Shared Laundry Rooms

Living in a multi-unit apartment building, we share a single washer and dryer with about five other apartments. Usually this hasn't been a problem, but tonight it was horrible. I needed to do about two loads of laundry, but really had to do it tonight because I work full-time and go to class at night during the week, and next weekend I'm leaving for a vacation.

Because we spent the afternoon at a friend's house, I didn't head downstairs until about 6:00 p.m. Someone was already doing their laundry, so I left my laundry basket in the laundry room as a signal that I needed to use the machines when they were done. I expected them to do maybe another load or two, but I wasn't prepared for it to be almost 10:00 p.m. before I could access the washer (the person had left an empty laundry basket downstairs and nothing else, so I couldn't tell how much they were planning on doing).

What made the situation worse was that they didn't take their clothes out of the dryer until almost midnight--even though they knew I had clothes that needed to be dried! I would have been able to do both loads, but their delay in removing their clothes from the machines prevented me from doing this unless I wanted to stay up even later. When they finally did remove their clothes, they didn't even bother to clean out the lint trap! Not only is that annoying, but its a fire hazard!

I wish people would be more considerate. If you know someone else needs to use the machines (especially on a weekend when its likely lots of people need to use them), remove your clothes promptly. And clean the lint trap!

Comments: 6

Carol Roach Sep 18, 2006, 2:13am EDT

yes it is very rude indeed, I would have taken their clothes out of the dryer and did what I had to do.

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Susan *. Sep 18, 2006, 10:04am EDT

....when I was single I used to remove clothing from dryers and use them, taking care to make sure they weren't wrinkled....it always amazed me at the number of people that would leave clothing there for days and then come back angry that it had been removed from the machines...I guess they thought the machines were for their use only!

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Michelle W. Sep 18, 2006, 10:08am EDT

I also would have removed their clothing and just left it in a pile in the basket. The way I see it, their clothes were getting wrinkled in the dryer, so why not help those wrinkles out a little by putting them in a basket to at least breathe?

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Dorine H. Sep 18, 2006, 3:55pm EDT

In my building, we know that another person is automatically going to remove the clothes when they are done. That is what you should have done, and frankly, I'm astonished that you didn't.

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Felicia S. Sep 18, 2006, 8:40pm EDT

When I lived in apartments, we usually had more than one of each, but if everything was full, and clothes were left in the dryer for more than 30 mins after being dry, they were removed and put either in that person's basket or on the table. They can get mad that they were moved, but you can be just as mad for having to wait so long. Next time just move them. People in apartments know that other people need to do laundry too, they shouldnt be so selfish to hog the machines for hours, especially when they are done with their cycles

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Shared Laundry Rooms

Comments: 6

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