dubcomm – the toronto teknopusher

Laundry Etiquette

There is a washer/dryer in my building. There are only 5 apartments, none containing families. There should be no fuckery in the laundry room.

This week, I took a small load of T-Shirts upstairs and tossed them in the wash for a short cycle. I forgot about them, for 2 whole hours. Evidently a big mistake.

One of my neighbors took it upon themselves to put my wash into the dryer, and run it. He unknowingly ruined a load of my favourite and often-worn shirts, most of which are limited edition pieces that myself or friends designed. This makes me mad for a number of reasons, but leaves me with little recourse. I could try and get my neighbor to pay for what he’s ruined, but how can I put a price on irreplaceable items? I guess its time to buy some new shirts, but its still quite aggravating to deal with. If I were a lesser person, I would be peeing in his next load of laundry.

So, the purpose of this post is the following:

If you use shared laundry machines, and someone has forgotten a load in the washing machine, under no circumstances are you to put the items into the dryer, let alone run them. If you’ve waited a fair amount of time, I’d say 30 minutes to be fair, go ahead and remove the wet clothes from the wash, but put them somewhere clean, like on a counter, or put a bag on top of the dryer and leave them there.

If clothes are in the dryer and are still damp, run a short cycle to finish them off, otherwise it looks like you’re stealing dryer-time. If the owner isn’t there to remove the clothes, again, put them in a clean place. Do not fold them, just put them somewhere they can be easily retrieved by their owner. Same if there is a finished dry load, just put the clothes somewhere clean and easy to get.

If you ruin someone’s clothing, saying “I’m sorry” and going about your bullshit isn’t the best way to releive the stress you’ve caused. Offer to pay for the stuff you fucked up.

Thanks.

Tags: Custom T-Shirts, Dickhead Neighbor, Laundry Etiquette