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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to have taken my neighbors washing off my line?

49 replies

lola88 · 04/04/2014 08:45

I live in a flat and we have the old style poles and ropes everyone has there own section, I went to put my washing out but my neighbor had put her washing on my lines so I took it down folded it in her basket and left it at her door (she works so wasn't in and I don't have a number). She came up and told me I had no right to touch her clothes and should have left them until she got home (6 hours later). Her argument is our other neighbor uses my line so didn't see a problem however she only uses it after asking to check if I need it.

She's still giving me dirty looks and told our other neighbor I touched her thing property and I had no right. Was I unreasonable to take the clothes down? If it happens again i'd be tempted to just open her pegs so I don't touch her precious clothes and leave them on the bloody grass tbh

OP posts:

Leggingsandtrainersnonono · 04/04/2014 10:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SavoyCabbage · 04/04/2014 10:48

I agree with Complex.

Although the neighbour was taking the piss, I would have tried to find another solution rather than just taking it down. Like finding out if anybody else was not using theirs that day. Or holding off on washing two sets of bed sheets. Or squashing hers right up together. Or putting it on someone elses line.

Not because I think the neighbour was right but because its never good to fall out with your neighbours.

ENormaSnob · 04/04/2014 10:50

Yanbu at all

elQuintoConyo · 04/04/2014 10:56

Neighbour/neighbor? Really?

Picking up on someone's spelling - someone who might be, say, American or living in, say America - really sorry, things like that grate on me.

Anyway... OP: yanbu, your neighbour ibu and precious

SconeRhymesWithGone · 04/04/2014 11:02

Oh, and before I get corrected by the spelling police for spelling neighbor without the u, I am American.

BackforGood · 04/04/2014 11:16

Were all the lines outside completely full ?
If so, then I think fair enough that you took hers down, but equally, fair enough that she borrowed what were empty lines for a couple of hours first.
If they weren't then I think you could have hung your stuff up in another space and just asked her nicely when you next saw her.

It's difficult when you are out all day to get washing dry, so if someone were taking it down to make a point, then I'd have been really cross (if I were the neighbour), yes, but would have accepted I took a chance and then you needed it.

Of course the neighbourly thing to do, would have been to put hers back on the line once yours were dry.....

BobPatSamandIgglePiggle · 04/04/2014 11:20

I'd have done the same if they were dry - if they were still wet I'd think it was a bit petty.

MangoBiscuit · 04/04/2014 11:34

For those saying the OP shouldn't have done it, what should she have done? Where should she have hung her wet laundry? If she'd taken someone elses line, what happens when that neighbour needs their line? Should she have left her wet laundry in the basket, so she'd probably have to rewash it?

OP, I don't think YWBU. Your neighbour took a chance on you not needing your line, and it didn't pan out. Having her laundry moved was a risk she took. If she's that precious about it, then she shouldn't have used your line without checking first.

Meow75 · 04/04/2014 12:03

For those that disagree with OP's actions, why does a neighbour's laundry on a line that she didn't even ask to use get priority over OP's laundry?!

OP - don't think on it any more. As PP said, she took a gamble even if she didn't realise it. As for the attitude, pffft ... fuck you!!

LayMeDown · 04/04/2014 12:06

I can't believe there are people who think she is right to be upset. She hung her stuff on your line without permission. If she didn't want anyone to touch it she should have used her own line.
Even if there was a rake of free lines I wouldn't have rehung her stuff. Why the fuck should I? It's enough of a pain in the arse hanging out my own washing. You were nice to even fold her stuff, I would have just dumped it back in the basket. I hate doing laundry though anyone who makes it even more unpleasant is going to get pretty short shift from me.

Longdistance · 04/04/2014 12:19

Yanbu.

Don't do her bins in future either.

Sicaq · 04/04/2014 12:59

She's being very pwecious. I share a washing machine with two other flats; if one of us leaves the laundry in there the others will remove it and put it in a (clean) bag outside the door.

Better than waiting hours for them to come back from wherever just so I can do laundry. Lucky we all understand this. I used to have a housemate who got all pwecious about us "touching her stuff". Tough, in my view - don't want others touching it, then move it yourself within a reasonable time.

Stinklebell · 04/04/2014 13:09

Delaying my own washing? Waiting for it to dry? Faffing around looking for another empty line?

Yeah, right. If I want to hang my washing on my washing line, I will. Why should I fart around like that?

If someone is so precious about having their washing touched they shouldn't be so bloody cheeky as to use someone else's property without asking

complexnumber · 04/04/2014 13:17

Picking up on someone's spelling - someone who might be, say, American or living in, say America
elQuintoConyo

Apparently Americans are very reluctant to hang washing outside, so I made the decision that the OP was unlikely to be a US poster.

However, I fully accept that I was being petty on that point.

Lesleythegiraffe · 04/04/2014 13:23

I had a similar problem with communal lines. When I moved in a neighbour told me to use any line, then over the last few years the lines we usually used mysteriously became hers, then they were cut by "kids" according to her.

We had such a palaver that we bought posts and lines and now allow anyone apart from her to use them.

MiniSoksMakeHardWork · 04/04/2014 13:31

Yanbu. If you had used someone else's line yourself, and they then needed it, there would be two people in the same position of having someone else's things on their line, where would it stop if everyone needed to dry clothes that day?

I'd say consider getting a rotary drier you can put up and take down as needed. But that defeats the object of being allocated a line in a communal area as again, you will get one Person gradually taking over all the provided drying space.

quietbatperson · 04/04/2014 13:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Clutterbugsmum · 04/04/2014 14:59

Why couldn't she use her own washing line.

BlackeyedSusan · 04/04/2014 15:08

I hate people touching my clean washing... so I don't hang it out on the communal lines...

ywnbu. what the heck were you supposed to do?

Suefla62 · 04/04/2014 16:49

"Apparently Americans are very reluctant to hang washing outside, so I made the decision that the OP was unlikely to be a US poster."

It's not that we're reluctant, it's that we have restrictive covenants (certainly where we live) that ban it.

kickassangel · 04/04/2014 17:00

complex - and things like phones etc have autospell that often does American.

SconeRhymesWithGone · 04/04/2014 17:56

Sue I live in such a community too, but I discovered that several states have "right to dry laws." These include Florida where I live. I am tempted to put up a clothesline and see what happens.

Deathwatchbeetle · 04/04/2014 19:27

Given her attitude I would leave her bin alone too. I am sure you would not want to be accused of touching her bin!!!

Nennypops · 04/04/2014 19:37

If you put your stuff on someone else's line you have no right whatsoever to complain if they remove it. I imagine that if you could get into her flat and decided to store your stuff there she'd pick it up and chuck it out immediately. It's precisely the same principle.

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