Daily news for Seattle's Ballard neighborhood

 
Register or log in to post

My Ballard Forum » Open Forum

Venting, but also curious about doing laundry in a rental

(18 posts)
  • Started 6 months ago by SmartsyArtsy
  • Latest reply from Mondoman
  1. I am having a lovely night. I got home a couple of hours ago, checked the laundry room, and it was busy. (only one washer, one dryer). A bit later I checked again. Washing completed. Gave them ½ hr to take clothes and put into dryer. Still in washer, so I took them out and put them in my laundry basket because there was no place else to put them. When my wash was done, the other person's clothes were in the dryer, so I waited until I thought the dryer would be free. It was still going, as was another washing load, so I sat on it waiting. In come a couple who are furious with me for taking their clothes out.

    They tell me that I am rude, offensive, etc. How dare I touch their clothes, and they will not let me use the dryer until their second load is dried. This is their night, blah blah blah. They don't think I should have taken their clothes out no matter how long they sat there. And of course they have another load, do I think they only do one load at a time? No, there are not assigned nights, but once they start doing wash, apparently no one else should expect to.

    They are calling the landlord to get assigned nights. Other neighbors already called the landlord to complain that I was parked too far over (tomorrow is garbage day and I always have to park closer to them so I leave room for the trash collected) UGH I hate living with children.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  2. racerX

    racerX

    offline
    Member

    Leaving clothes in a shared washer for any amount of time is rude, IMHO.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  3. phoo

    phoo

    offline
    Member

    I'm with racerx here. The ettiquette here is if you don't want your stuff touched, be quick about taking it out. The usual convention is to pile it up on the dryer. That doesn't really help you with angry entitled unreasonable neighbors, but you are in the right here. What if they decided to take 8 hours to do their laundry - you are supposed to wait four hours between loads? No way. And yes, your laundry goes in the dryer when theirs' are done, no waiting for their second load. It was their fault for not being on top of the laundry.

    Assigned nights are kind of ridiculous, but if it helps keep the peace, whatever. But I am going to predict that they may not stick to the assigned nights because of the attitude they have displayed. Their lives seem to trump everyone else's.

    Does your landlord have email? You might do a pre-emptive strike on explaining the car situation and explaining the laundry situation (as neutrally as possible) so he gets the full story.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  4. Cate

    Cate

    offline
    Member

    It is them who are rude and not you. Shared washers/dryers are just that, shared.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  5. Jonathan Pryce

    Jonathan Pryce

    offline
    Member

    Agree, babysit your laundry in a shared laundry room. Use a timer. If you forget or something comes up and you end up down in Mexico for a week or so, don't expect your threads to be waiting for you in the machine as you left them.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  6. great idea

    great idea

    offline
    Member

    if you took them out and put them in a basket, no big deal.

    if they were on top of the machine or on the floor, I'd raise a fuss.

    new tenant shouldn't be expected to know the unwritten rules of the laundry room.

    is that really your first camera? looks pretty cool.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  7. Thanks all. I did get my stuff dried. I handled them in a calm cool way but I was on the defensive about waiting a half hour. I wish I had simply said if you care so much, then pay attention to the time, and stressed that. I hate these frustratingly stupid conflicts-- what am I, a Congressperson?

    I did send landlord an email telling them I felt like I live in a dysfunctional dorm. They are very nice and I wouldn't be surprised if they agree with me. No doubt they tried to call me but my phone was left in the studio. I'll talk to them tomorrow.

    Every trip to the Laundry room means going outside, around the building, up 2 flights. They are right inside and upstairs!!! A$$holes

    Posted 6 months ago #
  8. gi, yes that is my Kodak Holiday Brownie Flash; xmas gift from my father in 1959. I have it sitting on a shelf with this pic. It took Panachrome or VP? 127 film.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  9. Mondoman

    Mondoman

    offline
    Member

    VP = Verichrome Pan B/W film. My experience in shared laundry rooms is the same as what the other folks have posted -- if you're not around to take out your wet laundry, the next person can take it out and set it on the table or machine (not the floor, though). Of course, my experience was all in Massachusetts -- maybe the people here are different :)
    Fwiw, maybe your neighbors could at least let you know what evenings they typically do not do laundry so you can try to work out an informal schedule.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  10. Mondo, No different here than in MA. This is the only city I have ever shared a laundry and both other places I have lived honored about 10 min after the washer completed, then the washer is emptied. This is childish entitlement.

