Laundry 2 times a month, would you manage?
We moved to our building in a few months ago. The laundry room works in a 2 week rotation. For us we need to do 2 loads per week. When a person is finished it writes his/her name on the sheet, letting the other people know that their turn is over. Usually we don’t use our days because if the laundry room is vacant on a Friday or Saturday we use it then. Now there is a “funny” guy or girl that tries to pick on anything....the first one was the washing machine not being cleaned... ok not problem, I admit, mea culpa. The other is leave the sheet of paper for me to write my name on it... I mean get a life....
Nope grateful for my own machine!
No, I could not manage and I find it ridiculous that anyone would be expected to (especially if they have kids!).
When my husband and I were looking for a new apartment, I was amazed at how irrational and inconvenient some of these laundry plans were. I mean, it's bad enough that so many places don't allow you to do laundry on Sundays -- the one day of the week when there's often not much else to do (especially when the weather's bad).
I think that any apartment building where tenants are only allowed to do laundry twice per month is DEFINITELY in need of more machines. Sadly, though, it seems that a lot of landlords here aren't big on making updates.
I share your pain. We have had the same issues here, ours being that we can never secure a slot in the evening due a block 'cartel'. As soon as our rota is up the same names appear on every evening slot. Also we too have been singled out for 'not keeping the laundry room clean' accusations, even bringing our dog into it. I mean, simply not true. My dog simply doesn't do laundry! The offending neighbour also told us how we should clean the laundry and patronisingly added that this was the way things are 'done in Switzerland'. It took me all my time not to offer that in Scotland we have become accustomed over the last civilisation to having laundry facilities plumbed into our homes and that that is how it 'is done' where we come from.
Still mad but getting over it; hoovering the life out of the laundry as noisily as I can with a big cheesy gruezi whenever I see neighbour - an act of childish defiance. . x
Wow, a laundry room threat on a forum focussing on Switzerland. Now that's going to be interesting.
Where is the pop corn?
P.S. Ruska, I understand your concern. Please don't mind me.
yea. this has been done to death. been there, done it. we now have our our machine. only advice to give is what saved us, be nice to your neighbors, chat up with the little old ladies and give them your sob story (which, btw is the same as everyone elses ) then maybe your neighbors will give a little knock on your door when they are done early so you can through something in quickly. otherwise, invest in your own machine.
There are people who have nothing better to do, ignore them or if they keep complaining about silly things tell them to get lost and stop harrassing you (a bit exagerated I know), once they know you stand up for yourself they'll back away
... and here I thought Scottish dogs were highly-trained, and able to perform common household tasks for their owners ...
Hope you're not vacuuming after 22:00 ...
Wow, only two loads of washing ?
Our first apartment had a 10 day off, 3 day on structure, no washing on Sundays, and we are a family of 5 - in winter it would be about 14 loads of washing....(including towels, sheets etc)...
Twice in close succession, the new (bachelor) neighbour who was prior to us on the roster failed to remove his washing from the room on our scheduled day, and what's more, had locked the room and removed the key...
The second time he did it, I got my husband to take our 14 loads of washing down and pile them outside the door of the wash-room, just so that he had an idea of the enormity of his sins
I have no idea why we had such an archaic system, or why we tolerated it...but I know my diary for those two years was scheduled according to the washing days!
I did not feel that anyone else suffered as badly as we did - almost all the rest had swiss relatives and I swear they just took their washing elsewhere on the 'in-between' times...
I have just come back from LA, where my husband's condo had 12 washers and driers to service each block; each block consisting of about 40 apartments. I was there for three weeks and do a lot of washing. Not once did I encounter any problems whatsoever. There were no rotas, nor signs. Everyone just got on with it and it worked absolultely fine.
If builders of apartment blocks are going to provide shared laundry facilities then they have to ensure that they are adequate for the demands and needs of the tenants.
When we lived in Zug, it was in a block that was due to be redeveloped and, shortly after we moved in, the only other remaining tenants (eldery Swiss couple) moved out. (Coincidence!)
Anyway, I thought whooooppppeeeeee - no laundry blues, having heard so many tales of woe on here. Sadly, that was to be short-lived, as one day I received a knock on the door from the elderly Swiss lady who had moved out, complaining that I had left my washing in the machine ... it transpired that she was still coming back to do her washing!!
Assuming the apartment building had a locked door for entry, how was she getting in? Illegal key? Or a conspiracy with the Hauswart?
