Rude note left on an apartment washing machine

Write an apologetic letter back thanking for pointing out what your filipino maid had done and that you'll beat her tonight for her misdemeanour.

Only someone who is nicknamed Sin could think of writing such a devilish comment.

Men are more relaxed about cleaning and being tidy. Walk into a man's bachelor pad and it' won't look like an Ikea catalogue photo. There will be stuff lying around etc. However a woman's pad would be usually totally tidy.
I guess it has to do with the fact than women are "brainwashed" to be future housewives and mothers so they need to be "clean and tidy".
Also the "compulsive cleaning disorder", an obsessive compulsive disorder, is commonly found in women.

I actually think it was a foreigner who left that note. A German would write "In Germany, we do this and that and THAT in this way BECAUSE of this and that rule, so PLEASE DO IT LIKE IT IS DONE (IN GERMANY). THANK YOU.". I also have this notion that a German would be down there collecting his/her laundry when it is done. Germans are pretty punctual.

I had my share of unpleasant encounters with other foreigners. A couple of weeks ago someone gave me a lift and he dropped me off at the corner of a street and I stepped onto to the sidewalk. The minute I stepped on it, I heard this screeching sound of bike breaks. I looked up and it was an Indian guy. He gave me this ugly look and he shouted "You stupiidd coowww, what are you doing on this road", "don't you know that this is a bike road, you probably don't cause you are a foreigner bitch". I got so mad that I said "look you Indian shit, this here is the sidewalk, (I pointed out to the road) and that is the bike road (the bike road was marked but he wanted to ride his bike on the sidewalk). I said, "You can barely speak proper German and you want to teach me where to walk in Germany?". Then lots of cursing continued until he pissed off.

Hmmm...i've gone out with and lived with some very untidy women. My mother always praised my tidyness, since my 2 sisters were quite messy. Different thread maybe?!

The apartment I had in Stockholm had a sign-up sheet for washing machine usage - and very seriously they all took it too!

Ha, I'm sure my roommate who's always leaving me notes and posting ever longer lists of house rules wishes this were true.

I see nothing wrong whatsoever with taking someone's wash out of the machine - I've done it many times and had it done to me as well. No big deal as long as everything stays clean and together. I can, however, understand being a bit bothered with the fact that it was put on the floor. That's one thing in a "home" setting, but in a basement laundry room... I wouldn't be thrilled. If it was in the bag, or on top of one of the machines, fine, but I can see how on the bag on the floor could be taken as a impolite - there's a psychological element of putting someone else's things on the floor, that could be interpreted as careless or disrespectful. The tone of the note was still an overreaction though.

Unless, of course, there were some seriously sexy underwear in the pile of washing.

Just had a cool idea, and one that an entrepeneur wannabe might take on board. A large, mesh sack that would completely fill the washer drum. You slap all your washing into it and set it running. If anybody needs to use the washing machine afterwards, they simply lift out the whole bag and slap it into the top of the washer and it stays there, complete, - e.g. your silk ties, suit trousers, suspender belts, panties, sweatshirts - remain untouched by other hands. Cool or what?

I used to have one of those when I was writing up my thesis and didn't have time for laundry. I brought it to the laundrette on my way to college in the morning and collected it on my way home. I had a little mesh bag for my delicates so the little man whose laundry it was wouldn't touch them.

What if the "some seriously sexy lingerie" belonged to a guy who likes to cross-dress ?

Hi EOF,
I tend to agree with Bluedave myself - you really shouldn´t have put the clean clothes anywhere near the floor - on top of the machine is far nicer!!
- in fact, if you wanted to be an absolutely perfect neighbour, you could put them (temporarily, you understand) in YOUR washing basket until they are collected/until your washing is done and you need it again yourself.
I must say though, that I do not the hint of racism that was in the note "they" left - who cares where you come from???
Never mind though, just don´t let it escelate, okay?

