Where we used to live in St. Gallen you could do laundry in the building 7 days a week, and there was a schedule. Usually you got two hour slots, but could block off more time. The system seemed to work quite well.
Now I'm in Zug, the building is very nice. There are two laundry rooms, but no time on Sunday, and people block off hours of time on Friday and Saturday.
To me this makes no sense, as the laundry room is in the basement and no one lives down there. This is not a noise issue.
Well it could be, if people use the giant air conditioner/fan they have to blow dry your clothes instead of the traditional electric dryer, which makes far less noise.
I'm thinking about writing a letter of complaint to the company that owns the apartment.
I don't have a Hausefrau and my girlfriend and I both work. No one wants to run and try to do clothes when we come home during the week. Obviously everything is closed on Sunday, which often leaves Saturday to rush about doing errands. I don't see why we can't do laundry on Sundays. It makes no sense. If I am not bothering anyone, it is no one's business when I wash my damn underwear.
If I write a letter of complaint or request to extend laundry hours until Sunday, does this logic even phase Swiss people or do I need to use some special language to explain how I'm being "oppressed" or some nonsense?
I could not agree more. It is a completely meaningless and pointless, petty rule. You can try reasoning with your landlord, but I would not hold your breath
This is one of the classic things to check before you rent a flat, as is the fixed laundry day thing that results in you having to negotiate with your manager to work from home on Tuesday afternoons...
There doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rule, some buildings allow it, others don't.
Is the laundry open on the Sunday or locked up? In our building when we had the time-booking system there wasn't provision for Sunday but the room was open and the washing machine and dryer were operational.
It was a kind of "early bird catches the worm" free-for-all thing on Sundays.
Alternatively, pick an evening after work, I know you said you didn't want to do the washing after work but if you set a load off as soon as you get in, you could probably fit in 3 or 4 loads before bed time if you use the short programme.
The owners/agents believe that tenants don't have sufficient time to do their washing on Sundays, because they are too busy mowing lawns and washing cars.
we are designated two wash days in a row every two weeks. lovely with two young children under 3 and one who is a blowout prone infant . i talked with one of my other neighbors and asked if it's really a problem to wash on sundays. she said in a hushed voice, "yeah, yeah, you can wash on sunday." my interpretation is that we technically shouldn't, but in practice people do. i have observed every other unit in the building occasionally washes a load on sunday. i always wash a load or two on sunday lest the dirt and food and poo bake into their clothes .
Our laundry day is Wednesdays from 1 to 5 pm and it's a nightmare. When my husband asked the concierge for another day, she asked him, "Where exactly is your wife?" (Ahhhh!!!) We work so having to take a half day off to do this is so lame. And there is also no washing on Sundays here. The nosy concierge lives on our stairwell and is always poking her nose into peoples' business. So no sneakies on Sundays
Hmmmm, could be worth a try to send an ultra polite registered letter to the gerance with your request. Might want to avoid problems...(I think I'll do that myself)
Yes, I've often wondered if and when the Swiss "system" will finally catch up with the need for convenience in modern life, when it comes to things like store hours, allowing laundry on Sundays and making kids go home for lunch.
It just seems to me that there are so many rules and ways here that are outdated and make life unnecessarily more difficult.
Good observation...a "system" that seems to conscript women's choices. In other words, based upon the assumption of single-earner households or in-home servants--neither appealing to me personally.
Living in Zurich is a different story, though. The supermarkets (even the tiddly Migros near us) is open until 7pm Mon-Fri then if we need shopping on Sunday, we've got three railway stations with supermarkets open until late.
Most people I know can do laundry on a Sunday and, as for the schools and their lunchtimes; the city of Zurich now operates "Blockzeiten" (block times) so the kids are starting and finishing school at the same times and most schools in the city have been offering a lunch facility for the last few years.
For finicky-rules-avoidance I find I am much better off here in Zurich but I guess that's the same all over the world - the large cities are more geared up for a modern lifestyle than the more rural areas.
when I moved into my new flat, the assigned laundry day was 0700 - 1400, so it was completely impractical. It's really disturbing how some things in Switzerland are built around the concept of a stay-at-home adult.
I noted several other allocations that either weren't being used and a couple that were not assigned. What really pissed me off though is that some people with smaller apartments have 3-4 blocks of time each week to do laundry. I have one of the biggest apartments and all I got is a 7 hour window? I asked to have my time changed, citing the reasons and making suggestions (Sunday isn't an option because nobody can do laundry on Sunday).
One day after work, I spotted a time slot that was assigned to someone who's name didn't appear on any mailboxes. So I tried to snag it. Nobody was using the laundry room at the time. I got in there, threw my clothes in the machine, and then realized, I had no idea how to run the damned thing. It was some old bucket with weird nobs and gadgets sticking out of it. So it was a failed attempt. I would need 'someone' to show me how the bloody thing worked.
Here it is a month and a half later. Still no response to my request to change wash day. I ended up a few weeks ago buying a washer and dryer and putting it in my reduit. Before I did that though, I sent a letter to the landlord telling them why I needed to buy my own unit. Technically they should have approved it. Haven't heard back on that yet either.
Not every building will let you have them and not every apt even has space for them (or the hookups). And you have to get permission from the landlord in so as to not invalidate your house insurance.
It's also stupid that you are paying for the washing machine (in the "extra costs" of the bldg) and then you have to pay on top of that for your own machine--just because they assign stupid times or refuse to allow washing on Sundays. What sort of noise does a washing machine create anyway?
Our washday is Tuesday (which means Monday 17h until Tuesday 17h), which was fine, but two years ago I bought a Candy washer/dryer and removed the bidet and put it there, much more convenient, but I never use it on Sundays/holidays before 12PM out of respect for my neighbors.
I mean what disturbing noise could a washing machine make during the day or evening on Sundays (and a lot of the time the washing machine is in the basement anyways!). Our bathroom has space for a machine, which we are going to get in Italy as soon as we get a chance to get down there. It's just kinda dumb that we'll have to pay twice for washing machine useage. But not working from home every Wed. should be "priceless."