What is shared laundry room etiquette?
Asked by
naomi29 (
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January 30th, 2011
If you live in an apartment building with a shared laundry room, how long should you wait before you move someone else’s clothing from the dryer? In other words, how long does their clothing need to stay (untouched) in the dryer before it is acceptable to move it and dry your clothing? assuming all other dryers are full
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8 Answers
I don’t wait, I just make sure I move it to a clean spot so it doesn’t ruin their cleanliness.
I move their clothing if I need to. If it’s in there and I need the dryer, there’s a nice folding table that it will be placed on. I can’t waste my time waiting for someone else (and I don’t expect anyone to wait for me)
If the dryer is still warm, I would wait 20 minutes. It really does suck to have your clothes moved to a table where they will get wrinkled when staying in a warm dryer could help prevent that. It is not easy to predict exactly when the dryer cycle will end.
If it is cold anyway, I go ahead and move them.
Move them as soon as they’re finished drying. They should have more etiquette and be there to get their clothes when the dryer turns off. You are not rude to move their clothes to a clean spot nearby.
If you don’t have another load to busy yourself with, it may be nice to “pop” out their clothes and stack them (not necessarily fold them, just lay flat) so they don’t get as wrinkly. Maybe they will return the favor. It only takes a second.
I agree with @Supacase- when they’re cold. Part of living with shared laundry facilities is getting your stuff as soon as possible, but another part is knowing you’ll have to wait sometimes.
This only happened to me once when I was on a cruise. I waited about 10 minutes and then took the laundry out and folded it. I needed the machine; it didn’t take much more time. The lady appreciated it and I felt good about it too. She was apologetic as she should be. Maybe next time she’ll do the same for someone else. Life is too short to get annoyed about such trivia.
Our laundry room is pretty big, with lots of machines.I’m pretty good about keeping track of the time, and I don’t do laundry on weekends, so no one has ever had to move my clothes. I’ve never had to move anyone’s stuff, either.
But if I did, I’d (at the very least) lay their things flat, if not fold them. I’d be pretty mad if someone just dumped my stuff all over the place. I’d probably wait 10–15 minutes after the dryer has stopped.
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