Yet Another Laundry Room rant

The BBQ Pit
1

OK, maybe some will come in here an dtell me i am wrong about this, but…

In my aprartment building there are two washers and two dryers. That works out well, because, if I am doing the math correctly, there is one dryer per load of wash. So I go down and nobody is using the washers or dryers which is great because I can get two loads done before I want to go to sleep. So I put my clothes in the washer, go to my apartment, come back to the wash thirty minutes later and…

SOMEBODY IS USING ONE OF THE FUCKING DRYERS!! I don’t know why or what for, but it is a pain in the ass now.

So now what I can stuff two whole loads of wash into a single dryer, which is going to mean a crappy drying job on my clothes, and a good chance I will have to run them through a second time or I can ait for the second dryer to do my second load which is going to add about 45 minutes to an hour on my night. Dammit! I am tired and want to go to bed!

So I decide on the first option, which as promised leaves some of the clothes damp and looking like shit since they were all stuffed in there.

It seems to me that the person using the washing machine has some sort of claim on the dryers. But maybe I am just not being fair in my blinding rage. No I wasn’t using the dryer, but dammit, I was going to, obviously! Am I wrong?

2

Assuming they haven’t just started up a dryer for fun, one can assume that they’re drying something that got wet. Maybe they were caught out in the rain and are drying their clothes, maybe they had the sink/tub overflow and put the towels in to dry.

I can see how this’d be irritating but it’s highly unlikely that someone’s just trying to screw you over by using a dryer, and probably did indeed have some kind of need. I don’t have a problem with that.

3

One of the guys in your building must’ve found a shirt in the sewer and put it in the dryer so he could wear it out to dinner.

“A man can find a shirt in the sewer, put it in the dryer and wear it. Yep, warm equals clean.” --Jeff F. :cool:

4

I also live in an apartment building with two washers and two dryers–and you know, when I need to get my clothes washed, I tote a load down the stairs and some inconsiderate creep has both washers!

Urrrrrgh.

5

Just got back from my laundry room, which is in another building, so I have to walk through the rain to get there, and found out that the 2 driers I was using were both screwed up. The one that I turned down to “Perm Press” was as hot as the blazes, and the one that was on “High” was barely above room temp. Lucky for me, I get to drop another 4 quarters (minimum to start the machine) to actually make my clothes dry, and I get to make another couple of trips in the rain to finally finish my laundry.

A little thing, but man does it just make the blood boil!

6

Can I just add my own rant here, while we’re at it?

I just moved in to a new building about two weeks ago. Most people in my building have washer/dryers in their condo already, so only a few of us actually need to use the laundry room, which I assumed would mean there would hardly ever be anyone using the laundry and I would always have total acces when ever I wanted to do mine.

NOT. Saturday I went down to do laundry there for the first time and ALL SIX washers are in use. 1 of them says it has 15 minutes left, and the other five say they have 2 minutes left. So I decided to just sit tight and wait for who ever had the 5 washers occupied (it was obviously one person, as they all quit one right after the other, bam bam bam) to come and move their stuff to the dryer.

I’m sitting there on the table waiting and waiting…the washers shut off and nobody comes. 5 minutes pass, then 10…I was trying to decide what to do in this situation. Being new to the building I didn’t fee like I knew the “protocol” and couldn’t decide if I should empty one of them and set the wet stuff on the table or what. Another five minutes pass and the 6th washer shuts off, just as a woman is walkin in to the laundry room. She says hi and looks at me sorta funny, and asks, “So…you’re just sitting in here…?” I laughed and said all six washers were busy so I was waiting for whoever to come empty them. She asked how long I’d been waiting and I told her and she said if it was her, she’d just dump the person’s stuff. I said I was giving them 5 more minutes and then I would have, but since she was there I’d just use her machine.

Anyway, I got all my stuff put in and the washer going and by this time the 5 machines had been off for 20-25 minutes. I finally left and did pass a guy in the hall heading toward the laundry room but I don’t know if it was his laundry or not. I wish I knew so that I could tell him it would be polite not to use ALL of the available washers in the first place, but that if you do, be damn sure you’re there RIGHT ON TIME to empty the things! What a jerk, who ever it was.

From now on, I’m giving people 5 minutes TOPS, then dumping their stuff. That’s just rude to use all the machines and not bother to empty them on time. Plus, it was a SATURDAY! Like people aren’t going to want to do laundry on the weekend. Grrr.

Sorry. Had to vent. It’s STILL irking me.

As to the OP, I don’t have a problem with someone using a dryer and not a washer. Same as using a washer and not a dryer. They’re there for people to use. Personally, I wouldn’t have used BOTH machines at the same time and gotten myself into that situation. I do my laundry one load at a time or possibly two (since there are six machines) but would not use all the machines at once.

7

It gets better, my friends.

I have experienced each and every one of your problems with communal laundry equipment.

Five years ago I gave up on the apartment/condominium thing and bought a house. The people who orginally built my tiny little shack lived there for twenty-five years and put in all kinds of little amenities, like a laundry chute. I don’t have to use the thing.

As they got older, their kids moved out and they got tired of hauling laundry up and down the basement stairs.

They had laundry hook-ups installed in the closet of one of my putative bedrooms.

THIS IS GREAT. When I want to take a shower, I just take off my clothes and kick them across the hall. I can do my laundry whenever I want, and I don’t have to walk more than fifteen feet.

You will one day experience this wonder of wonders my friends, yes you will.

8

Exgineer, I’d probably have to win the lottery to buy a house… and I don’t gamble. Thanks for the encouragement, though. :slight_smile: