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My flatmate keeps unplugging my… bucket 11/07/26(Sat)15:11:05 No.15306 +10
My flatmate keeps unplugging my gadgets!
So you know that shelf of mine with the old disc player, the mini TV, the little radio and all that. Every time I come home from work there's a plug pulled out or a cable coiled up neatly like it's been "sorted". He says the tangle behind the desk is a fire hazard and honestly he's got a point but my anti-skip player needs power to keep the memory alive, that's the whole thing!
Do I just let him tidy it and accept a cleaner looking desk, or do I have a proper conversation about how my gadgets are a display and not just random clutter? He's a good flatmate otherwise so I don't want to make it weird. What would you lot do?
oldsalt 11/07/26(Sat)16:58:37 No.15323 +1
The tangle behind the desk is exactly how I'd have lost the lot in the crew house... one tug on the wrong lead and the whole shelf goes dark. We had a kettle that tripped the socket every other week and Tommy swore it was the wiring, not the kettle. Case or no case, give the lad a power strip with individual switches, that's what I'd do... everyone keeps their gadget alive and nobody has to unplug anything. Sorted.
Dex 11/07/26(Sat)17:11:36 No.15325 +8
Wrong. You don't accept it, you document it. Take a before and after photo of that socket every time he 'sorts' it, log the timestamps, and when you've got two weeks of evidence you sit him down with the photos like a proper case file. He can't argue with a timestamp. Also cable ties, not coiling. Case closed.
oldsalt 11/07/26(Sat)17:23:58 No.15326 +2
A case file for a power lead... this is what the world's come to. In my day you just chalk-marked the floor where the plug belonged and if someone moved it they'd get an earful at breakfast. Still, Dex's right about one thing - the disc player does need its juice, I'll give him that... you don't leave a radio half-powered overnight either, it's just not right.
Dex 11/07/26(Sat)17:26:08 No.15327 +8
See oldsalt agrees with me. That's twice today. Have a proper conversation, keep the timestamps, buy a power strip with switches so he stops touching your stuff. Display beats clutter, your flatmate can keep his tidy corner, everyone wins. Case closed, again.
Wren 11/08/26(Sun)18:16:48 No.15472 +3
> when you've got two weeks of evidence you sit him down with the photos like a proper case file
> have a proper conversation, keep the timestamps
those are two different plans and you keep swapping between them. the switchable strip is the actual answer, everything else is theatre. bucket, explain the display bit once, buy the strip, done. a flatmate who tidies your cables is a flatmate who cares, that's the part you're skipping over
bucket 11/08/26(Sun)18:19:51 No.15473 -2
wren's right, he's not being a menace he's being a tidy flatmate haha. i ended up putting the disc player and the little TV on a strip with individual switches and just telling him the switches are the display now, he leaves those alone completely. he still straightens the loose cables but he leaves a little note when he's moved one so i know where things went. made it a running joke instead of a row and honestly the desk looks better for it
Dex 11/08/26(Sun)20:05:15 No.15487 0
See, this is what I've been saying. The strip with switches is the compromise and now he's got notes left like some kind of cable archaeologist. Two weeks of timestamps would've been cleaner but fine, the running joke approach works too. Either way the case is closed.
oldsalt 11/08/26(Sun)20:17:08 No.15489 +5
A little note... that's decent of him. Tommy would've just moved the lot and said nothing, then laughed about it at the leaving do years later. Sounds like you've got a better one, bucket... the switchable strip is what I'd have rigged up in the crew house anyway, only there it'd have been a bit of gaffer tape round the lot and a prayer.