The 'joys' of shared housing

I'm in New Mexico for my final shift on my old experiment. While it is a little awkward, I now get to say "goodbye" to the apparatus itself, and do some of the local things that I always meant to do. I'm sure this will be a more positive experience in the past since I know this is my last trip here.

But there is one thing that a positive attitude can't change: sharing a house with my collaborators. This is much more a problem of the house than the people. People come and go on a weekly basis, so everyone loses track of how old the bread on the counter is. And we collect a large number of cans of shaving cream on the counter.

I find the maintenance and cleanliness standards the worst. While most people are very good about taking care of their dishes, no one bothers to sweep the floor. When there are now small piles of dead cockroaches in the corner, this is a problem. No one has the tools or motivation to fix things around the house, so they just go unfixed. Theoretically the land-owner should deal with these things, but there is no one to continually call them and get them to take care of it.

The room I am sleeping in has no door latch. You know, that thing that keeps the door from randomly opening without a doorknob being turned. This is a new development and actually has a good reason: the latch has been very sticky for a long time. Someone got stuck in the room and had to climb out the window. I don't blame him for taking the latch off. It's much more proactive than the solution some others would have come up with - always going in/out the window.

The microwave is broken. This actually occurred the last time I was here (in June). The power went off and when it came back on the microwave was dead - I searched the internet and couldn't come up with a good way to fix it. I e-mailed the faculty member who pays our rent (I don't have the land-owners' contact info) and some of the post-docs who are here most. I guess the land-owner never did anything. Now, I like microwaved eggs in the morning, so this is a major tragedy for me.

If you are a somewhat reasonable person, you are probably wondering why I don't take care of these things instead of just complain about them. Yeah... you're right. That's what I'll do.