Disclosed are a method of controlling a self-service washing machine, and a terminal and a system utilizing same. The method includes: outputting position information and state information of at least one peripheral washing machine; acquiring a target washing machine selected by a user; sending a reservation request to a server, wherein the reservation request includes a target time period and an identifier of the target washing machine input by the user so as to enable the server to schedule the target washing machine to provide a washing function for the user in the target time period; and receiving and outputting a reservation result fed back by the server.