At Rentable, we\u2019re committed to helping you find the perfect apartment. But we also care about what happens once you\u2019ve moved in. We started Dear Rentable to help you navigate the renter life, from rental agreements to roommates. Each week, we\u2019ll answer a new user-submitted question.<\/p>\n
Got one? Email us at claire@rentable.co.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s question comes from a renter in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
Dear Rentable,<\/em><\/p>\n I live in a house with shared laundry in the basement. It\u2019s coin-op, and the machines are old, but it sure beats walking down the street to the laundromat during the winter.<\/em><\/p>\n My problem is with my second-story neighbor. It seems like every time I go down to the basement to do laundry, she\u2019s already using the machines. She usually does four to five loads at a time, and she\u2019s really bad about switching her clothes from the washer to the dryer on time. They often sit there for hours, waiting to be taken out. Also, she steals my detergent and dryer sheets.<\/em><\/p>\n I have no idea how my neighbor has so many things to wash, or why she can\u2019t just move her wet clothes to the dryer when she\u2019s finished washing them.<\/em><\/p>\n Short of doing my laundry at really weird times, what can I do?<\/em><\/p>\n At Wit\u2019s End,<\/em><\/p>\n Because Leaving Everything Acrid Can\u2019t Happen<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dear BLEACH,<\/p>\n Don\u2019t wait until 4AM to get your fabric softener out. Instead, the next time you find yourself waiting in line behind four laundry baskets, knock on your neighbor\u2019s door. Explain that you need to do some laundry, too, then do what you\u2019d do in the gym, if someone were hogging all the weights: Ask to cut in.<\/p>\n Chances are, if she\u2019s planned on doing four loads, she\u2019s expecting to spend a few hours on laundry. Surely an extra 45 minutes won\u2019t hurt \u2014 and even if her washing is urgent, she\u2019ll at least know now that someone else is sharing the machines.<\/p>\n It sounds like your building is small. If it\u2019s just you and your neighbor, you can also propose a laundry schedule: She gets Monday\/Wednesday\/Friday, you get Tuesday\/Thursday\/Saturday, and Sunday? Sunday\u2019s a free-for-all.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have time to coordinate schedules, or your neighbor doesn\u2019t answer her door, abide by the 20 minute rule: If you need to use the washer and there are wet clothes in it, your neighbor has 20 minutes to move them. After that, it\u2019s fair to remove them and stack them neatly on top of the washer.<\/p>\n Just know that once you\u2019ve used the 20-minute rule, you\u2019re subject to it. So if you don\u2019t want your neighbor rifling through your unmentionables, BLEACH, make sure you set your alarm.<\/p>\n Oh, and keep your detergent and dryer sheets in your apartment. Rookie mistake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week’s Ask ABODO: What do you do if your neighbor is hogging the laundry room?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":12542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[149],"tags":[270,183],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20574,"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12540\/revisions\/20574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rentable.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}