Roommates, and how to deal with them?

[4matic]

Throw them out. Get new ones.

In most states that would be illegal. You have to give notice and if they aren't on the lease then you would have to get the landlord to evict them if they don't want to leave. Did they sign a lease or rental agreement?

[workinforturns]

I once put my roommates dirty dishes in his bed. He was super pissed, but it got the point across.

i like what you have to say.

[4matic]

If the lease is in your name, kick them out. It shouldn't be hard to find new ones this time of year.

Does the lease say you can have roomates? Just because you own the lease doesn't mean you control your sublets.

[Viva]

Arrange for Mormon missionaries to stop by while they're at home, but you're away. Repeat.

[Dromond]

That's what one of my roommates did in the apartment - took away the dishes so everyone got 1 plate, 1 bowl, 1 fork etc. If you dirtied it, you had to clean it before you made another meal.

yup, just bail out. deal with it till then, leave as little food out as possible, put a lock on the door, hell hide some clean dishes somewhere too.

Good ideas. I had some extremely lazy roommates once, but this thread is making me realize exactly how lucky I am. I live with two dudes in their twenties who actually clean up after themeselves as much as I do but at the same time ar totally chill and not anal about anything. It's pretty much bachelor heaven.

[workinforturns]

the rent is through a rental agency. one of the roommates is on it and one is not. these two guys are pretty good friends so i would have a hard time justifying kicking them out.

[skadams.ca]

I'm sure most of us have been through this and it is a total piss-off to come home to someone else's mess on a regular basis. Im with a few others in here and say just throw whatever they leave layin' around the 'common areas' in their room, more specifically their bed - i've done it in the past and seems to work. Sure they get pissed but you can tell them that's how angry you are when you get home and their shit is all over the place.... I have proven this to work on more than one slob - good luck

[Crass3000]

these two guys are pretty good friends so i would have a hard time justifying kicking them out.

If you don't want to kick them out then just be as lazy as they are for a while and don't clean either as somebody mentioned. Sooner or later they will likely get sick of the filth. It might take some time but sooner or later its going to drive them crazy too.

I used to be a clean-freak and my wife didn't clean when we moved into our house. I finally gave up and let it become a shithole (for about a year). She finally came around now really keeps things really clean.

[skibuminwyo]

tell them to get their fucking act together or your gonna find some big piles of dog poo to put in the pockets of their super trendy patagonia down jackets......p.s. is it a law up there all ice climbers have to wear patagonia? i felt out of place last weekend lol

[Yonder_River]

I feel for ya, I did the five roommates in Bozeman for awhile. Lots of good times, but it can wear on you after awhile.

I haven't read through all of the responses here, but I think your approach has to depend on how good of friends you are with them. I played it safe since I wanted to maintain some of the friendships and not be some anal asshole.

Sometimes the only solution is to move in with your gf on get married like I did.

[boarddad]

I have two roomates that don't respect my privacy in any way, leave a big mess wherever they go, won't do dishes, leave ther clothes everywhere, wake me up at all hours of the night, dominate every conversation, demand all of my free time, expect me to give them rides everywhere and won't chip in for gas, make me buy them clothes, make me cook for them and eat all of my food, cry every time they don't get their way and one of them even craps in her pants and makes me clean it up.

Of course the roomates I speak of are my kids, and once you have them it makes all other roomate squabbles completely meaningless. Believe me, you could have probably cleaned up after your roomates in the time you spent posting here to complain about them. Lead by example and clean up the mess; don't make a big fuss about it - you are the one who is making the situation unbearable for yourself. After all, your roomates are pretty comfortable with the way things are, mess and all. Your roomates might even surprize you and help out. If they don't and you really can't take it anymore then move - but believe me, once you've had kids it will all seem pretty silly.

[Below Zero]

Believe me, you could have probably cleaned up after your roomates in the time you spent posting here to complain about them. Lead by example and clean up the mess; don't make a big fuss about it - you are the one who is making the situation unbearable for yourself. After all, your roomates are pretty comfortable with the way things are, mess and all. Your roomates might even surprize you and help out. If they don't and you really can't take it anymore then move - but believe me, once you've had kids it will all seem pretty silly.

