How much leeway is permissible before you remove someone’s laundry from the washing machine or dryer? I say ten minutes.
The Doper consensus will determine whether or not I start a Pit thread about the guy who removed my laundry–including my bras and underwear–all of 5 minutes after the end of the cycle. Totally creeped me out and he was a jerk about it when I walked into the laundry room.
So, how long do you wait, if at all?
This question has come up before (see below for links). I don’t think there has ever been any consensus, though a not insignificant number of people say something like “Wow, you leave your laundry unattended? Aren’t you afraid someone will steal it?” Personally, I’d say that, if you’re not there when your clothes finish, and someone else needs the machine (i.e. there aren’t any others available), they are perfectly justified in taking your laundry out of the machine, provided that what they do with it leaves it no worse off than if it sat in the machine waiting for you.
Apartment Building Laundry Room Ettiquette
Dear Impatient Laundry Room Jackass
Other people’s laundry…
Laundry room etiquette: a poll
I knew there were other threads but I didn’t find them. Theft doesn’t concern me–it’s more that the guy couldn’t wait five minutes–I know I was there within 5 minutes of the cycle ending for precisely the reason that I don’t want a stranger handling my personal items.
Two lessons learned, I guess: first, Sunday night is probably a bad night to do laundry and, second, don’t assume that other people have qualms about handling other people’s personal items. 
But how did he know you were going to be there within 5 minutes?
You have a right to immediately remove it. If you need to do your laundry, why should you have to wait (and presumably hold up the next person) when their is a machine you could use? Chances are this guy has seen bras and undies before and I doubt he’s all that interested in yours.
And Thudlow wins the prize for getting to the relevant point first. Congrats!
Seriously. The Other Guy (TOG) is sitting there, waiting for the machine to finish. This is pretty boring. Then Your cycle ends, and now TOG is staring at a perfectly usable machine that he can’t use because there are clothes in it. Not knowing how long he’ll have to wait for removal of said clothes, TOG takes them out, puts them on a folding table (or whatever) and starts his load. Seems reasonable to me.
In the dorm where I live, there are 3 washers, 3 dryers, and maybe 200 freshmen men. There can be epic backups at the dryers (since they take 2x as long as the washers) on weekends. And the policy is that if you ain’t there, you’re clothes will be put wherever there’s space, which is qenerally in the dusty corner under the pipes. The moral of the story is: You GOTTA be there at end of cycle.
I’ll wait if I hear you on the stairs, if not, I’m moving your stuff. I do laundry when I need to do laundry. And there are restrictions on hours when you can do laundry here, I’m not going to do only half my laundry because I had to wait for you to get yours, and then it was too late. What were you doing that was so much more important than getting your laundry?
As far as I’m concerned, people have every right to move it immediately. When you put money in the machine, you’re paying for a set amount of time. After that time expires, it isn’t “your” machine any more and it’s other people’s turn to use it.
That said, I’m really reluctant to move other people’s clothing in practice, because I’ve had one too many bad experiences with people who are FURIOUS if anybody touches their stuff.
Sometimes I can leave laundry in a dryer for an hour, and it’ll still be there. But on Monday mornings-- watch out! The nannies will be yanking your stuff out before the tumbler spins down after the clock hits zero.
Someone once objected to my removing their clothes because one item was still damp. I apologized, and said that with only 4 working dryers (out of 8) yet 20 working washing machines that were all going, I couldn’t wait. She said “but it’s still wet,” and before I could say another word another nanny tore the woman a new asshole! She was poetic with her vitriol. And the dispute didn’t even concern her!
I don’t know about your building, but our laundry room has a grand total of four machines. Two washers and two dryers. This is supposed to serve twelve apartments between the hours of 8am and 10pm.
Most folks, of course, work 8-5. Laundry cycles take 25 minutes for the wash cycle and an hour for the drying cycle. The “only” five minutes makes a huge difference. What is the person who came down three flights of stairs with a heavy load of laundry supposed to do, just chill while the person who left their laundry takes their sweet time getting back to it?
