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




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:14 pm
It looks like I'll be moving into an apartment building...

1. I was told you can't have a washer and dryer in the apartment, do people seriously use the one in the basement? How does that even work?

2. What other questions should I ask before moving in?
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amother
Apricot


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:19 pm
itsmeima wrote:
It looks like I'll be moving into an apartment building...

1. I was told you can't have a washer and dryer in the apartment, do people seriously use the one in the basement? How does that even work?

2. What other questions should I ask before moving in?


Yes, people seriously use the ones in the basement. It works great. Our building has super sized, industrial machines so you can do big loads (think comforters). And instead of spending my life doing load after load, I throw in several loads at the same time, and am done.

I'm sure that you didn't intend it, but your question sounds really condescending. I'd tone it down before talking to any landlord or superintendent.
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sequoia




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:22 pm
Yes, people seriously use the ones in the basement. In fact, I am in the middle of doing laundry right now. It works great.
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watergirl




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:29 pm
OP, what do you think people do to wash their clothes if they dont use the communal machines?
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amother
Yellow


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:31 pm
I wouldnt move into an apartment without a washer dryer.
I moved out of an apartment building over 5 years ago and I still miss the lots of neighbors. The kids always had company & I always had company on shabbos.
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itsmeima




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:36 pm
I'm a country girl, forgive me!

How do you technically do it... Where do you do the folding? How do you know if the laundry room is available? How do you schlep things up and down?
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amother
Burgundy


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:36 pm
I’ve lived in an apartment my whole life. The whole basement laundry can be great because you can do multiple loads at once in large machines. It only started to be annoying when I had kids and there were actual gross stuff that needed to be washed asap. Also, I can only do laundry at night when’s husband is home to watch the kids so I’m kind of confined in that respect (kids in the laundry room are very difficult)
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cm




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:38 pm
Yes, people use the laundry room if it is safe and clean. If you don't have laundry in the building, you go to a laundromat, which is far less convenient. Either way, you can't just throw in a load whenever. You need to be more organized with scheduling laundry.
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sequoia




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:39 pm
itsmeima wrote:
I'm a country girl, forgive me!

How do you technically do it... Where do you do the folding? How do you know if the laundry room is available? How do you schlep things up and down?


You fold at home, of course.

The laundry room is always available. Do you mean how many machines are free? You go down and see.

Um... you hold your laundry bag in your hands and you go down the stairs or elevator?

Trust me, if I can do this, so can you.
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 2:44 pm
I'm not going to sugar coat. It really all depends on your life stage and level of flexibility. My mother lives in a huge high rise with a laundry room in the basement, she has a whole system worked out for how she makes sure to get the machines at the time she wants to do the wash but she only has one persons laundry so she makes it work. I asked if she wanted to move somewhere that had in unit and she said no she liked her place. I keep trying to get my father to move to a certain condo building in my area and he refuses because he says hes too old to shlep his clothes down the hall to a communal laundry room with quarters. Its all the attitude. His rental has in unit and that is important to him.

For us, our first apartment had like 2 machines for a whole building and it was really aggravating but it was just DH and I and then a baby so I used my fathers machine to do most of our laundry.
Once we outgrew that apartment, the next one was also basement laundry but each unit had their own machines. By the time we were looking to move again I was doing at least six loads a week between clothing, sheets, towels etc and really would have found it hard to share machines. We nixed condo living due to not having a washer/dryer in the unit.
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amother
Lemon


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 3:08 pm
It depends on your needs. At this point in my life, I'm doing at least 10 loads a week and it would be very challenging to do all of it out of my apartment. So it was non negotiable for me to have laundry in my apartment. I've gone through periods of several weeks when my machine wasn't working and I had to use the communal machine. It was almost always available when I needed it, but it was difficult and stressful to keep track of when my machine was going to be finished and run out to move my stuff- I have an apartment full of kids. If I didn't have a better option, I would make it work. But I would search hard before committing to it now.
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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 4:20 pm
Depending on how big the building is, there could be multiple washer/dryers in the basement.

Newer buildings generally have a washer/dryer on each floor in lieu of multiple units in the basement.

You can hire a kid to do the wash if getting out of the house is impossible because of kids.

You generally invest in some kind of hamper with wheels so that you can roll your laundry and don't have to carry it by hand.

You invest in a timer to remind you of when your laundry cycle is finished and stuff is ready to go in dryer and then be taken out of dryer. One worn around the neck is most functional or an iPhone that you would have with you.

Among civilized people, there is generally an etiquette involved with laundry. If a load is finished and someone needs the machine they unload it and pile it on top of the dryer. Or take it out of the dryer and just pile it up.

You can fold in the laundry room depending on the facilities - some have a table but you can fold towels or whatever as you removed from the dryer and just stack them on top the dryer and then put them back in your laundry basket to take home.
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itsmeima




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 6:24 pm
sequoia wrote:
You fold at home, of course.

The laundry room is always available. Do you mean how many machines are free? You go down and see.

Um... you hold your laundry bag in your hands and you go down the stairs or elevator?

Trust me, if I can do this, so can you.


Thanks! This concept is so foreign to me...
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itsmeima




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 6:25 pm
Amarante wrote:
Depending on how big the building is, there could be multiple washer/dryers in the basement.

Newer buildings generally have a washer/dryer on each floor in lieu of multiple units in the basement.

You can hire a kid to do the wash if getting out of the house is impossible because of kids.

You generally invest in some kind of hamper with wheels so that you can roll your laundry and don't have to carry it by hand.

You invest in a timer to remind you of when your laundry cycle is finished and stuff is ready to go in dryer and then be taken out of dryer. One worn around the neck is most functional or an iPhone that you would have with you.

Among civilized people, there is generally an etiquette involved with laundry. If a load is finished and someone needs the machine they unload it and pile it on top of the dryer. Or take it out of the dryer and just pile it up.

You can fold in the laundry room depending on the facilities - some have a table but you can fold towels or whatever as you removed from the dryer and just stack them on top the dryer and then put them back in your laundry basket to take home.


Thank you!! Things are starting to make sense!
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asmileaday




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 6:29 pm
It's definitely done but it's not easy! I did it for quite a few years. I would never willingly choose it again. Especially with little kids.
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pesek zman




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 6:31 pm
Apartment living is the best!! 3 words: no shoveling snow!!! Sweetest sound is someone else shoveling!
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amother
Mint


 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 6:40 pm
I've done both, I actually grew up in an apartment and lived in one when I first got married- you can hire someone to shovel your snow if you want, being able to live without anyone jumping on my head or worrying my kids are making too much noise is much more critical to me.
I'm a SAHM so I'm home a lot, I can see a full time working mother feeling differently.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 7:03 pm
using machines in the basement is 1000 times more convenient than going to a laundromat. Trust me on this.

As to how you get there...surely even in the outback you have heard of such things as elevators? Although in some very old neighborhoods there are still walk-ups, in which case laundry is the least of your problems. Groceries and babies are what you really have to think about. Living in a walk-up is not for the faint of heart.
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TwinsMommy




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 8:40 pm
I only lived in apartments before having kids so I didn't have more than a few loads of laundry a week for just the 2 of us-- but the best tip I think is to try to do laundry on a weekday during work hours (if you work part time or are a SAHM) because everyone else does after work and on weekends. I think I also did a lot of laundry on Sundays because there were hardly any Jews in our building and the non Jews generally pick Saturday over Sunday for chores in my experience. I prefer laundry baskets to bags--- when you're bringing stuff back to the apartment rather than cramming it all back into a bag, you can put it in the basket.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 06 2019, 9:38 pm
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.
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