You know you live in a college house when...

Trafton B.

March 18, 2010 - 2:14 PM

As the quarter winds down and the winter clouds start to share the sky with remnants of sunshine, my roommates and I have taken part in an underappreciated American pastime. Spring Cleaning!

We grabbed all the Windex, Clorox and Pine-Sol we had, mopped the entire living room, kitchen and bathroom, and even cleaned out our coat closet, which I don't think anyone has ever dared to put a coat in. Along with the pounds of dust bunnies and grime that we found throughout the nooks and crannies, we slowly noticed some intricacies about our house that made us all laugh pretty hard because they reminded that we live in the epitome of a college house.

See if this sounds familiar to anyone. You know you live in a college house when...

Your dustpan is an empty soda box. We lost our dustpan somewhere in the shuffle of summer. Now that I think about it, we lost our best broom at the same time so I guess it makes sense. We've considered borrowing from neighbors, and we've flirted with the idea of buying a new one a few times as well. But more often than not we just find a newspaper or a thin piece of cardboard or during the laziest of times, we just sweet it into the fireplace. Now we have a permanent solution, relatively speaking. We put an empty 12-pack of Coca Cola sideways on the ground, put the flap down and sweep everything right in there. It's great because it doubles as a dustpan and trap. Genius!

Your door latch is held in with duct tape. Bright green duct tape at that. Obviously, there's a story behind all this so let me explain. The bottom screw that holds the latch into the wood came loose a long, long time ago. I'd screw it back in except I think my doorframe is literally dry rotting out. So there's no hope there. The top screw came loose when my friend, Winston, was trying to break into the room with a credit card. Don't worry, I was asleep and he needed to get his jacket and keys from my room. I completely understand where his mind was. I just question his implementation. Anyway, the only thing holding that door in place when I'm away is a few strips of duct tape. I don't think it matters too much, though. As I found out a few weeks back, Eugene thieves prefer climbing through windows rather than breaking down doors.

The walls are decorated with Oregon sports posters. Of course, we want to rep our Ducks as much as possible. But it shouldn't be overlooked that all of the posters are free at the University bookstore. We have the 2009 Oregon Baseball poster, the 2010 Oregon basketball posters (men's and women's) and the 2008 Oregon Football poster. Our pride and joy, however, is the foam fingers from the last basketball game at MacArthur Court. We've weaved them into the deer antlers above the fireplace now. They look great! Just take a look for yourself above.

New listings for rentals will start appearing after April 1st, and we'll start our search for a home next year after Spring Break. I'm excited to move, to be honest, but I'm starting to feel a little nostalgia for this house already. It's freezing cold wood floors in the winter. There is a distinct lack of a garbage disposal and a dishwasher. The window shades above the couches that always fall down when we adjust them. It's not the most majestic of shelters, but I'll always remember it as my first house.