What if the "some seriously sexy underwear" belonged to a toothless and frail little old lady who smelled of mothballs who liked to dress in "some seriously sexy underwear" to try to reclaim her youth ?

Admittedly there may be an element of risk involved.

The bottomline is, you should be careful with whose "seriously sexy underwear" your sniffing in the laundry room .

I was always told that thse mesh bags were to stop the rough and tumble of the wash cycle and also to stop bra underwires from destroying the washing machine?

jeez, reread the original post, nothing was put on the floor! It was all put in the plastic bag and then on the floor, not like the OP threw everything on the cement floor! They put it all in the bag and placed the bag on the floor! No laundry was hurt in this discussion, only egos!

I always thought they were to stop the washing machine from destroying my bras but I suppose either way works.


No, actually things were put ON the flat bag. Not inside it.

Fighting Over A Washing Machine

It served a dual purpose. I didn't want that little man getting his grubby mitts all over my undergarments, and presumably he didn't want my underwires destroying his machines.

If it really bothers you that someone else handles your laundry (it bothers me!), then that person should just make sure that he/she is there when the cycle finishes. If they can't, then they have to accept the consequences. This person sounds immature and racist even though they're foreign themselves.. doesn't quite make sense, unless they wanted to have a poke at the Germans and added (or are you foreign?) to discount you from the snide comments..
Anyways, at least you have vented and have decided upon a course of action (none). Let us know if it happens again so that we can advise you

Personally, if it were me, I might also have left such a note because I'd be well well pissed off if you put my stuff on the floor - bag or no bag. I think its pretty common to not be at the machine when the cycle is finished and to take other peoples laundry out of the machine. In all the places I've lived in here that's the way it's been done. Granted, people usually leave a basket or something to deposit the stuff in but if not, the logical thing to do would have been to leave it on top of the washing machine or dryer. You had these two possibilities but you chose the floor - why would you do that?

On another note, once I left my stuff in the dryer and when I came back to collect it the next day and was panicking that the stuff would be in a crumpled heap in my laundry basket, I found that somebody very very nice and sweet had actually folded everything extremely neatly and placed it in my basket.

For what it's worth: In my last shared laundry room there was a sign-up list in two hour shifts, allowing you to do two loads of washing. If you weren't there within ten minutes after your slot began (Sounds familiar? Yep, like the Wiesn) the machine was considered available. If your clothes were still in there ten minutes after the next shift began the next person had the express permission to remove them to your - mandatory - laundry basket.
We only had trouble with one person who complained that we had taken her drying down (yes, folded and stacked in the basket). Considering that it had been hanging there all weekend while she was out skiing I did very politely tell her to shut up.
Speak to your house management about time slots if they aren't already in force.

to be fair, when i read this i assumed the plastic bag was some flimsy wee thing, that when stuffed with wet clothes would probably fall over and spill if left on a washing machine as it shakes?

What... I mean WHAT is the point of sniffing seriously sexy CLEAN underwear? This is just too perverse for words.

I can't say I gave it much thought as I was in a rush, but I guess it was because I normally move the stuff directly from the washing machine to the dryer, so I did similarly for the other person (pushing the bag over to in front of the dryer).

Putting the stuff on the top of the washing machine or dryer would have just cost more time, for both me, and the person loading the dryer.

I really had no idea that a person would give a damn or not, whether they happened to be on the floor or on top of a maschine, so long as protected from getting dirty.

I guess, having studied electronics in college, it's also my instinctive nature to avoid putting wet items on top of electrical machinery!

Unlike a laundry box, you cant just lift a plastic bag with clothes on top, on top of the machine either. It's not rigid. You need to transfer all the items somewhere temporarily. Then put the plastic bag on top of the machine, and then transfer the items back onto the plastic bag.

And as I said, I wasn't too sure about whether the bag was intended for the clothes. It was just a plastic bag, the kind you purchase for 20c in a supermarket, and it was left on the dryer, not near the the washing machine in particular.

I guess the one thing we have learned today is that this has nothing to do with German washing machine etiquette but is a hotly debated topic everywhere.

