Not helpful in a credit crunch...

[laligin]

There are times I stop caring about money, and figure, you want it, buy it. Not helpful when you're living on a budget. But so very freeing.

In other news, flatmates have driven me insane.

This (pictures beneath the cut) is the state they decided to leave the kitchen in.



Also, our flatmates have a tendency to go home for the weekend. These two foibles combined make for an unhappy Lali.

So yesterday I went absolutely ballistic on the kitchen. Everything was removed from surfaces. All dishes and cutlery, regardless of who they belonged to, were washed and dried and put away, which is the real problem. The worktops were cleaned. The dinner table was scrubbed with Cif. The coffee table was similarly scrubbed with Cif, since somebody had been putting their feet up on it, with mud on their shoes. The oven was attacked and scrubbed and cleaned, and the ash and sauce residue was removed. The bin was cleaned, and the lid repaired, though heaven knows how they managed to break it in the first place. The ironing board and iron were put away. The bin bags were at long last tied up and taken out. (Despite many repeated promises from our other flatmates, they never bothered to get round to this, so Shadowbyrd and I did it.)

And then I got to the communal cupboards.

Now, see, our kitchen has never smelt entirely great since we got here. We asked when we moved in for it to be cleaned properly, on finding a decaying apple core behind the TV set (which nobody dared to touch, so was left for the mythical cleaners). The cleaners never turned up - my cleaning spree marks more than a month since we asked, and they insist anything like that will be done within 28 days.

So I found what was making the smell. (And not that godawful overpowering airfreshener our other flatmates resort to, to cover everything up instead of cleaning it...)

In the cupboard with ironing board and dustpans and brushes, we have a mop and bucket. Said mop has never been touched by any of us since we moved in. So I can only assume that it was still wet from its last use by the previous tenants, last year. This theory was backed up by the state of rot and browning it was in. Also the fact that the smell most very definitely came from the mop...

Mop in skip. Mop bucket doused in Cif and very, very clean. Cupboard rather sweeter now.

And then. The cupboard under the sink, which has two shelves for the dishcloths and so on, and a rather gaping empty space above that so anyone can admire the plumbing and the various patches under the draining board. This one has also stunk to high heaven, despite many cleanings of the sink and the pipes, and frequent blasts of air freshener.

Down behind the shelves, as I discovered by oh-so-cautiously peering over into the Big Gap, there was lodged a metal bowl of some kind. With solidified cooking oil and some sort of burnt remnants attached to its surface.

Second source of smell located.

Bowl in skip. Cupboard Ciffed and clean. Slightly sweeter now...

And then I started picking up all the bigger bits of rubbish from the floor (I hasten to add, I was wearing thick rubber gloves through all of this, fear not), so I could hoover properly and get rid of all the crumbs I swept off the worktops and tables.

And I picked up the apple core.

Not actually an apple core after all.

Chicken drumstick bone. With little bits of decaying meat still attached. It left a rather large amount of brown dust on the floor when removed.

Oh dear.

Now. This flat is owned by the same group who had the nerve to charge me £20 for "extra cleaning" when I vacated my flat and left it spotless last year.

Hm. I see. They have indeed been very thorough and clean. I understand, now, how such charges can be incurred. Of course.

Still. I suppose I should be grateful to the flatmates for leaving the place in such a state, otherwise I wouldn't have been galvanised to act. And I wouldn't have had to fill in a request form for a new mop this afternoon...

Gonna go cook now. Let some mint sauce flavour the air a little...

Oh, and I've signed up to ficfinishing. In theory, Harkness, PI, and Jantolution 14 will be done for Halloween, and my next tw_calender fic will be shiny by its due date too. Wish me luck...

Comments

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

They are awful flatmates! Can you kick them out and get new ones?

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

or when the lease is up move to a better building?

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm afraid we have to put up with them, really. I keep saying, they're nice girls, they're just rather... inconsiderate. They're only here three or four days a week, and then they go home for weekends, so they treat this place as a halfway-house. They simply fail to take into account that me and Shadowbyrd actually *live* here, so wandering in proclaiming, "God, this place stinks," when you've never cleaned up after yourself and haven't been here for the past four days is perhaps not the most tactful entrance.

