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When I was renting an apartment, the biggest thing I wanted was a washer and dryer inside my actual rental unit instead of having to go to a shared laundry room. I eventually got that in my last couple apartments. It’s game changing to be able to easily do laundry whenever you want.
In this story, two neighbors share one washer and dryer. It’s kind of complicated because the laundry area is inside one of the rental units. This means the neighbors have to reach an agreement about when it’s okay to enter the unit to do laundry.
As you can imagine, this could get pretty complicated and frustrating.
Keep reading for all the details.
Upstairs tenant trying to change our laundry plans without asking.
To start off – I want to say I never had issues with the upstairs tenants much.
The wife has texted me passively randomly a few times but it was always very one sided and extremely random. It never caused bad blood and she went back to very friendly everytime right after so I never think much of it. (The landlord mentioned this to me as a heads up before too.)
I currently live in a basement suite while they occupy the actual house. (Both renting from the landlords so they do not own the property or my agreement – I also moved in first.) but the laundry machines are upstairs but directly beside the door going upstairs.
They reached an agreement about laundry…for awhile.
I work shift work, so 12 hour shifts with 1.5-2 commutes each way so i’m gone minimum 15 hours on a work day and often change between days and nights so our original set up was I send my work schedule and they pick a day that works best for them and myself for my days off.
We did this for 3 months.
However, last Sunday I got up after my final night shift around 3pm to a passive aggressive text stating “today is your laundry day. We accommodate you so much. From now on, it’s Friday’s only – if you miss it too bad.”
But my laundry day was Monday… not Sunday for this very reason, so I could sleep. I never missed or changed a singular laundry day.
OP can’t accommodate this schedule.
After stating that, she said “oh ok” but still doubled down on Friday’s.
This obviously doesn’t work for me, I’m not going to wake up middle the day from nights to do laundry before another shift or on days after 15 hours do 2-3 hours laundry when i’m already tired and need to go back in less than 11-10 hours.
I also.. do weekly loads so my work wear is done for the next rotation which is normal??
OP suggested some other options.
I discussed with her my thoughts, and she back peddled saying she only chose Friday cause my availability (i’m only available 2 outta 5 weeks Friday’s lol) so I sent over options such as getting a white board to put in the room so dates aren’t forgotten, less full household communication etc.
Also sent my full work schedule (showing details like days and nights not just unavailable days.)
She either stops messaging or ignores my suggestions/work schedule completely.
OP talked to the landlord.
I did discuss with my landlord and they are willing to step in as it’s my right to have access and i’m only a singular person who uses it max 2-2.5 hours per weekly session – being within their upstairs space under 10 minutes each time.
I don’t want them to dislike me or have actual tension between us since I do like living here but I simply cannot do that routine.
I’d be 10000% okay with it if I worked Mon-Fri 9-5 but I don’t.
I’m not sure how long I wait till I let the landlords step in as August is coming up soon.
It’s unfortunate that the shared laundry is in the neighbor’s rental unit. That’s less than ideal for everyone involved.
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
This person thinks the landlord should handle it.
Another person thinks OP was almost too accommodating.
Here’s another vote for letting the landlord deal with the neighbor.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a homeowner who doesn’t think their painters should use their water spigot on the job.
Another person shares their thoughts about the laundry room.
OP is going way out of her way to try to accommodate the neighbor, but the neighbor is being super strict and unreasonable. At this point, I think OP should do laundry whenever she wants. They had a schedule going for awhile, but if that’s not working, that doesn’t mean OP can stop washing her clothes.
The neighbor is being unreasonable.
