I (18) woke up at 7am to start doing my families laundry. The laundry area in my apartment complex is shared. I put in the clothes at 7am, I have an app on my phone that tells me when they’re done, so when they’re done I go to put them in the dryer. Only to get there and find my clothes inside the dryer. Mind you, there’s 2 other empty washing machines, why did she find it necessary to take my clothes out to put her own in and keep the other 2 washers empty? I then tell her, “please don’t take out somebody else’s clothes. I have a timer and my clothes haven’t even been done for 3 minutes” she starts stammering and getting defensive. All I do is tell her once more, “just don’t take my clothes out again”. My clothes are in the dryer now. Once again I go to take them out and fold them, and she has them taken out and thrown onto one of the counters that have a big spider web on it. I get mad and tell her “didn’t I tell you not to take out my clothes. Why would you put them on the counter that’s full of spiders web?” She gets mad and starts yelling at me. While I’m 18 and she’s like 70. I had to rewash my clothes again because there was spiders web all over them and she had the audacity to take out my wet clothes and put them on the other counter. What exactly is her deal? ATP I don’t even say anything and she starts shit talking me to the other younger lady that comes in. I’m washing clothes for a family of 5, and I’m still considerable not to take up all the washers and just wait until the two washers I’m using finish and put in my next load. AITA or did I do something wrong?
INFO: How long were your clothes done in the dryer? You said it was less tha 3 minutes for the washer, but not the dryer. She definitely shouldn’t have touched your clothes in the washer after only 3 minutes so my verdict is either N-T-A or E-S-H depending on your answer.
NTA because there were empty washers and dryers available. If they were taken, she would be in the right.
NAH
I always left my cheap ass laundry basket on top of the machine O was using, and if I was back later than I thought I was the clothes that had been in the machine were usually in the basket.
If they weren’t still in the machine.
Yeah, I always leave a basket and I’m never mad if someone moves my clothes there!
(One time years ago, when I was in my early 20s and overwhelmed getting ready for a trip, I forget to get my clothes out of the dryer before the door was locked for the night. I was super stressed out, having to shift my schedule around and try to wake up early to grab them, but when I got there the next morning, someone had not only put them in my basket but folded them too. I ran back up the three flights of stairs to my apartment and back so I could leave them a little thank you note 😭)
NTA.
But she is also an AH and KNOWS she is not supposed to do this but does it anyway because it is her only source of POWER in her mind. These old biddies LIVE for this stuff. You will never get her to stop.
You absolutely can yell at her until you turn green but if you are not there she WILL do it again every time. BE careful if anything you say could be construed as a threat these folks WILL complain to management or even the cops saying you are threatening violence.
So, looks like you need to invest in some eBooks and a water bottle and just camp out there each time you do laundry to stop if from happening. NOW if she comes in and even looks at your units sideways you can let give her a piece of your mind.
And, of course, using ALL the washers at once is good revenge too, if it inconveniences her.
ESH you need to make sure you’re back *before* the clothes are done. You weren’t there so you had no way of knowing if you were holding someone else up.
ESH – you neighbour put your clothes in the dryer; that’s the cleanest place she could have put them (other than your own bucket). When you’re in a shared laundry room, you have to expect that people will sometimes move your clothes to get their own jobs done. They don’t know how long you’ll actually take to come back, after all. And though there were other machines free, she may have had a good, or at least understandable, reason that she wanted the machine you were using. (In my building, for example, we have two machines, and the newer one does a better job at getting the clothes clean without leaving detergent residue behind).
Your neighbour is an asshole for putting your clean clothes on the counter after the next load. That seems like a deliberately petty thing to do, to get back at you for scolding her. So, everyone sucks here.