I had an issue once where the tenant before us had locked the laundry door on his washing day, and left it that way. When I knocked on his door (for about 15 minutes, well after 10 am!!) he eventually came to the door, muttered some apology, then closed & locked his apartment door to shower and completely dress (requiring a further half-hour!) before coming to unlock the laundry and take his stuff out! Don't know why he bothered with the shower, he still stank of stale sweat and cheap whisky ... perhaps all of his clean clothes had been locked in the laundry ...
Well, maybe she had kept a spare key, just in case...
Same here! I find this whole laundry room thing quite primitive , let alone the fact that most flats (at least in our building) don't even have room for your own washing machine .
That simply doesn't exist in my country! Housewives there would get insane at the thought of having to keep the family's dirty laundry for 2 weeks and then iron the whole stuff on the very same day! I mean this laundry plan thing doesn't allow you to actually be spontaneous in your own laundry routine and of course missing your washing day is like hell!
Another issue is also, how sanitary is sharing a washing machine with the whole building? No wonder that people develop allergies and skin problems... . I sometimes (think I) "sterilise" the machine by washing it empty first at the highest possible temperature, but don't always have the time to do this!
It isn't sanitary at all. Actually it's plain disgusting unless you always do your first load of laundry at 95 degrees.
That's exactly what I did back when I had a shared machine.
I already wrote about our "Bünzli" neighbours in this thread back in days of yore.
The laundry room downstairs has a single washer and tumbler - and the system is a calendar on the wall where people book slots - Sundays and Bank Holidays excluded as usual.
The same neighbour books the washing room on average for 13 hours per week - most people in the building average 3-5 hours. She also has her own washing machine in the apartment which gets used even past the 10pm watershed. The other night we were in bed at 11pm and got a perfect chorus of the spin and drain cycle - meaning Mrs nickatbasel was kept awake.
Honestly they must never have a single item of dirty laundry in the house!
Since the incident described in my original post they have been sweet to us, but lately it's getting a bit strange. Every few days Mrs Downstairs comes to our door with some naff piece of junk that their teenage kids have grown out to give to our 4 y.o. Mrs nickatbasel always gives a polite "no". I am sure it is all very nice but given their previous behaviour towards us I prefer to keep such people at arm's length.
Oh well, it provides an incentive to find a place of our own.
Cheers,
Nick
With such high quality of life standard in Switzerland, I believe most people are shocked to find out that in a large majority of apartment buildings, you have to share a laundry room with your neighbours.
Canada, US also has these problems, but there you do your laundry whenever you want. The problem in Switzerland is you have to sign up for a certain date(and hour of day) to do your laundry and most places will allow you to wash only 1x week...have heard stories of only 2x month.
First, washing your clothing after someone else sucks. Second, and most important- it is inconvenient, especially for those who work, are into sports, have kids. Only once did I have my own washer and dryer inside the apartment and it was while I was doing an internship in Switzerland, and unfortunately had to share the apartment with two other interns. Great, right? Nope. One girl (non-Swiss) left a note on my room door that I shouldn't be doing laundry more than 1-week, because I am not thinking about our planet earth and not saving energy! I 'm a jogger and every morning go for a run and after work spend 3-4x a week in the gym, don't wear the same things more than 1x a week and dirty clothing piles up quickly. I and believe most people as well, need to use the laundry more than 1x a week!
My question and would really like to hear answers from the Swiss, why such a type of laundry system? Why is it the norm to have 1 or 2 washing machines/dryers for an entire apartment building and run a laundry schedule?
As usual it is cost. Cheaper to buy one big machine than 8 small ones.
Yea, here we only have one washing machine... and I hate washing in the same machine as others.. especially when I see their terribly dirty things waiting to go in... they also said to hang our clothes on a line in the heating room, which isn't heating in the summer.. it takes two-three days for the clothes to dry. Sometimes I need them the next day, So started hanging them on a clothes rack in my appartment by the windows.. now was told I am not to bring the clothes up to my appartment. I have complained in this day and age why not buy a clothes dryer. Even told them I'm buying one when I can and put it in my appartment. But they think its energy savings and green energy not to have a dryer. Alot of times you can't wash your clothes because there's no where to hang them, lines are full.
That's kind advice. I'm having a similar problem, but I haven't been made aware of a schedule or 'rule'. All I know is that sometimes when I do my washing, I return to find that it's been 'locked' out of the laundry. I know they're trying to tell me something - I just don't know what.
Agreed, there are many models to chose from that can fit comfortably under a bathroom/toilet sink