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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU that flatmate is washing his friend's filthy work rags in the shared machine?

146 replies

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 22:27

I am in shared accommodation at present whilst I study. There is a guy in the house who is 32 going on 16 - smokes MJ a lot, a bit of a no-hoper but pleasant enough in his own way.

Tonight, I came down to do some washing in the shared washing machine but couldn't use it as he had a load in there. It stopped 5 mins after I got there and he came running in and started to empty the machine then said he needed a plastic bag. I said why don't you use the washing basket that I bought for the house to use? He told me that the clothes weren't his but belonged to his mate who is a window cleaner and as he said this, I noticed not only grotty old joggers and T shirts but also the rags that window cleaners use coming out of the drum.

Suffice it to say that these things had been on a 90 degree wash (takes 3 hours for the machine to complete that cycle) and because I had no idea what was on those rags, I then had to put the machine on an empty hot wash with detergent and a squirt of bleach. That meant that I couldn't do my washing tonight and neither could anyone else!

AIBU to say that I don't want his mates filthy window cleaning rags to be washed in our house a) because they could have oil, bird poop or just about anything else on them and could stain any clothes put in after them and b) laundrettes are open so his mate should be using those.

I don't like confrontation but I don't want this to become a regular thing and not sure how to approach it. I just didn't want to put my clothes in after a load that had god knows what on it. Help!

OP posts:

LemonSwan · 13/04/2021 23:01

Haha sorry OP but you are not seeing sense here.

You are worried about an unknown 'chemical' which I can assure you is not going to be very dangerous. The bleach is going to be 20x more dangerous than anything they are using.

If you dont believe me you go and have a think about whether you would be comfortable washing a window with bleach with that flicking around/ dripping down/ landing in your eye.

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:02

I am just not sure how to say to him, please don't do this again without him getting upset. He is quite a big guy who starts shouting when he gets overexcited

OP posts:

babbaloushka · 13/04/2021 23:02

@normalsaline

I do love mumsnet’s hysterical worry about ‘chemicals’. Water is a chemical. We are made up of chemicals

Same! What is OP worried might have been on the clothes that would survive a hot wash, then transfer to her clothes and finally her skin? Hydrogen bloody cyanide wouldn't last that long, and OP is happy to pour some bleach in! What bacteria? What bacteria is not affecting them but might survive two hot washes and infect you via your clothes?

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:03

@Xbox I think it is fair to say to anyone that we all pay the water bills and the electric bills and we aren't a free laundrette for his mates

OP posts:

Nataliafalka · 13/04/2021 23:04

I think you are being utterly ridiculous. A 3 hour wash on 90 degrees really doesn’t need an empty wash again.

GreyhoundG1rl · 13/04/2021 23:05

[quote blacktruffle]@Xbox I think it is fair to say to anyone that we all pay the water bills and the electric bills and we aren't a free laundrette for his mates[/quote]
Maybe you should be clear on exactly what your problem is before you say anything at all? 🤷🏻‍♀️

babbaloushka · 13/04/2021 23:05

[quote blacktruffle]@Xbox I think it is fair to say to anyone that we all pay the water bills and the electric bills and we aren't a free laundrette for his mates[/quote]
If he does it too often then ask him to chip in extra, or raise it as a bill issue, but don't- for the love of God- start sobbing off about chemicals, you'll make yourself look a fool.

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:06

Leaving the chemicals thing to one side - the inconvenience and the fact that he has spoiled my clothes and another person's clothes in the house with previous washing favours for mates - how can I put it to him NICELY that it shouldn't continue indefinitely?

OP posts:

Xboxstolemychildren · 13/04/2021 23:06

So he is paying his Bill's and doing a favour for his friend big deal. I'm sure most people on here have done the same for their friends, how do you know his friend hasn't given him some cash towards the bills?

Also you still didn't say what chemicals it is they used.

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:12

@Xbox, if it was a one off of regular clothes then no biggie but he has previously washed several pairs of painter's overalls which wrecked my clothes, uniforms from a kitchen and now the window cleaning lot so yeah, it seems like the 'favour' extends to several 'friends'

OP posts:

GreyhoundG1rl · 13/04/2021 23:13

Where are all these people living that he has to wash their clothes?

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:15

God knows - around London.

OP posts:

bluebluezoo · 13/04/2021 23:16

What’s the significance of overalls covered in paint being washed yet the friend isn’t a painter and decorator? You make it sound like there’s something especially odd about it.

There won’t be anything in window cleaning “chemicals” that isn’t in your normal household ones. Soap and surfactants, possibly in a more concentrated solution.

Bleach will do more damage to your washing machine than anything used to clean windows.

saraclara · 13/04/2021 23:17

How many of you share the house? Have you talked to any of the others about this?

I'd simply ask him not to do washing for other people as it means that the rest of you aren't able to do your washing when you need to. Maybe wait until next time you want to do your washing and you can't, so that he's faced with the reality of it, and ask him if his mates can't use a laundrette.

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:17

Possibly all sharing accommodation. He is Bulgarian with poor English and so are his mates who hang around the front of the house smoking MJ!

OP posts:

gah2teenagers · 13/04/2021 23:17

He’s a piss taker. Yes I’d confront him taking all evening to wash his mates stuff to save on a launderette.

GreyhoundG1rl · 13/04/2021 23:17

@blacktruffle

God knows - around London.

That wasn't quite what I meant, op, but whatever... 🤣🤣🤣

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:18

@blubluezoo, no I meant the housemate isn't a painter/decorator so they were obviously someone else's work clothes that left specks of paint over everything and stained some items permanently.

OP posts:

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:19

@saraclara - 4 of us and yes, the others are annoyed too especially the other woman in the house who also got her clothes spoiled by the paint

OP posts:

user1473878824 · 13/04/2021 23:20

Jesus wept.

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:22

@gah2teenagers - yes, I think so but he is reasonably pleasant but physically big and very shouty when he gets overexcited so can be intimidating. Just not sure how to go about saying anything

OP posts:

MysteriousAffairAtStyles · 13/04/2021 23:23

[quote blacktruffle]@Hiding - Exactly my point! I am actually looking for a nice way to say this has to stop if it happens again. These guys aren't regular chaps with a bucket of soapy water and a chamois. They do use chemicals. I know this because I have met them and they told me what they do.[/quote]
That sounds like a fascinating conversation.

These ‘chaps’ sure do have a smooth line in patter.

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:25

@Mysterious - not such smooth patter in broken English with no filter. I didn't ask, they told me when I walked in at the height of lockdown last year to find 4 of them in the kitchen with no masks!

OP posts:

GreyhoundG1rl · 13/04/2021 23:26

Interesting that when the chemicals thing was put to rest the paint thing was introduced.

Original poster

blacktruffle · 13/04/2021 23:26

@greyhound - nice try love but if you read my original post, I say that it isn't the first time!

OP posts:

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