This is horrible advice! Don't clean up after your roommates. You aren't their mother!

Oh, and your first paragraph wasn't fooling anyone "boardDAD"

[Crock]

To me this is the ultimate revenge on roomates.
I worked with this guy Bill a few summers ago. I knew from the start that Bill was a little differnt than most peolpe I'd ever met, but he was still a good guy. One day at lunch I noticed Bill took one of his shoes off and there was all this black stuff on the inside it. I asked him about it, and he calmly said they were coffee grounds. I pressed further, and he explained that his roomates were total pricks. Always eating his food, taking his beer, breaking his stuff etc, and he had finally had it. So every day he put a scoop of coffee into each shoe and wore them to work (we install gym floors; you're going to sweat) and then at the end of the day he dumped the coffee grounds into a jar. Then when he had collected enough, he'd get up in the morning, brew himself a single cup of coffee from good grounds, and then brew a full-pot of "shoe coffee" and leave it there for his roomates. Bill said that without fail that pot was always emptied when he got back from work.

[workinforturns]

I have two roomates that don't respect my privacy in any way, leave a big mess wherever they go, won't do dishes, leave ther clothes everywhere, wake me up at all hours of the night, dominate every conversation, demand all of my free time, expect me to give them rides everywhere and won't chip in for gas, make me buy them clothes, make me cook for them and eat all of my food, cry every time they don't get their way and one of them even craps in her pants and makes me clean it up.

Of course the roomates I speak of are my kids, and once you have them it makes all other roomate squabbles completely meaningless. Believe me, you could have probably cleaned up after your roomates in the time you spent posting here to complain about them. Lead by example and clean up the mess; don't make a big fuss about it - you are the one who is making the situation unbearable for yourself. After all, your roomates are pretty comfortable with the way things are, mess and all. Your roomates might even surprize you and help out. If they don't and you really can't take it anymore then move - but believe me, once you've had kids it will all seem pretty silly.

ya i have to say your advice is BAD! i am not their mom and dad. and i dont care to have kids, so how would i ever be able to compare? i have led by example, many of times, AND NOTHING COMES OF IT!

[boarddad]

This is horrible advice! Don't clean up after your roommates. You aren't their mother!

Oh, and your first paragraph wasn't fooling anyone "boardDAD"

What? You think I never went to college and had bad roomates? It's either that or you could smear dog poo on their car door handles and learn to live in the squalor. The "maggot" way may be more fun, but I bet the "dad" way gets better results.

[Below Zero]

What? You think I never went to college and had bad roomates? It's either that or you could smear dog poo on their car door handles and learn to live in the squalor. The "maggot" way may be more fun, but I bet the "dad" way gets better results.

Yeah, the DAD way has you being your roommates' bitch.

Just because you clean up after someone doesn't mean they follow suit.

[DJSapp]

Dishes in the bed = gold. Used it twice in college. Both times resulted in a pissed off roomie for one night, and months of clean kitchen. The pros outweigh the cons.

[Lexi-Bell]

Dishes in the bed = gold.

4th'd.

Maybe one of em will see this thread and take the hint?

[Lemmiwinks]

I lived in a frat house for a semester and the mess there was unspeakable. Probably the one thing I really hated about living in a frat house. Well, that and the elephant walks.

[MrsTromano]

you could just cry and pout and hope you get your way.

like this.....
















oh, wait that won't work either.

[birdman829]

Get all religious on their asses. Remind them that Jesus said, "inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." In your house, inasmuch as they have done it unto your home, they have done it unto you. Seek vengeance accordingly.

Put their dirty dishes in their bed. If they spit on the floor, spit on them. If they ash on the chair, ash on them. Be prepared to defend against retaliation.

Nailed the quote, missed the message me thinks. Good idea though.

[iggyskier]

That's what one of my roommates did in the apartment - took away the dishes so everyone got 1 plate, 1 bowl, 1 fork etc. If you dirtied it, you had to clean it before you made another meal.

