Laundry etiquette

phillmolly · Apr 24, 2015

So, we just got off the Magic a few weeks and I have a question about laundry etiquette.

Last day on the boat and of course the laundry room is pretty busy. I notice the washer on the end is done, but the clean clothes are still in there. I note the times on the other washers and come back about 15 minutes later.

First off, one guest comes in and removes three pair of shoes from one of the washers when it clearly marked, NO SHOES IN WASHER.

I had three loads that I wanted to try and get done before dinner. I put my first load in and note the time that I need to come back, and set the timer on my phone. The same load of laundry is still sitting in the washer at the end.

I come back 27 minutes later to transfer my clothes to the dryer. At this point it has been at least 45 minutes that the load at the end has been done and not tended to.

Now I am wondering where the owner of these clothes are, it is the last day and the laundry is obviously busy and I am getting a bit annoyed that the clothes are just sitting there, so I make the choice to put the clothes in the dryer, I paid for it and even put a dryer sheet in. Set my timer for 45 minutes so I could switch loads around. When I came back to switch the laundry around, I placed the clothes on the ironing board table. Set my timer for 45 minutes and went to dinner. Left dinner so I could get my clothes out of the dryer. Clothes are still sitting on the table. We are now at over two hours!

Finished dinner and checked the laundry and the clothes are still there!

So whoever was washing this load, left them for well over three hours!

I am just wondering what you would have done? Would you have left the clothes alone, taken them out and left the wet clothes on the table, or do what I did? Just curious.

kswright02 · Apr 24, 2015

After waiting as long as you did I probably would've done the same, but maybe left a snarky "you're welcome" note on their clothes. We did the last day rush too but it did not seem like clothes were sitting for long periods of time.

jdb in AZ · Apr 24, 2015

I got tired of waiting for dry clothes to be removed from a dryer so I pulled them out and left them on a table in the laundry room. They were still there at the end of the cruise several days later.

shoes99 · Apr 24, 2015

I have also removed clothes sitting in a washer or dryer for over an hour unattended. I usually stay in the laundry room
with my hamper waiting for folks to come back and they never do. I'm going on the PC cruise so I'm hoping
I have better luck. Why do people do that?

MunFam · Apr 24, 2015

When I was in college, we pretty much had a 10 minute rule and then the clothes "sitting" were fair game in the laundry room. I would wait about 10 minutes and if they did not show up, I would pull the clothes out, place them somewhere else and start my load. I would likely stay with my load in case they showed up and wanted to play dirty, but it is absolutely rude to leave your clothes in a washer or dryer for an extended period of time. We are all on vacation and have "better things to do" so why should anyone have priority of a machine just because they were too busy having fun? If you do not have time to tend to your own wash, send it out to be laundered.

OP, I think you were MORE THAN kind.

Edit to add, I would ONLY do that if there were people waiting for washers and dryers.

Karlzmom · Apr 24, 2015

1. It is frustrating to have to wait for W/D.

2. I would never ASSUME that people "just left them" to be inconsiderate.....its a place where it is not hard to extend a little grace. There are things that can happen a on cruise: an illness, drifted off for an unexpected nap, miscommunication regarding who in the family was going to take care of the next step or even just lost track of time. Yes, I get that everyone here would note times, set alarms etc. I still maintain it is not a personal affront if someone else is not so diligent.

3. OP, you were very kind and gave a bit of pixie dust. You all know what that is, right? We who love Disney recognize that value of a little something that you neither merit or deserve that just happens to show up and brighten your day. Clearly you are still annoyed by the situation but maybe if you viewed it as you had the opportunity to be pixie dust to someone else it might make a happier memory.

4. I avoid the whole laundry room thing by just sending mine to be laundered. Yes, it cost a bit more (though surprisingly not as much as might be expected) however, on a vacation time is money. I don't want to have to wait for someone else's to be done or sit with a timer on mine so I just skip the whole scene. Might work in the future if a bad laundry room experience will spoil your day.