    Schedules--really?!? I have no schedule and I am not interested in remembering theirs. Do people still schedule these things? I haven't heard about laundry schedules since I was 12 and allowed to buy the day of the week set of panties which labeled Monday as laundry day!!

    Posted 6 months ago #
  11. Mondoman

    Mondoman

    offline
    Member

    Hey, I think you're in the right! Just suggested an option to consider which might minimize conflict. I should've remembered that NYers don't shy from conflict!
    Parking is often "interesting". Sometimes if you get to know your parking neighbor in advance, they'll see you as more a person than a car and be less likely to complain about your parking. Try baked goods :)

    Posted 6 months ago #
  12. The parking was no problem until I walked away from her bitching and whining (after banging relentlessly on my door) about my leaving something for someone to pick up under the common stairway. This one claimed that the entrance of the building was "her area" . After that, their 4- 5 ft between cars isn't enough. Even though their selfishness displaces the other cars who usually have 2-3 ft. The childish entitlement here is very hard to believe.

    Enough mondo, I know you mean well, but I am not looking for ways to work around their crap. As Rosanna roseanna dana once said, "if it's not one thing it's another"

    Posted 6 months ago #
  13. gracie

    gracie

    offline
    Member

    And this is why I never wanted to live in an apartment. I have been going to the laundromat lately, off and on. Wonder how this child-like tenant would like it if you left your clothes in there forever & they wanted to do laundry. Different story then, I'm sure. The landlord should simply put up a sign that if clothes are left in machnes, they will be taken out & put in a basket. My sympathies to you, Smarsty, having to deal with those people. I'm so lucky to have great neighbors (well one not included)

    Posted 6 months ago #
  14. biophile87

    biophile87

    offline
    Member

    SA, I also think you are in the right here. Sounds like your neighbors are new to apartment living. I would request from the landlord to write up clear rules for the building in regard to laundry, parking, and whatever else, and post them throughout. I would even go so far as writing them myself, asking the landlord to review/sign them, and posting them myself as well. This way you can avoid red tape or other peoples procrastination.

    I had a horrid neighbor who would hire hookers and had heroin addicts ODing in his apt, and the whole building was aware of it even before I moved in. It took my writing the landlord *every* single day with complaints for 2 weeks straight to get him evicted, but it got the job done.

    Sometimes you just have the be the squeaky wheel that fixes the whole machine. xo

    Posted 6 months ago #
  15. RichY

    RichY

    offline
    Member

    When I lived in an apartment the rules were simple:
    If the clothes are not moved in 1hr - they are abandoned, so take what you want and give the rest to goodwill

    Posted 6 months ago #
  16. PDaddymom

    PDaddymom

    offline
    Member

    SA – when I lived in an apartment with shared laundry (1 washer and 1 dryer between 9 units), it was an unspoken rule that you stayed on top of your laundry and moved it right after washing and drying. If not, the clothes got taken out and put on top of the machine. Never had any major problems and I lived there for 13 years. I agree that it does sound like these people are not used to sharing facilities. Let your apartment manager settle it out – that is their (horrible) job.

    Posted 6 months ago #
  17. Wow. thanks everyone. I will ask the landlord to post some rules. I just may post this thread also!

    Posted 6 months ago #
  18. Mondoman

    Mondoman

    offline
    Member

    Good luck! Sounds like your neighbors wouldn't last a day in my building -- 4-5 feet between cars! That's another parking space!

    Posted 6 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.

OUR SPONSORS










Advertise here
There are 254 users online. 2 of them are members.
213621 posts in 14751 topics over 61 months by 3928 of 87370 members. Latest: dfdvtwwna71, frklvzpver51, 7selena93fu