Uh…Huh

Sounds thrilling doesn’t it?   There are a special set of rules when visiting the laundromat, however, it seems that in more recent times those rules are no longer adhered too.  Do you remember the Friends episode where Rachel goes to a laundromat  for the very first time and how a regular patron takes complete advantage of her naivety by stealing her washer and dryer and rolling laundry bin?  Although meant to garner laughs in a 22-minute sitcom, it is a weekly battle I face. The irritation has grown so much that I now have to write about it.

Let’s set down some basic laundromat manners, that will surely help to make everyone’s laundry experience pleasant and efficient.

1. It is first come, first serve. I don’t care if your basket has been ‘saving’ a machine, if you’ve stepped out for a lengthy snack and coffee break and haven’t been seen for the last while, that machine is up for grabs.

2. Going along with number 1, I’d like to point out that it is NOT ok to move someone’s basket if they have turned their back for a second. The polite thing to do would be to ask. Yes, we can verbally communicate as human beings, yet another beautiful advantage of language and speech and tongues and lips.

 STORY: Girl A pulls up to the laundromat door as she has two baskets to unload from the trunk.  Family A pulls up in a mini-van behind her (4 people). Girl A takes the first basket into the laundromat and sets it in front of an empty maxi-load machine (there are only 3 available). Girl A goes back to the trunk as she passes Family A coming in with oodles of garbage bags full of clothes. Girl A comes back in with her second basket, only to find that Family A have staked out their land in front of all 3 maxi-load machines and have pushed her first basket out of the way.  Girl A is stunned. Puts down second basket and looks at Family A with a shocked expression. They ignore her. Hence, rule #2 is VERY important.

 Let’s talk about dryers. It’s a Saturday morning, the laundromat is busy. We all have to share the space people so let’s revisit that word called CONSIDERATION. 

3. It is not nice to take up 8 dryers and only throw 5 or 6 items in each. Yes, I do understand that your clothes will dry faster. But that’s still 10 minutes that the rest of us to wait before we can even get 1 dryer. Suck it up, use 4 dryers instead for 15-20 minutes and we will all be happier.

4. This is not your basement. These are not your machines. This is not your own personal washing station. Be considerate with counter space. There are only 3 counters to fold clothes, do you really have to take up all of 1 so that the other five us are crammed onto 1 counter, where we each only get 1 square foot of space to fold everything?

5. Hey do you see that lone sock on the floor? Maybe you should speak up and ask the other patrons if it’s theirs. That would be very kind of you instead of stepping over it or kicking it out of the way so that it’s forever lost in the Dimension of Forgot-About-Clothes. I truly believe that it’s not the machines that eat our missing socks and underwear, it’s mean laundromat people that don’t take the time to help others.

In summary, be nice. We alll want to have clean clothes. And more importantly don’t you want to have a clean conscience?

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Rambles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.