This morning I woke up early to laundry my work uniform. My boyfriend came over to take me out to have breakfast and asked him to wait until I do my laundry. He agreed and said he would help carry my basket of clothes. There is three laundromat rooms in my apartment complex. So we walked into the closest shared laundromat. Theres two washing machines and three dryers on one side of the wall. On the opposite side theres a long counter to fold clothes. One of the washers had 9 minutes left on it and the other was not in use. There was a small white trash bag sitting on the folding counter tucked in a corner, with what appeared to be clothes, not sure. The size looked to be about 2-3 t shirts stuffed in there. And a small detergent. I decided to use the empty washing machine to do my laundry. As I am putting detergent in, my neighbor walks in and my boyfriend says good morning. She scuffs and I look up to see her staring me down hard. She looked angry and walked out. I ignored it and was also about to walk out but her husband walked in and started yelling at me. I was in shock and didn’t quite process what was happening. All I heard was "Can’t you see we were doing laundry here, our bag is over there!" "You guys are so rude and disrespectful, we were here first!" And some other things I didn’t catch. My boyfriend is now arguing back and the guy backs off and asks us what apartment number we live in, I think he was insinuating how he was gonna report us to the office or something. I tell him how where I live is none of his business and he storms out. We wait a little bit and then proceed to walk out as I don’t want to be followed back to my unit. I have heard stories of a neighbor that complains to the complex all the time and even sued another neighbor. I talked to my cousin about them and he explained how they do anything to get the neighbors they don’t like in trouble. Should I have apologized and given them the washer and gone to next shared laundromat, since they "Reserved" with their clothes on the counter? It’s my first post so please be nice. Also their clothes were no where near the empty washer but maybe I am naive and don’t get social clues or something.
Context: Im 22, boyfriend is 21. Neighbors looked to be around 40s. Laundry hours are 8-9pm. Theres no reserving hours, only rules posted are to clean up after yourself and not throw trash on the floor.
nta. they probably should have returned earlier or just stayed there. sounds as if they only needed to wait nine minutes anyway for the washer they were already using, so maybe they shouldn’t have left after fussing.
A washing machine is ‘Reserved’ in a shared community when there is clothing in the machine and it is running. If the machine does not contain clothing, but there is someone present, you can ask if they intend to use the machine. Otherwise your neighbor can eff right off, you’re not the magical washing machine mind reader. NTA
NTA.. in apartments it’s first come first served. Only courtesy i have seen extended to people that if you take their stuff out of a finished dryer, you gotta fold their stuff.. lol. By chance, did they have there quarters on the machine? Then that’s a different story but you’re too young to understand. Good luck.
Fold their stuff?!? Wtf I would not be ok with a stranger going through and folding my clothing. Taking it out and putting it in a basket, sure. Folding it!?! Hell no.
I say leave em wrinkled but i seen people do it just to get the dryer.. lol
NTA, report the situation to building management before the entitled AH does.
Absolutely.
This
There is no such thing as “reserved” in a community laundry room.
Why wouldn’t their stuff be in the washer if they were using it??? It was empty already lol
i assume the currently empty machine previously had stuff in it. so they left their laundry but in between the previous load being removed and them returning op turned up
NTA. Could you report them first? There are no reserving rules. If they wanted the washer, they should have put their fucking clothes in it, why would they leave a full bag of clothes in there when there’s an empty washer?
If the laundry bag & detergent had been waiting on top of the machine, that *may* have been perceived as “claiming” the machine…but their items were on the folding counter, which you say is on the opposite side of the room. There was no way anyone could reasonably expect you do those mental gymnastics. NTA.