This is a tough one. I hate doing it because I'm always afraid the person will walk in just as I'm doing it, but I say anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour after the wash cycle has ended is fair game. I try to keep track of when I put my clothes in the machine, but sometimes I'm a few minutes late getting down there to switch it over.

20 minutes.

Hah! I have had many discussions around this point.

For me, not less than 15 minutes UNLESS it is the weekend or I am in some kind of desperate rush and absolutely must have dry pants in order to be presented to the Queen.

If neither of those two circumstances apply, I've been known to just use the available washer/dryer and take the extra 40 minutes. But I may well be overly passive on this point.

(On preview, yes, after 30m to 1h or one wash cycle, it's fair to move things.)

I'm pretty good about setting a timer and getting my stuff, and I'm always slightly miffed when I KNOW it's been no more than five minutes since the load stopped and my stuff has already been moved.

Immediately (as long as there is somewhere clean to place the clean clothes- cart, basket, etc). All's fair in love and laundry.

Does it make a difference that there is only one washer and dryer in out building?

I mean our building.

I tend to do it immediately. Yes, this has led to awkward "what happened to my laundry?" conversations as I'm putting my clothes in. No, I do not care.

Immediately. But I expect this is governed by social norms: don't do it immediately if everyone else in your building waits a while.

3 minutes. (Unless you're just dumping it on the floor. Then give them 15 minutes.)

Immediately. You just walked in. You have no idea if it's been there 30 seconds or 30 minutes. At least that's the excuse in my head.

Community laundry rooms are a metaphor for the fragile skin of civilization itself.

You should feel free to remove someone's clothes to a clean surface as soon as the dang buzzer goes off; they should accept the possibility that this will happen with grace, and put themselves squarely in the laundry room before said buzzing occurs if they don't want other people handling their laundry.

I feel the weird "don't want to get caught" apprehension, too, but I've gotten over it mostly through (inevitable) catching or being-caught events that resulted in nothing but a knowing exchange of awkward pleasantries.

The worst thing you can do is half-measure it by deciding to clear someone else's clothes out but being so freaked about it that you do a sloppy job and dump their shit everywhere. That's the only sin.

It's possible that you will end up dealing with a neighbor that objects to having their stuff removed. That neighbor is an idiot and a menace, but you shouldn't say it like that. Just shrug and go about your business.

Trust me. I'm a frickin' expert.

How can you tell how long it has been since the load was finished, unless you were standing there waiting?

Immediately.

Also - it depends whether they have left a basket to put it in or you have to dump it on a bench or whatever.

I usually put it in the dryer, if it looks like dryable stuff, and start the dryer so that I'm not waiting all frickin night to dry the load.

Five minutes.

*does the happy dance because I now have my own laundry room*

I agree with TPS---at a laundromat once I saw someone folding her WET clothes into a cart before she put them in the dryer; they weren't going to come out that way ( I was also annoyed because this made me have to wait longer for a free cart)!

Cool! I didn't no you were still updating the Laundryroom Swapmeet site, cortex. I've always loved the concept.

It sat for a while, Atom Eyes. I'm trying to get something up at least every week or so again, getting it back rolling. Though I've pretty much destroyed the small following it had through my inattentiveness, damn my eyes.

I don't wait.

I used to avoid putting other people's stuff in the dryer, because I didn't know how they wanted to handle them, but eventually I realized I'm the only person sharing the laundry who ever washes non-dryable clothes. So now I put them right in the dryer. If the dryer is full and I need to use it, I half-fold the clothes so they don't get crumpled and put them on a clean surface.

Don't know whether this is relevant, but I know and like my neighbors, and I can usually tell immediately whose stuff I'm displacing.

Good god, don't put someone else's laundry in a dryer and TURN IT ON! You could ruin someone else's clothes for no good goddamn reason. Yes, take it out of the washer and put it on the table--fold or don't fold, whatever. But maybe it can't go in the dryer or maybe your dryers get too hot or maybe they just don't like dryers. Removing laundry so you can use the machine is fine; presuming to know how a stranger wants her clothing treated is rude.