NCPAWPAW · Apr 24, 2015

Way too kind for me, I usually give it about 15min then I will put them up on the table. I will also make sure I stay during my wash. Had to do on last cruise and the couple were not too happy!

lbgraves · Apr 24, 2015

I wouldn't dry anything but set them neatly on a counter. You never know when someone doesn't want an item dried. They are being inconsiderate by not keeping up with their wash, so they can wait their turn once again.

dotfurio · Apr 24, 2015

I would have no problem removing things from a machine I needed to use. On our cruise there were items sitting there for days. I wonder why they bothered to wash them if they clearly didn't need them?

Starwind · Apr 24, 2015

I might have put the wet clothes out on a counter (neatly).

I would NOT put someone else's clothes in a dryer and run the dryer, and certainly NOT with a dryer sheet:
- some clothes cannot be heat dried and doing so irretrievably ruins them;

- if my clothes had been run with a dryer sheet they would likely have been ruined, or at least would take a LOT of rewashing to be salvagable; I would have been furious at whoever decided to do such a thing to someone else's belongings; to me it would not be pixie dust but rather an very inconsiderate act. I am VERY sensitive to dryer sheets -- they give me rashes and tigger asthma attacks. Same problem with detergents -- I have found literally ONE line of ONE brand of laundry detergent that I can use without a reaction.

I realize people without sensitivites may not think of these things, but please consider that putting chemicals on other people's things may not be appreciated even if you did it with good intentions.

-SW

phillmolly · Apr 24, 2015

That was the debate I had with myself, dry, don't dry, ect.

What I came up with is...

A) if I had something that needed to be air dried or dried a certain I would either not wash it onboard or stay on top of it.

B) if I was allergic or sensitive to dryer sheets ect, I would either not wash my clothes onboard or stay on top of it.

My husband can only use Tide and I have lots of shirts ect that I air dry, which is why I stay on top of my laundry. Truthfully I wish I didn't have to do laundry onboard, but since we travelled before and after the cruise I had to

bumbershoot · Apr 25, 2015

phillmolly said:
I make the choice to put the clothes in the dryer, I paid for it and even put a dryer sheet in.

Completely fainting at this.

I dry *nothing* of mine. Nothing. I don't want people drying my clothes. That wasn't automatically a kindness you did. And the dryer sheet....

phillmolly said:
Would you have left the clothes alone, taken them out and left the wet clothes on the table, or do what I did? Just curious.

I would have left them alone. I don't want others messing with my clothes (apart from one time no one has ever had to mess with my laundry (and that one time, it was at my apartment complex and someone chose to steal all my laundry when I totally forgot about it for hours), but in theory) and I won't mess with other peoples' clothes. I can wait or I can find a different laundry room *easily*.

Starwind said:
to me it would not be pixie dust but rather an very inconsiderate act. I am VERY sensitive to dryer sheets -- they give me rashes and tigger asthma attacks. Same problem with detergents -- I have found literally ONE line of ONE brand of laundry detergent that I can use without a reaction.

Exactly. Absolutely positively. Totally. I can't even walk down the laundry aisle while breathing normally. Tide destroys me. Even an organic lavender detergent caused my skin to feel like I had bathed in ground glass after using it a week.

Dryer sheets are disgusting. I can't breathe around people who use them if I want my lungs to be normal.

phillmolly said:
A) if I had something that needed to be air dried or dried a certain I would either not wash it onboard or stay on top of it.

B) if I was allergic or sensitive to dryer sheets ect, I would either not wash my clothes onboard or stay on top of it.

You have no idea what was going on with them. Sick child, perhaps? An injury? Dealing with a family crisis? Fell asleep while their cellphone battery died?

Just because you're allergic doesn't mean you necessarily pack enough clothing for a whole vacation.

