Depends on whether it's a finished basement or not. When I lived in upstate NY, I had an unfinished basement which had a separate entrance. The laundry machines were down there. As soon as I turned off the lights, I was running up those stairs, three steps at a time. I always thought what if some hobo was living down there and I didn't know. In Japan, there was a story about an old woman living in a man's closet for years without him knowing it. The mind can be irrational at times.