Anyone who’s lived in a dorm or apartment knows that shared laundry rooms are like war zones, where the battle to clean your clothes is best won at weird, off-peak hours of the day.
Yet, one guy’s quest to avoid the line has led his neighbor to believe that he’s running some sort of secret cult in the laundry room.
For some background, he usually likes to wash his clothes at around 2:00 a.m. Why? Well, obviously, everyone else is asleep by then, and the machines are always empty.
“Nothing weird. I throw in my clothes, and I sit on the floor scrolling on my phone. Sometimes, I read a book,” he explained.
But just yesterday, he was approached by the manager of his apartment building and told that he had “suspicious energy.” Apparently, someone else in the building (his upstairs neighbor) lodged a complaint and is convinced that he’s running a cult.
It turns out that he brings the same book to read in the laundry room each week. It’s part of a massive fantasy series and is about 1,000 pages. So, the fact that he keeps reading the same novel supposedly made his neighbor think something was off.
“We don’t want recruitment rituals happening in the building,” the building manager stated.
After she said that, he honestly laughed out loud because he truly believed she was joking. In reality, the manager was dead serious, and he found out that his neighbor told people he always “chants quietly” while waiting for his clothes.
“I’m literally just mouthing along to music with my earbuds in,” he detailed.
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“And now, half the building looks at me like I’m plotting some spiritual uprising.”
But even though some people might find this upsetting, he thinks it’s pretty hilarious. He went from being a normal guy who simply didn’t want to fight for a washing machine to being viewed as a “laundry room cult leader.”
Still, he’s not sure how to handle this situation and is wondering whether he should just go along with the charade.
“Should I lean into it? Robes, candles, the whole deal. At least then, I’d deserve the reputation,” he joked.
Do you have a specific habit that seems strange or off-putting to your neighbors? If you were in his shoes, would you play into the rumor?
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By Katharina Buczek
Katharina Buczek graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Digital Arts. Specializing in... More about Katharina Buczek
