Communal Trash Rooms in Apartment buildings - a question of conduct.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5456996/site/newsweek/

Each day, my pastoral moment was marred by a fresh sign pinned above the copier. PLEASE, it said, in 128-point italicized serif type, REFILL PAPER TRAY AFTER USE. The words "paper tray" cast a forward shadow of black ink onto the page, as if the sun was setting behind them. Clip art floated around the words: a copier, a notarized document and a hand. Pushpins had been pressed so hard into the sign's corners that their soft ends almost penetrated the paper.

Well, the prissy neighbor next door decided that it was unacceptable that my box was partly in his section of the porch. He took the box and put it in between my back door and its screen door. It's just so petty and passive-aggressive.

Especially since he would jerk off quite loudly every Sunday morning.

I think things like that are about something other than annoyance about garbage - some people just go looking for ways to look down on their neighbors.

But if you're going to pin up a note, I'd suggest the following.

1. Avoid caps, boldface, italic, and underlining. There's nothing quite as fun as imagining the spit and sputtering behind the emphases on a hallway note.

2. Cut the "low-income housing project" bit. Now they're imagining a spitting and sputtering old bigot.

3. Cut down on the rhetorical flourishes. Some of your neighbors may be ILX lurkers, and they'll recognize you.

4. Actually just put this up: "If you don't like what people left in the trash room, could you please just let them know? Like with a note or something? Because putting it in the hall really isn't an improvement."

First of all, I'm talking about washers, not dryers. I don't mind when people take my dry clothes out of the dryer, actually. Also, do you always assume that someone's clothes are still in there because they're 'lazy'? Some people have to take a phone call unexpectedly.

I'm talking about putting wet clothes on top of a dirty dryer...and also making sure to hog the dryer so you can't move them to the dryer. I'm talking about passive-aggressive and anal laundry people who breathe down your neck and stamp their foot because it's their 'laundry night'.

I agree with this.

BRAND NEW BRASS KNUCKLES..
CALL ME UP SHOW U HOW 2 GRIP IT AND EVERYTHING CUZ IF U DONT LEARN UL BREAK UR HAND HAHA..
@925-548-3016, NAME IS DANNY

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Precisely, which is why my wife is trying to convince to to give it up. She doesn't want to bear the brunt of the ire it might inspire. And yes, it is a bit of a provocation. I should put the word "please" in there, I suppose.

Can't you just make a complaint to the co-op board and have them be the bad guys.

They'll do nothing, and if they did, they'd be ignored anyway.

2. Cut the "low-income housing project" bit. Now they're imagining a spitting and sputtering old bigot.

Hahaha. Well, the spitting and spluttering part is right. My point was that we pay enough to live here -- we should at least try to take care of the place.

I know folks who live in low-income housing projects who -- shocker -- aren't black. Stop making this a question of bigotry. I chose the allusion to goad those with even the slightest sense of responsibility for their surroundings into action. Moreover, housiing projects look the way they look due to a lack of funds. The funds in our building, meanwhile are being handily supplied in painful amounts by the very people who are making the place look like a fuckin' trash-sodden halfway house.

Well, we just had our water heaters rebuilt and the basement painted. And now they're talkin' shit about building a gym in the basement, which is a waste of time/money.

Not a bad idea, actually, but I don't think I need to fuckin' lie in order to call attention and hopefully stop this stupid shit.

Because they're cripplingly ineffectual. I'd talk to them about it, but based on their record so far, I wouldn't hold my breath for too long about them doing anything about it. Moreover, a board member lives on my floor, and that hasn't daunted anyone, nor has she brought it up with the board (whom she has greater access to), or if she has, no action's been taken as yet.

I like your optimism.

I hate when you're five minutes late in getting your clothes out of the washer, and they take your wet laundry and pile it on top of a dryer.

I think I agree with the neighbors on these, actually.

I would be more patient under these circumstances - especially if it was just a box..

But in my old apartment, after putting up several notices about people leaving trash on the back stairs (outside stairs - typical Chicago wooden fire escape deal) and after seeing a rat at my back door, I started stuffing the neighbors' falling-apart trash bags between their screens and doors. They got the message.

The joke about it was that the dumpster sat right below the landings to the staircase - and the top was always open. I used to drop my trash off a third floor landing into the dumpster because I was too lazy to walk down the stairs..

The thing is, sometimes those back steps are covered with snow and / or frozen. In this case, you couldn't even get to the dumpster because of two-foot high drifts. I would forgive my neighbors for keeping their trash on the porch in that situation - frozen garbage isn't smelly anyway.

The only thing you can do is bug the shit out of the housing board to the point where they do something just so you'll shut up. At least they're there to be bothered and badgered about stuff like this.