People leaving belongings in changing rooms to reserve them at swimming pools

[Bellad19]

So our local swimming pool have just refurbed the changing rooms. There are no communal areas to get changed at all, it’s very small in there. There’s cubicles for individual people and then 2 really large family sized changing rooms. (Disabled changing rooms are also available separate from the 2 family ones) then there’s a couple of rows of lockers so there isn’t really any room for you to get changed out in the open and no benches for you to put stuff on so even if you were to squeeze in a corner you’d have to put your clothes etc on the floor.
We are a family of 5, we have 3 young children. When getting out of the pool it’s always amazing if we manage to get a family changing room as we fit all of us in and husband and I can quickly get all of the children changed before sorting ourselves out and they have a baby changing table in there too! We normally do try and get out of the pool 10 mins before the session ends so we can get a family changing room and be done before everyone else gets out so someone else can use it. On the occasions family changing rooms haven’t been available, I’ve gone in a small individual cubicle, had to leave the door open as no room, get 2 children dressed and my husband gets the other one dressed and then I watch all 3 children(while I’m still in my swimming costume) while my husband gets dressed and then he takes them out to the cafe while I get dressed.(or vice versa) It’s fine just a bit more hassle! Sorry for such a long back story I was just trying to set the scene 😂 but I was just wondering on peoples opinions on the correct swimming pool ‘etiquette’ I guess is the right word for it?
Last weekend when we went, we got out of the pool ten minutes early as usual and both family changing rooms had people’s belongings left in them, I would assume to ‘reserve’ the changing room? Another lady who got out at the same time as us went and informed reception about the changing room she was trying to use and the manager came and put all the belongings from the changing room into a basket and left it outside the door so the lady could use it, manager says she doesn’t condone this and there are signs asking people to please not do it. By this point we already had 2/3 kids dressed in one of the smaller changing rooms so we just carried on without mentioning that the other changing room was also ‘reserved’
I guess I’m just wondering what people’s opinions on reserving changing rooms are? I don’t think we are entitled to a big changing room just because we have children, it’s first come first served, but i don’t like causing a fuss and would feel a bit wary of using a changing room with other people’s belongings in!
Sorry this is so long winded, I’ve tried to word it as best as I can and explain myself so I don’t get any hate lol. This is my first
Time posting xx

Thank you so much guys for the responses! 😘

I ignore the clothes and get changed. When they come back and whine that they need to get into ‘their’ cubicle I state that they can wait and should have used lockers. Infuriatingly groups of teenage boys do this and I’ve put their stuff outside the cubicle, much to their outrage. I hate our local pool, there’s a men’s room and a mixed room so the showers are always full of men/older boys/dads and sons who could easily be next door.

I woud pick all the left stuff up and hand it into lost property on my way out.

I'd either move the stuff, or shove it to one side and use the changing room anyway. Only time I wouldn't do that would be if they'd just had to pop to the loo or something.

Could you suggest that a member of staff goes into the changing rooms during the session and clears out the stuff in the changing rooms? They could even put signs up saying that anything left unattended like that will be taken to lost property with a possible fine for its return.

I've changed in a "reserved" cubicle before. It was during swimming lessons and one selfish family had left all their stuff in a cubicle meaning that children getting ready for the next lesson would have to wait for them to finish their lesson and get changed! I was changing my dc in their and the CFs started banging on the door. I ignored them, took my time to get DC ready and then told CFs they weren't allowed to reserve a cubicle.

@Balkinfly I had almost the exact same thing only the lady wouldn’t stop shaking the cubicle door and started shouting that I was a thief who can going to steal her daughter’s iPad. I was 8 months pregnant and helping my daughter get changed after swimming because I’d had enough-the other kids lesson finished 20 minutes after ours and the whole group of them did the same. She went and got the manager and was away to call the police apparently when I hobbled out (on crutches due to spd). The manager suggested next time I go to the desk and ask them to take action to which I pointed out I’d done that for the last 3 weeks running and they’d done nothing. Then told the woman to count herself lucky I had piled the stuff to one side instead of putting my dd’s wet stuff on it and that next time I’d be chucking it out into the corridor. Withdrew my daughter two weeks later as the management did f all and I was too sore and hormonal to deal with the drama.

