Public laundry facilities are one thing that I will never understand and that I will not miss when I have the capability to do laundry in my own space. I think I have written on this topic before, but I also think that it merits re-examination. There's always a story when it comes to laundry-in-public. The people you meet, the messes you find, the functioning of the machines--these are all things that lead to potential stories. I can picture movie scenes from both Fight Club and Hedwig that involve public laundry facilities.
I was moved to write on this topic because of my experience tonight doing laundry. Let me state first that I absolutely hate doing laundry in my building. The stairs are unforgiving when you're carrying many pounds of soiled clothing, the machines never work as they should, and the underground laundry room is dank and somewhat creepy. So I go into any laundry-doing with a pre-disposition toward having a bad experience.
Tonight's experience wasn't necessarily bad, but it falls under the category of interesting laundry stories involving the people you meet while doing laundry. Luckily, the machines were all empty, and I got to put all of my clothes into the three washers at once. 30 minutes after pushing in those cleverly designed coin receptacles that you only find on washing machines and pool tables, I returned to the basement to transfer my clothing from the washers into the dryers. When I wash shirts, I shake them out before putting them into the dryer, and I only dry them for a couple minutes before hanging the dress shirts on wooden hangers and hanging the other shirts on a clothes rack to dry. I started this transferring of clothes with the shirt washer because it takes the most time to do. After transferring about half of my shirts, this woman enters the laundry room with a small pile of wet clothes, and she begins to put them into a dryer.
OK, so I have already said there are three washers, but it must also be said that there are three dryers. While it may be ugly and creepy, this is a functional laundry system because there are an equal number of washers and dryers. If you use three washers, you can expect also to use three dryers, because that is what you're going to need to house all of your clean, wet clothes.
So I operate under the assumption that since I am the only person doing laundry, I will have ample dryer space for my three washers full of clothes. But now I am panicking because this woman doesn't seem to use the same sort of reasoning that I use. So she looks at me as I stare at her stealing my heat, and she realizes that maybe she is doing something that is not quite right. She asks, "are you going to use all of these?" Yes, I reply. I have three washers full of clothes, I reply. "Can you use only two?" No, I say. I have alot of clothes, see? "Well, can't you put those two together into one?" No, I again say. See, I have alot of clothes, and I need all of the dryers. "Oh, ok, I guess I will wait, how long you going take?" I don't know, as long as it takes the dryers to dry? I don't know how long they take. "Hmm, ok, I wait." But don't you need a washer too? "No, I already wash them. I just need dryer now."
What?!? This is the real motivator for my story here tonight. It was bad enough that she attempted to steal my dryer, but it was for clothes that she didnt even wash in the washer. She washed the clothes in her apartment, in the sink, or something. It was a small pile, and she had already washed them. I was perplexed. Why would you wash them by hand and then use the electric dryer to dry them? This was an Asian woman, and I have learned from recent discussions that some Asian cultures seem not to use washing machines (is that true?) But if it's a cultural thing, how does the dryer fit in? And if it is not a cultural thing, again, how does the dryer fit in? And what makes anyone, who can clearly see a person whose 3 loads of wash have just finished and who is currently in the midst of transferring all of his three loads into the three dryers he has opened, think she can use one of the dryers before the guy who is in the midst of using them does?
Again, though, I go back to my first paragraph--I don't get public laundry. I wonder if I was the one who was wrong in this situation? Should I not use all of the dryers at once, even if I need them? Should I have let her have the dryer she needed? What is the proper etiquette in this situation? Is there a protocol to follow? Is my thinking I was right somehow a manifestation of self-righteousness or a sense of entitlement? Or was she really a pushy, socially inept woman who wanted to steal what was rightfully mine?
As the owl once said, "I guess we'll never know." Or maybe we will, if you, reader, provide some thoughts by clicking on that little link right down there ---> that asks you to leave a comment.
4 comments:
I don't think it's too unreasonable that she had washed some clothes by hand, but I'm a bit stumped by the dryer part of the story. My question is, did she have clothes or underwear? Did you notice what kind of clothes? Many people - especially Asian women, as I've learned, wash their underwear by hand. This is because (1) underwear is often more delicate than other items of clothing and (2) because some more traditional Asian women are embarrassed by having others see their underwear. When I lived with another girl in China, she wouldn't hang her underwear out on the (walled-in) balcony to dry, but rather would just hang it around her room. This is to prevent unwanted pregnancy by someone seeing your underwear, I guess.
Anyway, so was it underwear? Because perhaps she wanted to use the dryer so that she wouldn't have to hang her panties out to dry. Most people in Asia don't use dryers - this is what I find strange about the story. People have washing machines, but no dryers. So the washing is done by machine, the drying by hanging stuff up outside. This lady puzzles me because she seems to be doing it backwards. Maybe she just likes the feeling of warm clothes, who knows?
But as for the question of using three machines at once, I say it depends on how desperately fast you need to do that laundry. If you've got all day to just hang around your house, I say yes, it's a bit rude to take up all the machines at once. If you are really rushed, then I guess it's understandable, but my advice is, don't wait so long to do laundry. It's gross.
I should probably also say that while race really shouldn't be taken into account when determining someone's laundry habits, I totally get where you're coming from.
lfg, I think you hit it on the head with your simple yet insightful observation--this really would all have been a non-issue had I not waited until i had no clean underwear or socks. so, lesson learned.
lfg, I think you hit it on the head with your simple yet insightful observation--this really would all have been a non-issue had I not waited until i had no clean underwear or socks. so, lesson learned.
Post a Comment