Personally, I don't touch other people's laundry and I don't like other people touching mine. I don't leave my laundry until the last minute so if someone does leave their stuff in too long it's no big deal, I just come back later, I'm just easy going like that. I also realize if I don't get it out in time people will remove it for me and if not provided with a basket, the clothes may well end up on the floor. I don't like it but I accept that not everyone sees things the way I do.

My verdict: neither you or the note leaver were acting in a particularly neighbourly or consciensous manner but neither of your behaviour is any different than what goes on in laundry rooms everywhere.

In my opinion, it's fair enough to take the laundry out of the machine. Ok, on the floor on a bag may not be the best place but time is money and people have better things to do all day than hang around the laundry room. (even if there's a chance of checking out the neighbours' underwear).

You mean like posting on TT? Everyone who has time to post on TT also has time to put some fucking clothes on top of the washing machine instead of on the floor next to it. It is about wanting to. Not having time is just an excuse in my opinion.

That's a bit of an unfair assumption. People can be busy at some points in time, and not busy at others.

And I think the vicar's point is people often don't have the time to be waiting around for others to come down and pick up their finished laundry.

If I had any idea it was a big deal, I clearly would have put the laundy on top of the machine, for all the difference it would have made.

Yes, but putting the clothes on the washing machine would have cost you an additional minute or two max. Seriously. I do not know who you were talking to online that was so important but one or two minutes? Unless it was the president of some country I doubt they couldn't have waited a little (and if it was I doubt you would have done laundry in the first place). I do get you did not do this to piss someone off, but time is not really a good excuse. I understand you did not realize this would even bother someone, and that it was an honest mistake.
But I hope that this topic has shown that it would have been an issue for others too and that your neighbor (except for their racist tendency) is not really that unusual for being annoyed by what you did.

Basic hygiene rules Mr eof. Basic hygiene rules.

I get my wife to do all of the washing so I clearly have no real say here, but if my wife had returned to the wash room to find her CLEAN laundry dumped on the floor then I would expect her to inform me so I could arrange that this never happened again. If you get my drift.

Well I can certainly see from your posts and some others that some other persons would similarly annoyed, whereas I was not aware before of this attitude.

I don't think I've read anything to make me accept they really have any entitlement to be annoyed though, or especially to write rude notes (with racist tendencies or otherwise) about it.

There doesn't seem to be any real basis for annoyance other than some strange psychological notion that the floor is inherently bad and top-of-the-machine is inherently preferable.

I guess that is some form of weird etiquette I was talking about, although clearly not a specificly-German one!

Oh crap. So this is all about racism now is it? They are probably Nazis you know. I would contact your local, friendly policeman if I were you

But it wasn't DUMPED on the floor, and there was nothing unhygenic about the way they were left - unless someone can point out something to me that I am somehow missing.

There's more than a slight difference between dumping clothes on the floor, and layering the floor with a plastic bag, and putting the clothes in a pile on top of the plastic bag, making sure none touch the floor.

How is this so unhygenic, especially seeing as it was only going to be for a short period of time?

People get annoyed for all kinds of things, they do not need an entitlement from you or anyone else, and that does not make their being annoyed any less valid. Just look at all the crap TTers get annoyed over in Germany every single day.
Guess you would also not understand if someone asked you not to sit on their bed, or take off your shoes when you walk into their house. Just some strange psychological notion... Who gets to decide what is weird and what isn't? I bet you have some habits that others would find pretty weird. Just because you don't feel the same way does not make it weird.
By the way, you even mentioned a neighbor once put your clothes in their basket and you appreciated it. Maybe that could have given you a slight hint that that is the decent thing to do, not put them on the floor, on plastic bag or otherwise.

It would appear it's all about cultural differences.

From an English/Irish male perspective - putting clothes on a plastic bag on the floor is no different from putting clothes on top of the washing machine, seems entirely rational to me and any other point of view is clearly bonkers.