Is just ignore the abandoned stuff and use the changing room anyway.

In fact, I'd probably pick it up and take it the reception as 'lost property' because I found it totally abandoned in a changing room (rather than in a locker). No one working in a swimming pool thinks reserving changing rooms by leaving your clothes in them is ok.

And that forces the guilty party to go to reception and ask for their clothes. The embarrassment of that might make them behave differently in future.

I've reported to reception and nothing ever changes.

If there are no free cubicles now I use one that's been reserved. If they don't like it, tough. They are bloody lucky I don't chuck their things in the pool.

Hand the left behind clothing in at receptionist your way out (take a spare plastic bag for the purpose, since it's likely to be something you come up against).

That forces both the centre and the cheeky fuckers to deal with the issue, rather than just ignoring it. It's easy to just leave it there and not have to deal with the abuse from arseholes. Handing the clothing in removes that option. Doing so every single time (especially if everyone starts doing it) will make it so inconvenient for the centre management that they do something about it.

I've put belongings in the wet towel bins at the leisure centre before now. There's plenty of lockers provided so there's no excuse to leave clothes in a cubicle.

I've also removed towels from sunbeds by pools before when it's obvious they're not even at the pool!

This always happens at my ds swimming lessons, drives me mad! I always get so tempted to dump them on the floor outside but haven’t been brave enough yet.

Everyone on here is being uncharacteristically polite for Mumsnet. I would want to chuck their stuff onto the wet floor, the selfish sods.

Who takes a kids ipad to a swiiming pool!

You'd expect an iPad to be stolen or broken if you left it unattended in a swimming pool changing room.

What kind of idiot doesn't lock it away in those handily provided lockers? Do these people also leave their handbags in the cubicle unattended, complete with phone, purse and keys? Or do they manage to put that somewhere sensible and safe?

Handing it in as lost property is genius! That really forces the guilty party to go an announce that they left it in a changing room.

Leaving your stuff in one while you shower isn't acceptable either imo.

I hate this as well.

One time I went on in and used the family cubicle which had stuff in it, I had got out 10 mins early. My 3 kids and I were getting changed when a women starting shouting and banging on the door. I sped us all up but when I opened the door she demanded to check my stuff Incase I took something from her stuff.

Even if something had of been missing, anyone could have taken it the whole time she was in the pool. That's what the hundreds of lockers are for.

I complained at reception but they didn't give much of a response.

I've seen the 'dont leave stuff' signs too. No excuse for ignoring unless illiterate. Just ignore the piles of stuff, go in anyway and if confronted just point at sign and walk off. Sillycow will hopefully learn.

@cologne4711 I do that almost every week . Always forgetting my £1 and I cba lugging all the stuff around.

Leaving your stuff in one while you shower isn't acceptable either imo.

I agree. It's just as easy to get your stuff out of the locker after showering as before. And a quick shower can still be 5-10 mins when no one else can use the cubicle.

I had this a while ago, it was the last cubicle and people were complaining, I just grabbed the pile of stuff and shoved it on top of the lockers (not full height so you could clearly see the stuff) and used the cubicle. Other women were complaining how rude I was to move the stuff!

It was worse in our old pool
People would arrive, set up camp in the large cubicle whilst their kids had lessons.

This happens at my Dd swim lessons every week, literally every cubicle has stuff in with nobody around as the lesson endings are staggered by 5 mins across the two pools. We stand shivering looking for a cubicle while half sit empty with people stuff in them. I want to move their stuff but worry about the potential argument/abuse/accusation of stealing or missing things from their belonging so have never been brave enough to do it.
Wish the staff would enforce the rules but they don't say a word

Ah someone I know was complaining about just this situation at our local leisure centre. She used a ‘reserved’ locker and when the person who’d left their clothes in wanted to get in for their stuff, she shoved it under the door at them and it got wet from the floor. She had no fucks to give. Full respect.

@DimplesMcGee

That might have been me.

I just ignore the clothes generally.