Roommates, and how to deal with them?

[brettf]

Put it in their room.

*Warning - This may escalate way farther than you want it to.

Ditto... oh, and *ditto.

[SkiED]

Boarderdad- worst advice ever. How out of touch are you, you must have been out of college a long time. Cleaning up after your roomates will do nothing other than reinforce their bad behaviour...I dont see how you think that would ever work. I know it wont, ive tried it on several occasions. Your best bet is to just throw all their junk into their room and shut the door, after a while they will get the point

[andrewjesaitis]

I have had this problem a lot because I like to be really clean.

My freshman year my roomates were horrible. I mean when you order pizza at 4 am and are playing Xbox until bedtime at 6 am, who has time to clean.
Solution to this one: Moved out and I actually became better friends with them once I left.

This year my 4 roommates are somewhat messy. But, I can deal with this level of filth. I just keep my room clean. Clean my dishes and and clean up after myself. For awhile, I was finding that I was doing a lot of communal chores like vacuuming and unloading the dishwasher. So one day I left a big sign up telling them to fucking unload the dishwasher, in those words. I also made up some instructions to the dishwasher loading and unloading process. After I gave them enough shit to piss them off, things started to change. Magically people started cleaning. Whether they feel guilty or just stupid, it doesn't matter. But, they did start to clean. YES!

[bcd]

dishes in the bed is a good idea. But if you're not sure exactly which roomate is making the mess, then just take all those dirty dishes and pile them into an empty cabinet.
Keep 1 dish/pan/fork.etc.. clean for yourself.

Then clean the kitchen. When roomates inquire "hey, do know where all the dishes are"
reply:
"No, I haven't seen them".

Eventually they will find the dishes and it will start again. At which point you will put all the dirty dishes back into that empty cabinet. You'll be amazed at how fun it is to repeatedly take piles of dirty dishes and just throw them in a cabinet.

Leaving wise-ass notes with lots of nasty words can also be fun. Guilt is your friend.

[char]

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]

You need to pay the lease breakage fee and get the fuck out of there.

[AKPogue]

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.

Well why don't you show them this really good thread?

[backpack]

I don't really know my two roomates, and we've been living together for four months now. Seriously, we haven't spoken more than a few sentences at a time to each other, and these sporadic "conversations" happen maybe once a month at most.

That said, we don't have any real common space, and the kitchen stays reasonably clean. One of the roomates keeps all his spices and oil out on the counter in front of the toaster oven, though, which is mildly annoying. Other than that, no problems.

I also don't cook in the kitchen regularly... the BU dining plan is my friend.

I think I like this setup. They both seem nice enough, and I'm not opposed to getting to know them better, but currently we all stay out of each other's way and I don't have to deal with anyone at "home." It's almost like living alone except for when I wake up on a Saturday morning with a bursting bladder and Wang is taking a shower.

[PaSucks]

All I know is if I found a bunch of dirty dishes in my bed, my roomate would have something about ten times worse than that done to his shit within 24 hours. Luckily, that hasn't happened. If they refuse to do the dishes, just keep some clean dishes in your room and ignore their shit.

I had the dish problem with a group of roomates a while ago. Problem was no one, myself included, would fess up to being the one to dirty them (I really didn't) and after a while we just all did them together.

[bubba-k]

I think the only real answer is incentive here... I mean what wouldn't the two roomies in question do for a nice bong rip? And Clarf loves them heaters, you just need a sack and a pack of marb reds, I'll even provide the ZOB for said rips.

[iggyskier]

You need to pay the lease breakage fee and get the fuck out of there.

I would love to, but again, I need a garage. If I could find a cheap 1br with a big enough garage, I would do it. But realistically this wont happen. I am right now looking for a really really nice 2 or 3br with a nice garage and a dishwasher . I've been looking at houses were almost a month now, just praying this semester will go fast.

Next semester I will be making skis, so I really won't have much free time. It will be split beteen going to the library, working in the garage, and skiing. I am trying to be as positive as I can, but it is hard.

I figure I can make it another 6 months. I may go mildly insane, but Ive definintely learned my lesson about roomates.

[Rontele]

I wonder if Ted Koczinski ever had roommates?

[Dropping Pickles]

I once put pickles in his underwear and then the dog licked him when he was drunk on the couch. It didn't really get the message across, but it was fun.

[P_McPoser]

This is why I have never had a roomate!!!

[workinforturns]

bubba, incentives are good, but i dont wana have to start paying to get my house cleaned.
i just cleaned my entire kitchen from top to bottom. ill tell you how it looks tomorrow when i get home.

[bubba-k]

Damn, I saw that place tonight before you cleaned, definately a mess..

