Friday, July 21, 2006


I'm kinda miffed right now. It may sound trivial to some but who cares. I am assigned to do laundry on certain days. It is the custom in my apartment building. Though laundry is free, we choose to do our washing at certain times. Tonight is my night. I get my laundry and clothes soap all organized. When I get to the laundry room , someone else has broken the rule. What! How rude, I think. It is my turn. I don't ever infringe on someone elses laundry time. I feel like pulling out the laundry offenders clothes , and shoving them aside. But me being the person that I am, I wait patiently. I'm now 1/2 hour behind my scheduled time. I'm ready to go and remove the laundry bandits clothes from the machine. When I get to the laundry room, it is empty of the laundry bandit and any evidence of strange articles of clothing.. Whew! Lucky for the stranger who has cut into my laundry time. I was about ready to pull all the clothing from the machine and leave a nasty note. But although it has set me back 45 minutes, I'm still in good shape to get my washing done before my time is up. The thing that really bothers me is that it is not the first time this has happened. Oh the joys of living in an apartment , and having to share laundry services. Next time this happens , I'm thinking I will have to aggressive and take the culprits clothes from the laundry machines. Or not. I'm such a chicken. What would you do.

7 comments:

Muhd Imran said...
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Muhd Imran said...

It has always been very interesting to me that you guys are actually sharing laundry room.

We do not have such problem here. Not that I know of, because almost all Singaporeans have our own washing machine and some have dryers.

We normally dry our clothes outside in the sun hanging from bamboo poles from our service balconies.

I however had about the same kind of problem as you do. Mine was an irresponsible but elusive trash dumper at a common rubbish chute on our floor. Made a mess when the wind blew it to scatter.

Had to catch her in the act and talked to her. It worked for me fortunately.

So, instead of dumping the bandit's clothes out the machine, I think I will wait for that bandit to appear and then tell him/her of the unofficial schedule of the tenants laundry day/time.

Alternatively, maybe you guys can come to mutual agreement and place the scheduled time-table cum notice at the Landry room.

Could be a new tenant who is unaware of such a schedule. Any new tenant will then be aware when they see it. They can enter their name on one of the available slots.

Hope all works out well for you. Have a good day & take care.

wandi said...

HI Imran, No this is not a new tennant, They have been here for 25 yrs , so they know the protocol. I am a patient person, and know that this person is old, so I am willing to wait. But how long do I wait?? I know that they are pushing the limits, as they have done this in the past , many times.

Viamarie said...

Grrrr!!! I definitely would have gone through a fit if I were in your shoes.

Hope this did not spoil your weekend.

Anonymous said...

What time is the culperts time laundry time? Do it on his time. Or knock on his door with his wet clothes in your arms and give it to him with a comment you using up my time or just dump it in front of his door and leave He will get the message. The nicer thing to do is knock on his door and ask him if he knows he is using your time has he forgotten what time he has? Maybe he has memory block like some seniors do get,the older they get the worse it gets and that may be happening with him. Or he forgot to use the laundry room on his time so tried to sneak it in on your time. Maybe you did not get there right on the dot of your time so he just asummed the next person was not coming.

wandi said...

I guess I am not that brave. I wait and I stew about the unfairness, yet I do nothing. I'm always the one to let people walk all over me. I hate confrontations.

I know that I need to get a tougher skin and tell people when they are wrong. Soon I hope it will happen. In the mean time I let people do their own thing, and I am the door mat.

Robyn said...

I hate confrontation too. I would take a more passive approach of addressing the issue: wait until the person was in the act of loading the washer and go in with all my laundry things and say something along the lines of "oh I'm sorry, I could have sworn it was my alloted time" and hopefully embarrass them into not doing it again! I hope you find something that works for you.