MelSpees · Apr 25, 2015

I thought it generous of you to dry their clothes for them. I did not think of allergies etc. Now I would consider that.
I would definitely remove the clothes from the washer in your situation. I think you waited beyond a reasonable time. I'd probably would go 20 minutes.
I'm sorry, but I do think these people are being inconsiderate. Of course, there are emergencies, but I think one of our society's biggest problems is being inconsiderate--not taking into account how what we do effects other people. Many, many situations would be better if we just thought about the other guy more.

Sarah Trahan · Apr 25, 2015

They were still there at the end of the cruise several days later.

Saamh · Apr 25, 2015

I think you were being nice by drying them. I would have left them in a wet pile on the counter. The washers and dryers have the run time posted so we set our phone timers and make sure we're always back a few minutes early so we don't hold anyone up. I definitely don't want someone moving my laundry so I'm overly cautious to not leave it in a machine.

Gilland18 · Apr 25, 2015

I have removed clothes from a dryer. I am a little more squeamish about wet clothes from the washer. This is a real touchy topic. People got so crazy about it on our EBPC that they ended up posting a CM at the laundry room to referee. :crazy2:

The CM looked very bored.

tinkerone · Apr 25, 2015

i would definitely remove the clothes after about 15 minutes. i have removed clothes after about 15 minutes. i would not dry them just because i would worry that when the people came back they would not know where their clothes were. how would they know that they had been moved to drier number 5?
that aside, i don't think you were wrong to do what you did. reading the posts, lots of us would do different things. you didn't do anything malicious, you did what you thought was best. right or wrong, don't sweat it.

PrincessShmoo · Apr 25, 2015

tinkerone said:
i would definitely remove the clothes after about 15 minutes. i have removed clothes after about 15 minutes. i would not dry them just because i would worry that when the people came back they would not know where their clothes were. how would they know that they had been moved to drier number 5?
that aside, i don't think you were wrong to do what you did. reading the posts, lots of us would do different things. you didn't do anything malicious, you did what you thought was best. right or wrong, don't sweat it.

You've said it so nicely. While I probably would have just removed the clothes and placed them where they were visible (not put in dryer), I certainly don't think it's fair to flame anyone for spreading a little "pixie dust" and drying someone else's clothes. Yes, there are those with allergy issues, but, maybe, they should keep an eye on their laundry, if that's the case.

Melissa S · Apr 25, 2015

MunFam said:
When I was in college, we pretty much had a 10 minute rule and then the clothes "sitting" were fair game in the laundry room. I would wait about 10 minutes and if they did not show up, I would pull the clothes out, place them somewhere else and start my load. I would likely stay with my load in case they showed up and wanted to play dirty, but it is absolutely rude to leave your clothes in a washer or dryer for an extended period of time. We are all on vacation and have "better things to do" so why should anyone have priority of a machine just because they were too busy having fun? If you do not have time to tend to your own wash, send it out to be laundered.

OP, I think you were MORE THAN kind.

Edit to add, I would ONLY do that if there were people waiting for washers and dryers.

Yes I agree with the 10- 15 minute rule too. I HATED doing laundry in college. I placed my clothes in the dryer one time and came down after 35 minutes- a solid ten minutes before it was done and some girl was removing my damp clothes and putting hers in. I flipped out- not only was that rude but I paid for that time in the dryer. Luckily that hasn't happened to me on the ship.

OP it was thoughtful of you to dry the clothes. If they didn't want their clothes dried, I hope it taught them a lesson in keeping an eye on their clothes. People need to remember they are not at home and the laundry room needs to be shared with the thousands of people on board.

shoes99 · Apr 25, 2015

A little off the original topic, but I was in the laundry room waiting for my washer to finish.
Two ladies came in and starting banging on my washer trying to open the door. Their clothes
were in the upper dryer and I guess they were not paying attention. They just walked in
and starting banging my washer. I don't ususally leave the laundry room for long periods just
for that reason alone. My stateroom was on deck 2 on the DREAM and I used the deck 2
laundry room. We were on a back-to-back and going back to the resort.

Laundry etiquette

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