[Chainsaw_Willie]

My previous two roommates were good guys. Kept up their end of the cleaning and we had clear divisions of labor and who was to do what. For instance, I'm allergic to grass and despise mowing the lawn so one guy made a deal with me that if I'd clean the bathroom regularly he'd keep the yard work up. Worked great. 10-20 minutes a week to keep the BR clean vs. him pushing a mower around and raking for a couple hours every week in the summer.

Current roommate is a different story. He's a slob and really grouchy about shit but I'm stuck. He simply refuses to clean up after himself in the kitchen and it drives me nuts. I can't afford a different living situation right now so I just deal with it best I can.

And boarddad, that's a seriously retarded suggestion. We're talking about independent adults here, not your kids. I'm not married and I don't want any kids right now, and I sure as hell don't want to have to clean up after a perfectly capable adult. If and when I reproduce I'll gladly deal with all that entails, but until then people need to act like the adults they are or it's going to piss me off.

Unfortunately I'm forced to deal with this slobbish adult. When I go to make food, the kitchen is dirty. Therefore I must clean it before I cook. Then, because it's what I do, I clean it up when I'm done. And it's always dirty the next time I go to cook. He doesn't clean up spills either. The carpet in the living room is badly stained now. One of the grossest things you'll ever see is my dog avidly licking the carpet... My roommate occasionally brings me food from the restaurant he works at and has helped me work on my cars, mows the lawn now and then, has raked up all the leaves this fall, and has loaned me his van a few times, so I try not to let it get to me. Overall I can't wait 'til my situation improves to the point where I can once again live on my own. I know this is just temporary...

[tetsuma]

I agree with the junk in the bed move.. it highlights the grossness of grossness.

for problems, I'd suggest dosing them heavily when they're hitting the straight world. sometimes having your ego melt can really open one up to how shitty one has been to their fellow man. needs to be a heavy dose...

[nrthface234]

[QUOTE=leroy jenkins;1027075]I've had real bad luck with roommates in bozeman.



What really pissed me off was when they started blaming me for all thier messes. Riiiiight.

[nrthface234]

Same fucking thing happened to me. The fucking nipple tugger would NEVER do his dishes and the entire sink would be full and then I came to find out that he was telling our mutual friends that I was a lazy fuck and wasn't doing my dishes. I almost punted him in the vagina but instead settled on pissing on his futon.

[sunnygirluvspow]

I have a simialr situation myself, though not as extreme. Sometimes I feel like I'm my roommates mom and it sucks. Tell them to shape up or ship out. Check out roommates.com. I've had great success with finding roomies.

[Danno]

it really depends. when you nag do they say fuck off I'm not cleaning, or do they say they will? in other words, is it that they just are too fucking lazy or do they really not care? for lazy people, sometimes things like a cleaning schedule works, or some other way of dividing up tasks. One thing that worked with my roomies was a simple sheet of chores, where you would put your initials and date by a chore when you did it. The simple fact that my name appeared on the list so much more than theirs shamed them into cleaning more.

but if they just don't care there is no reason to live with them

[AKA]

my roommates are slobs! Bubba-k can vouch. everything from dishes to garbage to moldy pizza boxes lined up in our garage. what can i do besides the obvious nagging because i have already tried that. does anyone know of an electronic shocker for when they dont pick up their shit? something...anything.

stop being such a fag.





of course Ive always been the guys you're talking about, filth doesn't bother me.

[wildstyle]

I've been with loads of flat/ room mates. the best thing is to work out the vibe at the time.

e.g. 3 x messy party animals plus tidy you = you gotta become a messy party animal for a while.

or

3 x anal tidy fucks plus you = you tidy up loads and hoover every saturday.

when in Rome ....

[Art Shirk]

Ok, this was the case for me too. This what I did, seriously:

(1) bang one of your roommate's girlfriends;

(2) recruit the worst offender into the army;

(3) if there are 10 guys, throw away every utensil and dish except 8 plates, two bowls, 8 forks, and two spoons. Leave two knives for knife hits from the stove. If they need a knife, they will have to used char'd ones;

(4) Let them see you do it.

[Blurreds_left_nut]

my roommates are slobs! Bubba-k can vouch. everything from dishes to garbage to moldy pizza boxes lined up in our garage. what can i do besides the obvious nagging because i have already tried that. does anyone know of an electronic shocker for when they dont pick up their shit? something...anything.

In college I had a roomate who never, ever did his dishes. After months of his neglect, I put all his dirty dishes in his bed. He came home wasted that night and dove into his bed or should I say his dirty pots and pans. It was pretty funny to hear the banging. Funny thing is, it helped.