Young man pays 1,800 a month to live in a 'weird' laundromat in Queens, New York

NEW YORK.- In Queens, New York, Sampson Dahl, a producer of video and photo production designs, decided to live in a laundromat saturated with many of the furniture and accessories that he has used in his designs.

In Sampson Dahl’s laundry-house you will find everything: from clothes hanging almost on the ceilingeven a street hydrant to put out fires, seats from a movie theater and -of course- a giant sign that says, in English, ‘ Laundry’.

On a tour with influencer Caleb Simpson, who specializes in documenting how New Yorkers live, Dahl explained that that sign is the original and it could be very old. He decided to keep it, like many original things from the public laundry in Maspeth, Queens, and place it on your bed.

The bed, by the way, cost him $25 and it is “aerial”, to take better advantage of the 800 square foot space in which you live. Next to it is the “closet you have to jump into”, because it is also near the ceiling and which, its owner admits, is not very practical.

In the laundry house the lamps do not work

The lamps that it has are not very practical either, because as could be seen on that tour, they do not work.

What does work is his kitchen, which, although narrow, serves to produce “tons of tea”, for the people who constantly visit him, because the 27-year-old producer is never alone, because he rents his laundry-house for different productions (from videos, photographs etc.).

In addition, the kitchen has a refrigerator, toaster oven, sink and a collection of kitchen knives.

A laundry with cinema seats

On his Web page, Dahl explains that the laundry building It was built in 1920 and first served as a fuel store, but that in the 80s it became The Wash & Dry laundry (wash and dry).

In March 2019, when he went to see it to rent it, his girlfriend told him he was ‘disgusting’, but he saw the potential to turn it into a home and business.

“I have always liked commercial spaces”, explained to Caleb during the tour when he revealed that years ago He lived in a warehouse in Chicago. Thus, he began to fill the place with whatever “free” thing they donated to him during the productions he makes.

Therefore, in the old laundry you can find the same thing: cinema seats, children’s toys, movie memorabilia and even an ancient organ, which he got -for free- from Amazon.

What caught Dahl’s attention the most when renting it was that whoever built it included a window between the toilet and the shower. “You can see me in the shower!” she exclaims. “It’s a window in the shower!

The “weirdest” apartment in New York

While Caleb Simpson says he was quite surprised to see the amount of art (Dahl is a painter), he says that It’s something you wouldn’t expect when visiting an apartment in a laundromat.

Likewise, Simpson says that, of all the homes he has documented in New York, including that of actor Eli Young, who turned an ambulance into his home, and that of the “smallest” apartment in NYC, that of the designer Alaina Randazzo, this seemed “the weirdest I’ve ever seen.”

In an apartment where nothing borders on monotony, Sampson Dahl included a swing in the driveway. It is a few steps from a psychedelic “communal” refrigerator, placed on the street, right at the entrance of your home.

In the community fridgepassersby and its owner deposit or pick up food at will.

He says that this sense of community is what he likes most about living in this old laundry, since in his childhood he lived in a humanitarian community that l It helped to value, to help each other among neighbors.

He also likes, says Dahl, is that the price of the place is not that expensive: $1,800. Since she moved in almost three years ago, his rent has only gone up $100. Other than that, his expenses include about $120 for electricity and $60 for internet, per month.

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Sampson Dahl, a set designer for photo and video productions, moved into a laundry building and converted it into a living and studio.