While the winter months “tend to bring out the worst” in Ann Arbor’s off-campus student housing, according to Linda Newman, University Housing director, many students are facing common cleaning problems in their homes.
“Fortunately,” says Newman, “the trend among students currently is to combat these problems immediately and head on.”
Junior Eli Weinberg reported that during his nightly shower, he was the first of his housemates to notice an ominous red mold spreading from the corner of the bathtub to the crevasses in between the tiles on the wall.
Noted Weinberg, “At first I was like ‘Ew, Huh?’ But then I was like ‘Hm. Okay.’ And I splashed a little water at it. Then I thought, ‘that should do the trick.’”
Among his housemates at 612 Lawrence St., Apt. 4, Weinberg was not alone in his conviction.
According to senior Barry Turner, he too saw the mold and realized that “[he] had been forgetting to, like, kick a little soapy water from the tub so it kind of sloshes over it. It can’t last the night with soapy water like that having touched it at one point.”
Many neighbors, including the residents of Apt. 5, have learned from the boys’ example as the conditions in the apartment have gotten worse.
“We got gnats about two weeks ago,” said Junior Katie Lundz. “All we had to do was ask and Eli came right over and showed us how to open the window so that they’d probably leave.”
Added housemate Madeline Sarcose, “he also showed us how to open the oven and heat the apartment using the stove if we hit a cold snap.”
“We also have a carbon monoxide detector, of course,” added Lundz. “It’s right over there on the couch, in that bag from Meijer.”