Tried this twice now. Both times it failed.

[beginrant]
I fucking hate my roomates (well...I REALLY hate one, the other 2 just piss me off alot). I've been in this house for 1.5 years, and I think I have taken the garbage out every single time. Ive seen them do dishes maybe 2-3 times ever. They leave food out (found a half eaten thing of cookie dough in my roomate drawer the other day.....), fucking ash everywhere. They are total pot head, but only smoke pot with Djarums, so there are filters and wrappers everwhere. The ended up lending $1000 to a roomate last year because he was super broke. That was in February. As of now, he still owes me $760. He has paid me back $260 in 11 months. He never ever buys toliet paper, eats others food, and it just generally an asshole.

This house comsumes a lot of beer too, which can be good and bad. At least I can always find a beer, but people are just constantly drinking, having people over, and it sucks because I usually have other stuff I need to get done. One of my roomates is a really scary drunk (actually had a psychotic episode about a month ago after mixing whatever fucking meds he is on, valium, and alcohol. Probably the scariest night of my life because he was getting extremely violent...at least after that he realized he needed to slow down) and the other are just loud drunks. My room, which at least is the nicest in the house, is right on the main floor and our walls are very thin.

I think the biggest thing.....we have NO dishwasher or garbage disposal. Never again will I live without these. Doing the dishes is about the grossest thing Ive ever done because people just throw there shit in the sink and it just builds and builds.

It sucks because they are some of my best friends, but I just can't live with them anymore. My lease is up May, and I am getting the fuck out of here. I would love to sublet out this next semester, but would need to find another house with a garage to continue my ski building project. So, 6 months more. [/endrant]

[ill-advised strategy]

What pissed me off the most, was that when he did buy his own food, it was always some super expensive clever ass organic shit. For the price of that shit, he could have bought enough ramen and hormel chili to live off of.

in my case ^^this^^ was augmented with insidious suggestions on how to improve my diet, which kind of seemed a little like requests to buy what he liked to mooch.

ugh.

[workinforturns]

well lexi-bell, to my dismay both of my roomates are not regulars around here, only when i tell them there is a good thread.

[Rontele]

Tried this twice now. Both times it failed.

[beginrant]
I fucking hate my roomates (well...I REALLY hate one, the other 2 just piss me off alot). I've been in this house for 1.5 years, and I think I have taken the garbage out every single time. Ive seen them do dishes maybe 2-3 times ever. They leave food out (found a half eaten thing of cookie dough in my roomate drawer the other day.....), fucking ash everywhere. They are total pot head, but only smoke pot with Djarums, so there are filters and wrappers everwhere. The ended up lending $1000 to a roomate last year because he was super broke. That was in February. As of now, he still owes me $760. He has paid me back $260 in 11 months. He never ever buys toliet paper, eats others food, and it just generally an asshole.

This house comsumes a lot of beer too, which can be good and bad. At least I can always find a beer, but people are just constantly drinking, having people over, and it sucks because I usually have other stuff I need to get done. One of my roomates is a really scary drunk (actually had a psychotic episode about a month ago after mixing whatever fucking meds he is on, valium, and alcohol. Probably the scariest night of my life because he was getting extremely violent...at least after that he realized he needed to slow down) and the other are just loud drunks. My room, which at least is the nicest in the house, is right on the main floor and our walls are very thin.

I think the biggest thing.....we have NO dishwasher or garbage disposal. Never again will I live without these. Doing the dishes is about the grossest thing Ive ever done because people just throw there shit in the sink and it just builds and builds.

It sucks because they are some of my best friends, but I just can't live with them anymore. My lease is up May, and I am getting the fuck out of here. I would love to sublet out this next semester, but would need to find another house with a garage to continue my ski building project. So, 6 months more. [/endrant]

Not having a dishwasher nor a garbage disposal in college is the worst. I lived with 11 guys and one girl my senior year, I won't even begin to say what a shit show our house was. Needless to say, when our parents came for graduation they started crying because we were living in such squalid conditions