My immediate upstairs neighbor, let's call him The Emperor, is frequently out of town. I rejoice in this. It's very lovely to not hear anyone stomping around 80% of the time. However, when he is around, that 20% of the time, he's a laundry fanatic.
We all share laundry machines in the basement. And this isn't much of a problem. We all have our own schedules. But, and here's the thing, The Emperor likes to start laundry at night. He'll start around 8 p.m. or so. Wash, dry, wash, dry, wash, dry.
And during that last dry cycle, he falls asleep. The next morning, he gets up, gets dressed, and is out the door. His clothes remain in the dryer. Sometimes for days until he remembers.
So I've begun to plot out how to break him of this habit. Thus far, I have two possible plans:
1. I take the laundry left in the dryer and hide it in the basement (our basement is huge, with evidence of at least 25 years of tenants cluttering the walls and corners). Then, when he eventually looks for it and realizes it is gone, act completely dumbfounded. Join in the search. When he does find the laundry, convince him that he sleepwalks ("You know, I can hear you stomping around at, like, 4 a.m. sometimes . . . Oh, you don't remember doing that? Huh."). He then becomes very self-conscious and never makes the mistake of leaving laundry in the dryer again.
2. Leave the laundry in the dryer, but take every matching sock from the pile. Then, the next time this happens, return all of the matching socks but take all of the NEW matching socks. Continue this cycle until he goes crazy and moves.
Or, I suppose I can just continue to do what I've already been doing: placing his clothes on top of the dryer.
I'm such a chicken.
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1 comment:
You're doing the right thing! But it would be so much more fun and cathartic to actually screw with him.
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