Back in 2006, Austin in London didn’t feel like confronting his roommate about the masses of hair that were clogging the bathroom sink. Instead, he wrote him this special poem.
Adds Austin: “My roommate never actually said anything about the note, but he did clean the drain out by the time I’d arived home…so I assume he got the message.”

FILED UNDER: all clogged up · bathroom · London · pure poetry · roommates
Justin in Winston-Salem, N.C. spotted this classic mom note on the fridge at his friends’ house — with a bonus roommate note, to boot!
Says Justin: “I love the magnet — not sure if it’s supposed to be a letter grade or not, but I prefer to think that it is. If they get an F, I’d get a negative B or so.”

(Wings, corn dogs, taquitos AND mac & cheese? Ah, college.)
FILED UNDER: cleaning · college life · exclamation-point happy!!!! · food · Moms & Dads · North Carolina · roommates · signed with love · smiley · spelling and grammar police
Exhibit a) submitted by an anonymous bystander at a lunch counter in Oregon Caves National Park:

Exhibit b) submitted by Patrick in Kansas City, Missouri, who explains: “My friends Chris and Katie had a rude waitress a few weeks ago. In order to tell the waitress that there was indeed a reason she wasn’t getting a tip, Chris left this little note where the tip would ordinarily go.”

Though I can certainly empathize, as a former food service industry worker I just can’t condone not leaving a tip. (I’m guessing there are a lot of you, however, who’d disagree.)
related: passive-aggressive linkage
FILED UNDER: actions speak louder · excessive underlining · Kansas City · Missouri · most popular notes of 2007 · Oregon · restaurant · tipping
“Is it doubly passive aggressive to use this site to convey this message? I am the creator of this note, and the photo depicts actual conditions. I would love to send a post of this to said roommate at work.” —flushpatrol in Washington, D.C.

related: servicing over a half-billion people…each and every day.
FILED UNDER: D.C. · internet citation · meta · most popular notes of 2007 · roommates · sex sex sex · toilet
Semarr prefaces this submission by saying: “I realize it’s not particularly *passive* aggressive, but in context it became so.” She explains:
There were eight people living in the house. One of them collected shelter cats and kept them in the basement. I found this note when I had come home from work very late at night. By morning, the board was blank and Jon L-W denied it ever existed, and all roommates at the next ‘house meeting’ refused to admit there were any aggressive undertones in house. Jon said he loved the cats. Other earlier voiced-behind-backs complaints were whole-heartedly denied.

Adds Semarr: “I moved out a month later.”
related: My cat-shit crazy neighbor
FILED UNDER: cats · excessive underlining · more aggressive than passive · New Jersey · not-so-veiled threats · odor · roommates · shit · that's disgusting · whiteboard
An anonymous submitter in Jersey writes, “these ‘motivational signs’ are posted up in the copy room. I guess we’re supposed to pause and reflect upon whether we’re performing to the best of our abilities while waiting for our packets to cycle through the copier. All that the second one is missing is the ‘…shall we?’”


And all the first one needs is a little extra oomph…

FILED UNDER: "helpful" advice · New Jersey · office
Bill snapped this photo at a liquor store in middle-of-nowhere Tennessee, 40 miles east of Memphis. Like this one and this one, it’s more crazy than passive-aggressive — but too good to pass up.

Adds Bill: “From what the friend I was visiting told me, the store aired religious TV every hour it was open. Except on Sundays, that is… because that’s when they turned on NASCAR. IT also had the widest array of bum wines (MD 20/20, Wild Irish Rose, etc.) that I have ever seen.”
FILED UNDER: "customer service" · blitzkrieg approach · crazypants · more aggressive than passive · Tennessee
This note is from an the Philippines, but don’t try and write this off entirely as a “cultural thing.”
Camille in Manila says she finds “do not step on the toilet bowl” quite baffling, too, adding “stepping on the toilet could also mean probably stepping ‘into’ the toilet bowl itself, which is rather, uh, gross.”

FILED UNDER: "helpful" advice · bathroom · office · Philippines · toilet
Sometimes, a little complaining is necessary.

(Submitted by Jeremiah in Little Rock, Arkansas.)
FILED UNDER: Arkansas · cleaning · dishes · dogs · martyr complex · money · roommates · shit
Paddy in Belfast sends us this series of shots from his office kitchen, where several of his coworkers have taken their frustrations with microwave cleanliness into their own hands.
It all started when one day, a microwave appeared bearing this note:

…but SDT wasn’t taking any chances.

Later, a second microwave appeared, complete with its own note:

…which prompted this note on the wall between them:

related: No smelly foods
FILED UNDER: Belfast · kitchen · microwave · note wars · office · saga · spelling and grammar police