From a rich persons perspective - who cares what the poor do with their washing.

There's a difference between feeling annoyed, and feeling entitled to get annoyed at others.

I get to decide what's weird in my own head, and I get to decide the etiquette on my own terms in my own apartment. I fully accept I don't get to decide what's weird for others. But that works both ways.

We're dealing with a situation involving a communal washing machine in a communal area, and someone who didn't leave any clear container, or any procedures or clear indication by which to deal with the clothes they had yet to pick up.

In these cases, I don't think a person is in too entitled to get angry at the other person like they did, whatever annoyance they might feel. Their annoyance is their own business and their own problem to deal with, unless some sort of common etiquette was broken.

Maybe said person was chatting on the internet too, which is why they didn't come back to offload the machine.

Whether it's on top of the bag or not, you need to accept that this person did not like their things being on the floor. They have a right to get annoyed if they want to. Lord knows, I'd be bothered too. No one likes seeing clean clothes on the floor, regardless of whether there's a plastic bag acting as a 'buffer' or not. When I was at uni, machines were at a premium in the halls launderette. People often mis-timed their cycles and washing was left in machines. If there was a machine you wanted, you just put the stuff in the nearest empty dryer. Person came back, saw the machine was in use again, looked in the dryers, found their washing, crisis averted.

It happened. Get over it. The person thought you were rude for putting their washing on the floor, you thought their note was rude. Each action cancels the other out. That's what life is about, people pissing each other off. Forget about it and move on.

So you piled the clothes ON a plastic bag on the floor and not IN a pastic bag? Correct?

...IN Munich ON your own?

Grrr. Why are people assuming I was just "chatting" on the internet, and thus was in rush. As it happens, I wasn't chatting to anybody. But I'm not going to start getting into my personal affairs just because people are being uncharitable with their assumptions.

a. I was in a rush. The reasons are irrelevant.

b. Irrespective of this, I didn't know there was any expectation to put clothes on top of a dryer, and not in the manner I did.

c. I couldn't care less they hadn't unloaded their machine. I was just annoyed to receive an insulting note, and venting a bit on TT, and wondering what on earth I did wrong, because I genuinely didn't understand how anyone could be so annoyed over something so seemingly benign.


It's just a discussion. There are no deeper psychological or emotional issues at stake! That's what we do on internet discussion boards - discuss things, right?


I thought that was pretty clear from all my posting thus far.

Exactly - it's a public amenity, and when the cycle comes to an end it's fair enough to remove it if there is no sign of the previous user. I see my laundry as my responsibility and if I'm not around to take care of it I accept that someone else will.


But realistically there are times and situations in life where one has to. I've spilt stuff over work clothes hours before I have to wear them and while I'm rushing to get them through the washer and dryer in time I've had to empty machines that have come to a stop but still have other people's washing in. As someone pointed out earlier - it actually makes more sense for the person having to assume somebody else's responsibility to complain than the other way around...


I'd say taking laundry out of machines is pretty much normal procedure in laundry rooms, whereas writing anonymous and aggressive notes is not. I'd say it's far from normal actually and it would piss me off too.

You clearly are not familiar with http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

Ok, I confess I didnt read each and evey post on here but I assumed you placed the clothes IN the bag and then placed the bag on the floor. I can understand why someone would get get annoyed now. Just image the rodents, dust and bugs that could have easily crawled/flown into their clothes pile? *shudders*

Not forgetting the vampire bats and snakes...

The same rodents, dust and bugs that could easily crawl/flown equally so into a laundry basket?

Or indeed for that matter, probably, clothes stacked on top of a machine also.

Well, eof, I think it is justified for people to get a little upset at you dumping their clothes on the floor, albeit on a plastic bag. I would have...sorry... my wife would have done and understandably so.

Well, that is just not true. The bugs that fly, yes. But crawling bugs can much more easily access something lying on the floor than something elevated in a basket or on top of the washing machine.

I think we've now fully established that the said clothes were placed rather than 'dumped'.