Laundry Room Etiquette - what's your opinion?

[moosmom]

We don't have washers and dryers in my building. There is a laudromat right up the street that has free drying.

When I did live where there were appliances, I'd give the other tenants time to remove their stuff once it's dry. If I go down again, and the dryer is stopped with clothes in it, I'd take them out of the dryer and put mine in (if there was no one else ahead of me), leaving the other tenant's clothes for them to pick up.

It's common courtesy. If other tenants can't be respectful and take their stuff out in a timely manner, that's not my problem.

Can you possibly ask the management company to send a notice around about it? That's what I do whenever I have a problem. That's whay I pay them the big bucks in rent for (not really, only $535/month).

Good luck. I hope you find a peaceful resolution. Apartment living is NOT fun. Tempers flare, doors slam, people yell. I only WISH I could afford a house of my own with a big yard I can enclose for my cats!!

[Freedom]

The 3 apartments I lived in, we generally waited 10 minutes and then removed other people's stuff to keep the line moving.

I didn't see that anyone complained to you or anything, so just keep going!

[Nomilynn]

The very first time I did laundry there, I waited 10mins for a washer and I was in the process of putting stuff on the machine when the woman came in. She certainly ripped me a new one! I basically said to her, I've been waiting 10 minutes, you need to be here when your machine stops. So I was a bit nervous when it happened again last night.

However, when I came back down an hour later to take my stuff out of the dryers, the clothes were still sitting on top where I had put them - it obviously wasn't a priority for that person to have their clothes! Good thing I did take the stuff out of the dryer, as they never showed up at all, even later on.

[cassiesmom]

My rule is five minutes. The washers and dryers in my building have timers. The washer is a 31 minute cycle and the dryer is 42 minutes. If the previous user isn't back and I need the dryer, I pull their stuff out and pile it on the dryer. There are 4 washers and 4 dryers for 48 apartments.

My pet peeve is people who arbitrarily take over the laundry room by putting their hamper in front of the washing machine and their detergent, bleach and quarters on top of it, doing load after load. I've ticked some people off by taking their clean wet clothes out of the washing machine, putting them on top of the dryer and starting my wash. Sorry... it's a common laundry room. You left your wet load in there after it finished and I need to get in there, so I moved yours. There's a clock over the dryer so I keep track of my times and I expect my neighbors to do the same. But I've had the same thing happen as Nomilynn- I've taken another person's stuff out and found it still in the laundry room hours later.

Edited to add: This thread made me think of this post about Freedom's laundry room supervisors:

Since the cat litter boxes are down cellar, I go down each night to scoop. Tasha comes down with me, to "supervise." This is the scene at the top of the stairs:


That's Darlin' Marlin on the left, and foster Willy on the right.


Marlin is whining the whole time I am down there.


This also happens when I am doing laundry, as the washing machine and dryer are down there too. Marlin HAS been down there, he KNOWS there is no way for me to get out! Doesn't matter. I had to stop him coming down, though. He has such bad hips, and the stairs are open back. Last time he was going up, his hips gave out and he was slipping through the stair; lucky for him I was right behind him and was able to grab him.

[Nomilynn]

I certainly wish my laundry room counterparts were as cute as that!!

I wish people did time their loads. I always try to be there a minute or two before the machines stop so I can be sure to remove my items as quickly as possible.

On a positive note, my landlord called me today to see if I was home because she wanted to drop something off. I went to the door and she delivered a box of chocolates! So sweet.. maybe they do it for new tenants. Either way, I was very touched. Kind of makes the laundry thing seem trivial