Hi @Chris_Akins, just wanted to let you know we have rolled out the Variables support for both Dashboard and Rule Engine today. You can create rules in Rule Engine to execute the laundry activities, and set whatever status to a Text variable in the execution process, or in the end of the process, and display this variable tile in the dashboard to allow you the quick view of the laundry status. You can also set the variable tile’s tap action to execute a rule if you want. 
See the post below for more details and let me know if you have any questions.