Laundry room drama! (Wow, my life is exciting.)

[jaina]

Yes or no: in a public laundry room (ie, in an apartment complex), if there are no empty washers/dryers available, but some loads are done and their owners have not retrieved them, is it OK to take out their finished laundry and put it on the counter or in a cart, so that you can do your own?

I say yes, because why should I have to wait around forever for people to get their laundry? But I just got yelled at by some random woman in our laundry room. There were no empty washers. One was done, so I took out the laundry and put it over on the counter and put my own stuff in. I moved over to another one that looked done (it shows the cost, rather than the number of minutes left), touched the laundry, and realized it was still dry. Cue the woman saying, "That's my laundry, I haven't put the soap in yet." I apologized and went to wait for the next couple washers to be done. After the woman finished loading her six washers, she turned and called over to me "Don't touch my stuff!" in this really accusing tone. I was like, "Okay..." She said, "You touched my stuff! Don't do it again!" I said, "Yes, I opened the washer, realized it was your stuff, and I said I was sorry." Then she went off on me for taking out that other load of laundry, how dare I, it could get stolen, etc etc etc. (Never mind that it could just as easily get stolen while in the washer; it's not like they lock or anything.)

Ugh. I had such a nice productive day and this is putting a really bad taste in my mouth. :(

Comments

[meyerlemon.livejournal.com]

Now I can't remember where I saw this, but someone did a poll on this issue (or, on how long laundry had to be unattended before it was okay to move it) and the group-mind consensus was this remarkably clear bell curve. Like, it had to sit for 15 minutes, and then it was fine to move it. I was surprised there was such a semi-universal agreement.

[jainamsolo.livejournal.com]

I love that people have done polls on this. Laundry is serious business!