My Laundry Room Suck

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This is the thing I hated most about living in the on-campus apartments at college. Two washers and two dryers for each building, and good luck finding one that isn't currently in use.

Luckily there was a laundromat not too far away and I had my car on campus.

[Pagan]

When you're in a complex where 50 people have to share a single set of machines, you get your shit out when it's done, or the person behind you does so for you.

^-.-^

Or like ours where there's 5 machines and 4 dryers (how does that make sense?) for half of the complex, which is way more than 50 people. This is why I use my kitchen timer.

And for the love of Guinness, would it kill y'all to take 2 lousy, freakin' seconds to clean the damn lint trap out when you get your clothes out?

[freeatlast]

I lived in a apartment building where there was 1 washer and 1 dryer for 5 apartments. Once weekend when I went to do my laundry, there was a load laying in the dryer. I put it on top of the dryer and worked around it. The owner did not show up to get her laundry, so once I was done with the 4 loads I had, I put them back into the dryer. The next weekend, when I went down to do my laundry I found THE EXACT SAME LOAD OF LAUNDRY from the previous weekend still laying in the dryer. Our laundry room opened into the garage, so I just dropped the entire load on the garage floor. A few minutes later I saw our landlord working outside the open garage. When I came back down to start my next load, the stuff on the garage floor was gone. I suspect that the tenant that left her stuff learned her lesson, as I never found that she had left anything else laying in the dryer like that.

[bainsidhe]

Used to have a neighbor that would occasionally leave laundry in the washer overnight. At least no one left nasty notes when you removed their laundry so you could do your own.

[BlaqueKatt]

some of the student housing in the mad city(the really expensive ones) have washers and dryers that will email you with 5 minutes left and "hey you're laundry's done!"

[Pixilated]

If they know the exact time the dryers finished, why the frak weren't they there to empty them?

Sometimes people honestly do forget. But after reading freeatlast's story ... a WEEK?! How could you not notice an entire machineful of clothing, linens, etc. was nowhere to be found for a week?!?

some of the student housing in the mad city(the really expensive ones) have washers and dryers that will email you with 5 minutes left and "hey you're laundry's done!"

That's great! Unfortunately it probably wouldn't help much with the people who decide to go for a nap, or go out for dinner, or whatever, and figure they'll just pick their stuff up when they get back ...

[LadyAndreca]

We have 4 washers and 3 dryers per laundry room. Usually people only take 2 at a time, but not always. If I have to take someone's clothes out of the dryer, I at least fold them on the table so they don't get wrinkled. Nobody else does. And I always leave my laundry basket on top of the machine I'm using in the hopes that if someone gets there before me, they at least dump my clothes in my basket. At least once I've had my clothes mixed up with other people's and had to pick through to figure out which was my (still damp) laundry.

I don't sit with them because that's a good way to get eaten by mosquitoes/frozen solid. It's an unheated basement room and the door, which is open to the outdoors, is never closed except in REALLY bad weather or flooding.

[Legal Eagle]

when i was in a complex with shared laundry facilities, i used to do it late at night,
no queues, throw in the laundry, go and watch tv, move to dryer, watch more tv, done. simples.

[AccountingDrone]

When I was in need of laundry but unable to pay to replace the washer dryer in the house, I bought a cheap little portable washer/dryer unit out of a catalog.

You hook it up to a faucet, it drains out a hose you lead into a sink. It had a cylinder on its side, with a hatch you open to put the clothing in. It theoretically would do jeans, you could fit 2 pair in, but it wouldn't be able to spin out all the water, but you could wring them out manually and hang them to dry. It would manage to wash, spin and blow dry a tshirt, a bra pair of panties and a pair of socks. The dryer function was essentially the equivalent to a hair dryer, not zippy enough to dry a pair of jeans. Since I wasn't working, I wore scrubs, which it could handle ok. It could do 1 sheet at a time, but they needed to be hung to dry.

I was thrilled when both the car got repaired so we could go to a laundremat, and mrAru got home from sea to deal with stuff around the farm I couldn't [I was just coming off 6 months of chronic pneumonia I just could not shake. If I could have freaking managed to get to the damned base hospital more frequently I probably would have gotten better much faster.

[Laund-o-rama Mama]

Sometimes people honestly do forget. But after reading freeatlast's story ... a WEEK?! How could you not notice an entire machineful of clothing, linens, etc. was nowhere to be found for a week?!?

I've had people leave entire loads of laundry in the washer and/or dryer at the 'mat, and walk out, never to return again. How can you not miss an ENTIRE load of your laundry??

I don't get it either. Then my imagination takes over. Were they drunk? Did they die? Abducted by aliens? What??

[Catwoman2965]

I hate doing laundry in my complex. I would kill for a w/d in my apt, but that isn't happening, so I have to just suck it up. That being said, there is one laundry for every 6 buildings in my complex. Mine happens to be in my courtyard, and also one of the larger ones, having 8 washers and 8 dryers. I tend to do mine right after work during the week as its usually pretty empty then. Every now and then its busy, or I have to do it on a weekend. But our machines are timed, and as I HATE anyone but me touching my stuff, I make sure I go down a few minutes before its done, so when it is, I take it out, put it in the dryer, and repeat when that’s done. I hate people who leave their stuff. I’ll usually wait a bit, but if its really been a while, I have no problem taking it out to use a machine. Most people are pretty polite when there are only a few machines, and many who want to use them, but I don’t get how you can leave your stuff for hours on end, esp. on a busy weekend.

[Moogles]

When we lived in a complex, there was one person who would hog the machines (2 washers and 2 dryers) for 3 days at a time (not taking it out of the machines even long after the load was done). It got to the point that the building maintenance guy was taking the laundry out and piling it in a corner so we could get ours done. He was a sweetie. He knew I worked nights (often 6 a week), my husband was in school and we had a well-behaved toddler, so he understood we had limited time to do our laundry. My husband always timed our loads, and went downstairs 5-10 minutes early so no one would be waiting on us.

When they finally found out who was hogging the machines, she got evicted. Apparently she had nearly destroyed her apartment too.

[Pagan]

But our machines are timed, and as I HATE anyone but me touching my stuff, I make sure I go down a few minutes before its done, so when it is, I take it out, put it in the dryer, and repeat when that’s done.

That's what I do! Even so, one time I went to get my stuff out of the dryer and heard the dryer going off as I walked in. For some reason, I glanced over at the folding table (which I never use, it's right in front of the window and always has a little layer of dust on it) and saw....two pairs of my undies. They happened to be the grey and brown leopard print ones I had. All my others are black or white. Which means that someone opened up the dryer, poked around in my clothes, fished only those two out, closed and restarted the dryer, and put those on the table. I've never been able to figure out why.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I've had people leave entire loads of laundry in the washer and/or dryer at the 'mat, and walk out, never to return again. How can you not miss an ENTIRE load of your laundry??

I don't get it either. Then my imagination takes over. Were they drunk? Did they die? Abducted by aliens? What??

Based on other postings* in this forum, the SCs obviously returned to a different laundromat and pitched a screaming and yelling fit about their clothes being stolen.

*Other postings about SCs going to the wrong restaurant or store to pick up their order.

[TruthHurts]

Reminded me of an incident in my old apartment building. Our upstairs neighbor had three kids and was constantly using all the washers in the building's laundry center. She had an annoying habit of leaving her clothes in the washer and dryer and going off somewhere. Once her clothes sat in a washer for nearly 8 hours.

Another neighbor of mine was a close friend of hers and got fed up when she once again couldn't do her laundry. She dried her friend's clothes and used a copy of a key they gave her to put it back in her apartment and left a note explaining what happened.

Upstairs neighbor went ballistic threatening to call the landlord on her friend. She told her to never touch her clothes again. A few weeks later another resident left their clothes in the dryer for a couple of hours. She proceeded to throw all the clothes on the floor and left a nasty note to the clothes's owner.

Luckily for us they moved out soon after finally letting us do our laundry with no drama.