Confession: I don’t exactly know how to do laundry. I get the basic principles, but separating colors? Weights? Textiles? Countries of production? These are foreign concepts. But come 12 months from now and I’ll be a real live citizen in the world. Yowza.

My case is sadly and pathetically not unique. I, and those like me, fortunately can find comfort in the fact that there are at least four people in the world that get it. They are the creators of Gradspot.com and author’s of the recent book “Gradspot.com’s Guide to Life After College”: David Klein, Dartmouth, ‘04; Stuart Schultz, Emory, ‘04 Chris Schonberger, Harvard, ‘06; and Tory Hoen, Brown, ‘06.

No, their findings don’t exclusively cover the ins and outs of the washing machine, but they tackle other relevant things I have yet to discover I don’t know how to do, anything that happens in a bank, for example. And they do it in a way that isn’t as patronizing as my dad’s dropped jaw when I told him I didn’t know what a mortgage was.

“When we were in the cushy halls of academia, there were clear cut paths, tons of support, and safety nets galore,” said Schultz in an email exchange. “However, the second we graduated, all of that fell away and we were confronted with tons of new challenges that weren’t necessarily difficult to tackle once you knew how, but we weren’t prepared to face them, from finding a place to live, to landing a job, understanding health insurance, building credit, and so much more.”

They created the site and wrote the book for the annual 1.5 million recent and soon-to-be grads. As relatively recent college graduates themselves, they wanted to create some helpful content for the contemporary crowd that was more relevant than what the “wrinklies” have to say about post-college living. As the times changes and trends come and go, the transition to for-real adulthood gets a facelift too.

The tips and tricks in the book are presented via narrative, funny(!) tales, easy-to-digest cut-outs and input from a huge sampling of other grads, younger students, experts, etc. After all, even though we have more to learn, do we need another textbook? Nah. The website is an easy, one-stop shop for a specific, post-graduation head-scratcher, but the book bounds everything together roadmap-style (think Google maps, not atlas.)

“The hardest part of putting this book together was choosing what to actually include. This could have been a 1,000 page tome,” said Schultz. “Instead, we decided to capture life after college essentials that you can’t find anywhere else to make sure that every reader is covered during their transition to the real world.”

Despite me already lacking any previous knowledge of all of the book’s topics, one of the chapters’ bottom lines especially surprised me: the after-graduation time off. With the job market in the lumpy shape it’s in, I figured time off was a punishment for college slacking. Turns out, a little time to soak in being an early twenty-something isn’t a boarding pass for a sinking ship. This even came to a surprise to Schultz and the other authors, who admitted to wishing he had something like “Life After College” on his bookshelf after grabbing his Emory diploma.

“There are two sections that I wish I’d had after college. The first is the section during which we discuss not diving into a job right after school. Some of my friends traveled or even lived abroad before they jumped into their first full-time gig. And you know what? They are no worse off,” Schultz said. “The second section I wish I had was the finance chapter. Everything would have been buttoned up a lot sooner and I would have been on a path to financial freedom a lot earlier had I read it.”

In general, it’s good to know not everything I have to learn about real-person life is depressing next to close-to-carefree college living. I know I need to get a handle on how to operate a bottle of Tide, but, according to the experts, there are decidedly decent days ahead despite having to soon ditch campus for good.

“It’s so easy to get caught up in setting up a bank account, finding a place to live, securing a job, etc., that you totally let the fun side of life after college slip you by: ultimate freedom and independence,” said Schultz. “This is truly the first time in life that you get to do what you want. And there are also all of the fun social elements. So take advantage of them.”

Well, if you say so…