I had this whole printed spreadsheet with color coded tasks for me and my two roommates in Denver, but nobody checked it after week one. Decided to swap to a simple group text where we just call out what needs doing as we see it, and now dishes get done same day instead of sitting for two days. Has anyone else ditched a system for something way less organized?
Came home from a weekend trip to find three of my good bath towels covered in grease and paint thinner. Turns out my roommate Jake was working on his car in the kitchen and grabbed whatever was handy. I told him to replace all three from Target or I'm locking my closet door.
So last month, my roommate Jenna's cat knocked over my Xbox Series S and now it won't turn on. She said she'd pay for it but keeps pushing it off, it's been 4 weeks and nothing. I even texted her the repair cost ($175) and she just said 'oh yeah I'll Venmo you soon'. Has anyone else had a roommate's pet destroy something expensive and just never get paid back?
I was in town for a wedding last month and drove past the old complex where I lived with my roommate Kevin during junior year. Place looked exactly the same. I swear the carpet in the hallway still had that weird mix of cheap cleaner and stale pizza smell. Kevin used to leave his protein shake blender bottles in the sink for like a week at a time. Anyone else go back to an old place and get hit with the exact same weird smell from back then?
My new roomie Mark swore any food scraps in the sink after midnight would attract cockroaches and sure enough we woke up to three of them crawling on the counter after I left a plate with spaghetti sauce for just one night, has anyone else had a roommate's weird rule turn out to be totally right?
My roommate thought I was dumb for spending $15 a month on it. Then his laptop got stolen during a party and I got a full $1200 replacement check in 3 days. Has anyone else had a cheap monthly cost save them big?
Had a roommate named Derek who would leave moldy dishes in the sink for WEEKS. I kept telling myself maybe he just had a different standard of clean, you know? But after 4 months of me scrubbing the bathroom alone and finding his toenail clippings on the floor, I realized I was just making excuses for laziness. The breaking point was when he asked me why the trash smelled bad and I pointed to the 3 bags he never took out. Has anyone else had a roommate who made you feel like the unreasonable one for wanting basic cleanliness?
Did this after my roommate ate my $12 lasagna I made from scratch last Tuesday, and when I showed her the timestamped pic she finally admitted it and venmo'd me the cash - what do you guys do to stop the fridge thieves?
My old roommate and I had this system where we'd each pitch in half for groceries every week. Worked fine for like 8 months until I noticed I was buying milk and eggs twice as often as him. Then one day I found a post-it on the fridge that said "Nick owes $14 for the chicken he ate last night." That was from my new roommate. Honestly it's way better. We just buy our own food and if someone grabs your stuff they Venmo you instantly. No more guessing who ate the last yogurt. Has anyone else switched from a shared system to an individual one and never looked back?
For 6 months I tried the passive approach with my roommate Dave, just hoping he'd notice the trash was overflowing or the dishes were piling up. He never did. Last week I made a simple whiteboard chart with specific days for each chore, like Tuesday is vacuum day and Thursday is bathroom wipe-down. Compared to the old way of me stewing in silence while he watched Netflix, this feels way more fair. Has anyone else had success with a visible schedule or does your roommate just ignore it too?
It died last Tuesday and dumped a puddle of spoiled milk and mystery leftovers all over the kitchen floor. Has anyone else had to deal with a roommate who refuses to chip in for a replacement?
I used to think leaving a note was cowardly, but after my roommate ate my $15 lasagna three nights in a row and I finally wrote a calm note explaining I'd label stuff, he actually stopped and even offered to replace it. Has anyone else found that written words work better than face-to-face with certain people?
Last month I came home to find three of my good bath towels stained with blue paint in the kitchen trash. Turns out my roommate Jake used them to wipe up after he tried painting his old dresser in the living room. When I asked him about it he just shrugged and said "they wash out bro." I still haven't gotten the stains out and now I have a lock on my closet door. Has anyone else had a roommate just destroy your stuff like it's nothing?
I came back from a weekend trip to find 15 pots of dirt and half-dead ferns covering every surface, and she says it's 'aesthetic.' Am I crazy for wanting a couch that isn't buried in leaves, or is she the one who needs to chill?
I used to be super chill about sharing kitchen stuff with roommates, but that changed after I lived with this guy Kevin in Austin. He ruined my Lodge skillet that I'd had since 2018 by soaking it with soap, and then tried to say it was fine. Now I keep all my good pans locked in my room and only use cheap ones for communal cooking. Has anyone else had to hide their cookware from a roommate?
Last Tuesday I smelled something awful in my apartment in Brooklyn. Opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Found a Tupperware container full of fuzzy green mold. My roommate was growing it for a science experiment but forgot about it. I threw it out and bleached the whole cabinet. She got mad and said I ruined her project. Who keeps mold in a shared kitchen without telling anyone?
How did I finally figure it out when I walked in at 2am and caught her scrubbing a plate I just dried and put away, and she said 'this one had a water spot'?
I was looking for a spatula in the kitchen last week and opened the wrong cabinet. That's when I found a three-ring binder labeled "Living Guidelines." Inside was a chart showing exactly which 20-minute window each of us could shower in, ranked by seniority. She even color coded it with highlighters. I've lived here 8 months and never knew this existed. Anyone else find a secret rulebook hiding in plain sight?
Came home last Tuesday to find my seasoned pan sitting in the freezer with a half-eaten stick of butter on top and now I have to strip it down and start over, has anyone else had a roommate mess with their cookware for no reason?
Three weeks ago our apartment microwave just stopped closing properly. The latch broke off the frame and the door would hang open. My roommate Mark insisted it was because I left spaghetti sauce on the handle and it corroded something inside. I looked up the model online and found out a replacement latch costs $8 and takes five minutes to install with a screwdriver. I ordered the part and fixed it last Tuesday while Mark was at work. Has anyone else had a roommate jump to wild conclusions about a simple broken appliance?
I kept a tally on my phone of how long my roommate went without leaving a dirty plate or cup in the sink. Made it to 47 days, which felt like a miracle. Then I came home last night and there were three pots, two pans, and a strainer all crusted over with what looked like chili. He didn't even rinse them, just stacked them in there like some kind of art project. I texted him a photo with the date and he replied 'lol my bad.' Has anyone else kept a weird streak tracker just to prove a point?
Got a cheap $25 camera from Amazon and aimed it at the fridge. Sure enough, saw him eating my leftover takeout at 2 AM. Has anyone else had to set up a camera to prove what their roommate is doing?