For college students living in dorms and people who live in apartment complexes with a communal laundry room, the nightmares of sharing laundry facilities are well known. The hardest part is getting everybody who uses the facility to share and be courteous of others. Most people know what to do, but here is a list of laundry room etiquette tips that you can even print out and post in your communal laundry room!
1) Don’t leave your clothes in the washer/dryer indefinitely. This is inconsiderate to other people and can cause your clothes to be tossed on the floor. Instead, wait to do laundry until you have the time to see a load through the washer and the dryer. Yes, this may take all week, but it beats leaving your clothes wet and molding for days.
2) To follow number 1, don’t throw somebody’s clothes on the floor willy-nilly. Have some patience. If you notice that a washer/dryer has been stopped for over an hour and is still occupied, take the clothes inside and put them in a plastic grocery bag. Leave them by the machine and move on.
3) Make sure you aren’t that person who never has enough quarters to do the laundry. That person is annoying because every time they go down they turn to someone else in the room and say, “Hey, I’m a quarter or two short. Can you lend me 50 cents?” It gets annoying. Go to the bank and buy quarters and you will be set for at least a couple weeks.
4) Decide if you want to leave your hamper there. If you think you might be late getting your clothes, it is appropriate to leave it next to your machine in case someone needs to move your clothes out. If you plan on being there right on time anyway, you might as well take it back with you.
5) Don’t use someone else’s hamper. If it is left behind for a week or more, throw it out by all means. Just don’t take advantage of someone else’s hamper without permission. Plus, you never know what sort of things are growing in it.
6) If you are in desperate need of only a handful of items that need to be washed, don’t stress over waiting on machines. Fill your sink with water, pour some detergent in, and wash your clothes by hand. It won’t kill you, and believe it or not, it is so much faster!
Common courtesy is the key. If you and your fellow laundry room users can work things out so that there is a basic system, things will run much more smoothly!
Photo Courtesy of: susan_d_p