And we're here until June, I think. We've paid the rent for that far... We're welcome to leave and find somewhere else, but they won't give us our money back! But next year we'll be somewhere else, possibly with different people, possibly just the two of us...

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

you should get a flat for just for the two of you next year. You have to pay your rent six months in advance? Or is this like a dorm? Maybe there is some way to get the spoiled princesses to clean up the messes they make?

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Heh! No, me and Shadowbyrd paid rent for the whole school year in one go. This is still student halls, not actual real proper adult flat-finding! I think we were a bit too scared to try sorting out leases and contracts and all the proper stuff for a non-student flat... Maybe for next year, though.

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

oh dorms! They're awful! Especially roommates! Do prepare for a non student flat. Once you do you'll enjoy it so much, you'll wonder why you lived ever lived in a dorm.

American and British English are two separate languages! I was translating your British(?) English into my American, for my convenience.

I'm sure that you'll be able to deal with finding a flat. I've seen books on how to find and rent your first flat.

Very Important! Get what we call Renter's Insurance. So that if your flat burns down or gets burgled or something your insurance will enable you to replace your stuff.

If you can, get a lease you're considering analyzed/translated into plain English for you. I don't know how works over there but here in the 'States pre-professional student clubs (Accounting, Law) run low cost clinics as a way of getting experience in their field before leaving school.

Anyway, that's all for the future! Good Luck! If you ever want across the pond advice or a person to rant to I'd be delighted to chat/email/irc/whatever.

Enjoy your quiet weekend!

[laligin.livejournal.com]

It's all clean and lovely now. Spent three hours hoovering the kitchen today... (I got very, very bored. And procrastinated from homework. ^_^')

*salutes* We shall definitely look into non-student accomodation...

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ugh! It reminds me of my last living situation, where I'd have to go into the bathroom to fill a pot with water because the kitchen sink was so overflowing with dirty dishes (not mine!) that I wouldn't be able to get to the faucet. :( I live alone now (it's been a little over a year now) and I'm still so VERY happy about it.

I hope your place manages to stay clean for a while. At least you got rid of the disgusting stuff. EEW!

I'm hoping to have my Jantolution 14 story posted tomorrow! :-)

[laligin.livejournal.com]

I try not to let it get that far. (: If it comes to it, I give up and do all the washing up myself. It's inevitable that I'll cave in before they do, but I do have to cook and eat in there, so...

And I'm alone at the moment! Everybody's gone home this weekend, including Shadowbyrd. ): Bored!

Ahem. I look forward to the Jantolution. ;) Always fun!

[mrs-cj-harkness.livejournal.com]

OMG, I so hope I don't get that when I get to uni otherwise I might die.

AndI also signed up for ficfnishing: I have a calendar fic too + a fic for Tami! Damn LOL

[laligin.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you'll be fine. Just don't take any nonsense and it'll work out...

Hee. So much fic to be doing! Still, more to read at the end of it, so it's all good. ;)

[ranamag.livejournal.com]

You are right. It is disgusting and wrong and suchlike but...

...that doesn't really look any different to my kitchen!

[laligin.livejournal.com]

I should take pictures of it now, after a full day of me here on my own. Ye gods, the carpet... (:

And in any case, we both know I have OCD issues... ^_^'

[ranamag.livejournal.com]

No, it's not you. You saw my last place, you know my friends are all filth wizards. ;)

Sorry about my deleted comments btw, my computer is being idiotic.

[laligin.livejournal.com]

...eating scrambled egg, with a comb, from a shoe!

Ahem...

It's fine. My laptop's decided to be all weird about letting me have internet - it's taken to deciding that no, I don't deserve it at the moment...

[johanirae.livejournal.com]

EWWW! Man, these people need to grow up and frigging learn responsiblity! D: Man, it sucks to be the responsible one... Last time I had a bunch of room mates who always filled the sink with dishes... and the only way I could use it is if I cleaned up the entire sink. Only thing they said? "Aww, you didn't have to do it."

[laligin.livejournal.com]

Ah, the familiarity of that phrase... (: