home,” she recalls.
She searched for remote jobs, but nothing seemed to fit. Then, she found an unexpected answer: other people’s laundry.
Through Poplin, a nationwide laundry-delivery platform, Neal could work around appointments, prepare for her son’s arrival, and earn income on her own schedule. Customers schedule pickups through the app, and independent “Laundry Pros” pick up, wash, dry, fold, and return clothing—often within 24 hours. The service starts at about $1 per pound, with pickup and delivery included.
“When I found Poplin, it took away the stress,” Neal says. “It took away that heavy mental load of having to think about how can I make money, how can I buy my child things, how can I put gas in my car.”
What began as a practical solution during pregnancy eventually became something much bigger.
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Finding work that fit motherhood
At first, Neal saw the work as a way to get through a difficult season. The process was straightforward: Pick up laundry, wash it, dry it, fold it, package it, and return it. But the flexibility made all the difference.
She could turn the app on or off depending on what her family needed that day. She could schedule around doctor’s appointments. After her son, Dario, was born, she could continue working without the same childcare conflicts that often come with a traditional job.
“It gave you the availability to just basically make as much or as little money as you needed in that moment,” she says.
For a new mother trying to balance income, health, and caregiving, that control mattered, Neal says.
The people behind the laundry
Over time, the work became less about laundry and more about the people connected to it, Neal says.
Some customers were elderly. Others were recovering from surgery. Many were simply overwhelmed by everyday life and needed help keeping up.
“I didn’t know that there were so many people that needed those services,” Neal says.
As customers requested her again and again, relationships formed. Some left snacks or drinks outside for her. Others gave baby clothes and bottles after learning she had a young child. One customer left Thanksgiving side dishes.
“It becomes more like a family-oriented thing,” Neal says. “The more that you provide services for your customers.”
One relationship, in particular, will always stay with her. An elderly woman became a regular customer, greeting Neal at the door each time and asking questions about her life. Over time, Neal learned that the woman lived alone and that her adult children were out of town. When the woman became sick, Neal met more of the family.
After the woman died, her daughter contacted Neal with an unexpected gift: a nearly new washer and dryer.
The equipment changed what Neal could take on. Her landlord added another hookup, allowing her to run two sets of machines at once and double her capacity. “That was a huge blessing,” Neal says.
But the bigger lesson was about connection. “There are a lot of lonely people in this world,” she says. “I’m proud I am able to help others in this way at times when they need it.”
Building something bigger
Today, Dario is 6 years old and recently graduated from kindergarten. Neal still uses Poplin, but the side hustle that once helped her through pregnancy has also helped her build something of her own. She now owns a house-cleaning business with three employees. During slower weeks, she encourages them to pick up laundry orders through Poplin, too.
For Neal, the experience has become proof that flexible work can be more than a stopgap; it can create stability, confidence, and opportunity.
Still, she is quick to push back on the idea that working from home is “easier.” “We’re lugging these bags of clothes up and down the stairs. We’re feeding and taking care of kids,” she says. “We still have to maintain work and home balance.”
But for parents who need income that can bend around real life, she says the flexibility can be life-changing.
Through hundreds of pickups and deliveries across the St. Louis region, Neal says she’s also come to see laundry itself differently: Although it’s still practical, ordinary, and something that many people would rather avoid, it’s also a way that people care for one another. As Neal says, “Everybody needs someone.”
