My local leisure centre has two large public pools and a unisex changing area for swimmers. The changing area includes many individual cubicles, quite a few that are big enough for two or three people, three large cubicles for families, a couple of very large communal changing rooms (for school groups etc) and a couple of large disabled cubicles. There are lots of coin or token-operated lockers which are never in short supply.
I take my children to swimming lessons after school. I have three children of primary school age so the four of us usually change together in one of the family cubicles. However, I often find that one or more of the three family cubicles is unoccupied but still contains somebody's possessions - clothes hanging on hooks, shoes on the floor etc. Very often it remains in this state for half an hour or more. This means that nobody else can use the cubicle. Well, we could but the clothes seem to imply possession and I'm afraid of committing some breach of changing room etiquette by using a cubicle that has been "claimed" . Or worse, being accused of stealing something left in there. It wouldn't matter so much at a quiet time of day, but after school the place is heaving and when this happens I often have to wait for ages with wet, shivering children while I try to find somewhere suitable for them all to get dressed. AIBU to think that people should put their stuff in a locker once they have changed for swimming?