Help, I've never lived in an apartment building!

amother

Papaya

Sun, Feb 10 2019, 12:33 am

I live in condo.

Cons:
While I was trying to nap this afternoon, my neighbors kids were riding some ride on bikes/trucks over my head.
Another neighbor wanted to borrow 6 slices of cheese erev shabbos, which was exactly the amount I had, had to decline.

So basically be prepared to tolerate everyone's noise, mess in shared hallways, lack of privacy, constantly lending stuff to everyone, meshulachim collecting money go first to appt bldgs so expect to have to open your door every two minutes, if you can afford to give is one story, but the knocking at all inconvenient hrs is another story.

We share one meter for water usage combined so everyone pays same no matter on usage or family size.

If you are doing mice proofing for your appt but your neighbor doesn't they can come right into your door.

Pros: we pay maintenance so they wash hallways/stairs. Take care of elevator repairs. Take care of garbage & snow.
If you enjoy the company, you will have lots of people.

itsmeima

Mon, Feb 11 2019, 2:57 pm

seeker wrote:

I live in a building with communal laundry room.

Good:
1. Maintenance is never your problem - you never need to arrange and pay for equipment repairs or replacement.
2. Can use several machines at once - all those memes about constant neverending laundry life? I do it all in one shot and don't need to think about laundry the rest of the week, sometimes more.
3. We have a couple of industrial-size dryers that are great.

Bad:
1. You need to figure out how/when to do it without leaving kids home alone. Our laundry room is bright, roomy, and has chairs so I do occasionally bring my kids along and set them up with something to read or play with. Other options are do it when someone else is available to stay with the kids. Also, if you prepare (sort, treat, etc) the laundry upstairs, then you really just need a couple of minutes to dump it in and start it going. Really not a big deal unless you have toddlers and then taking them anywhere is a pain in the neck.
2. Likewise you can't do it in your pajamas, etc.
3. Cost per load keeps going up, though I'm pretty sure it still compares favorably to what it would be to buy and maintain machines plus the water and electricity usage.
4. You don't get to choose the machine. There seems to be one standard industrial style machine that I see everywhere. I'm used to it. But when I did laundry by a friend with a house once, hers had all kinds of bells and whistles - not sure how much advantage it is, just that I never had the option.

Neutral, in answer to questions:
1. We have enough machines to meet demand in my building, so I never really worry about finding one available. The dryer cycle is longer than the washer cycle so once in a while on an unusually busy day I've had to wait for a dryer.
2. If your building is less equipped you could also join or start a whatsapp group for neighbors in your building and "how crowded is the laundry room today" could be a topic of conversation.
3. We have elevators so it's not much of a shlep. Friends who live in houses with stairs I think tend to do just as much shlepping (I think the people whose houses I know are about 50/50 with having machines on the same floor as bedrooms.) If the building you're looking at has no elevator and you have a family with children producing copious laundry, then yes I vote look for a different apartment.
4. Folding - I usually toss all my things from the dryer into large bags and fold at home. But there are actually tables in the laundry room that are cleaner than mine usually is and at a great height. So sometimes if I have the luxury (I.e. my kids are elsewhere) I take a good audiobook and fold in the laundry room and it's really quite peaceful.

Thanks! I found this very helpful. I can do this Smile