Not to mention, the five minute delay snowballs into 20 minutes, and houir and so on, if every thinks that way. Then the short window of opportunity to do your laundry is cut even shorter.
In a lot of apartment building laundries, there is no place to sit And one doesn’t generally think to bring a book with the laundry just to put it (the laundry, not the book) in the washer, and it’s a little bitty room that is way too hot. Not to mention, the person removing the laundry has NO idea that it’s only been five minutes. For all they know, the cycle may have ended a half an hour ago.
YOU know that it’s been five minutes, because presumably you watched the time when you put it in (and if you did, then you should have made sure you were back at the time the cycle was due to end).
If I get to the laundry room and laundry is just hanging out in a machine, I will put it in the dryer and leave the door open. I set a timer when I do laundry, and get downstairs to the laundry room in time.
It may not be actively “rude” but it is pretty thoughtless and inconsiderate not to watch your cycle time.
That’s why I always leave the basket next to the machine, in case something keeps me from being there at the end of cycle. Not one of those luxury Curvers, though…
When I lived in the dorms, I generally left my laundry unattended, because who wants to hang out in the laundry room? But if you’re not there the second a dryer goes off, and someone else needs it, I say they’re perfectly entitled to take your dryer, even if your clothes are damp. I wasn’t expected other people to wait on my clothes if I was late getting back to the dryers. Of course, I usually did it at 4 am when waiting wasn’t an issue . . .
I personally have no objections to moving other people’s clothes, or to other people moving mine–I’ve both done so and had it done to me. I just hope that if someone’s moving mine, that they take care to at least keep them off the floor.
I wish that these places would have more dryers than washers though–here the difference in cycles is only a few minutes at least, with the dry cycle being longer, but as the dryers can sometimes suck I know some people like to split one wash load into two dry ones, to make sure everything actually gets dry. (20 washers yet only 8 dryers? What was the person responsible smoking when he thought that one up?)
Near instantly or else I’m taking your crap out. I drove me friggin insane at my last apartment. Check what time it is, add the time of dryer/wash, then be back BEFORE that time. I feel like a prick but I have things to do also.
I agree with most people here. This just happened to me. One of our dryers is out of order, and I took the time to walk to the laundry room (and time is at a minimum), so I took the person’s laundry out and set it on top of the dryer (they had left no basket), and put mine in.
I always set a timer so I make sure I am there as soon as the washer or dryer is done. If other people can’t do that, then tough.
God I can’t wait to have my own washer and dryer. <sigh>
Huh. I guess I’ve always lived in really laid-back buildings. In the dorms, where we had six washers and a dozen dryers (that took twice as long if they were working), standing around for five minutes to see if someone turned up was normal, and moving damp clothes from the dryer to the table was just plain rude. Putting them somewhere dirty would probably be asking for a beating.
My present building has a small army of them, and I’ve never seen all the washers going at once, so I have no idea how long we’ll wait for that. Dryers, people give five or ten minutes, on the rare occasion that they’re all in use - I guess it’s a rare enough situation that people are willing to deal with it.
While doing laundry this weekend, someone took our clothes out of the dryer before the cycle was even done. That just ticked me off to no end.
Another vote for “Be there when the cycle ends if you don’t want other people handling your dainties.” Your right to use the machine to contain your clothes ends when the cycle stops. Then it’s the next person’s turn.
Dude, that’s just wrong!
A reasonable time? 30 seconds after it’s done. Though since I’m a nice guy, and touching other people’s clothes weirds me out, I’ll give you two minutes.
I’m also profusely apologetic on the rare occasions where somebody has had to move my laundry outta the machine.
Usually, though, I get there a couple of minutes before the cycle is done.
Also: dump your dry clothes in the basket, and fold them on the table provided for that purpose. Folding each item as you pull it out of the dryer, while somebody else is waiting, is just asking for bad karma.