Dealing with an Inconsiderate Roommate: Tips & Advice

[gravenewworld]

Who here has ever lived with someone that was a complete pig? My roomate is starting to really piss me off. I clean the dishes everytime and in less than 24 hours there is another full sink because my roomate doesn't ever do the dishes. We have a freakin dishwashwer for god's sake. He can't even unload, load, and run the dishwasher. When we run out of dishes he goes out and buys plastic spoons, forks, and paper plates so he doesn't have to clean. I am seriously going to start to put all the dirty dishes and trash in his room whenever he doesn't clean it up. Does anyone have any other good ways to make him clean up after himself? I already refused to not do the dishes once before and they just sat there for almost a month and smelled up the whole house before I couldn't stand it anymore.

 

[Evo]

I guess you've already tried telling him how frustrated you are with cleaning up after him? If you have, I'd say start carting his dirty dishes into his room.

 

[gravenewworld]

::throws a pile of spoons and bloody plates from last nights steaks in room down the hall::

 

[Evo]

::throws a pile of spoons and bloody plates from last nights steaks in room down the hall::

Maybe you could also find something that smells really bad, like rotten eggs, and occasionally add some to the dishes in his room.

 

[JasonRox]

Good thing you didn't live with me in Residence.

I superglued my roommates drawers shut. He couldn't get to his "valuable" notes and pens. I laughed so hard. Not to mention him trying to get a t-shirt.

Also, when I went away for the weekend to go home or something. I'd spray the whole room with fart spray so it stink like ass. By the time I get back, it's all gone. So much fun.

I slept with nose plugs a lot because then I would snore like a *****, and I'd make up excuses that the doctor told me too. :)

Good thing he's one of those goody goods because he didn't do anything.

Or... the one time I put pickles in his coat pockets! He was pissed!

 

[SOS2008]

I take it you don't have any other choice but to live with someone obviously not compatible with you? People who are not neat and tidy aren't likely to be affected by messes or bad smells--you are projecting your values on someone with different values. You are not going to change him/her by thinking they will suffer consequences. In fact, your roommate may wish you weren't so clean. You would have to care enough and respect each other enough to even meet each other half-way. If you can get a different roommate, that would be the easiest way to solve the problem.

 

[Hurkyl]

Use all of his plastic forks, spoons, and plates. Maybe he'll get sick of going to the store?

 

[JasonRox]

Again, go with Hurkyl.

Knowing myself, I'd probably throw them out without using them or store them somewhere inappropriate, like next to the toiled bowl.

 

[Moonbear]

Get a bicycle lock and put it through the handles on one of the cabinets. Tell him that every time you find a dish he used sitting in the sink for more than 24 h and you have to wash it for him, you're putting it into the locked cabinet. If he prefers to resort to eating off paper plates with plastic cutlery rather than wash dishes, so be it. We used to have this problem in the dorms all the time; people would just leave dishes in the kitchen sink and never reclaim them until the kitchen stunk and nobody could get anywhere near the sink, so we just started locking away dishes after cleaning them. The slobs either ran out of dishes or had to find the RA with the key to the lock and explain why they couldn't manage to wash a dish. We had even provided dish detergent and sponges for everyone to use, so they didn't have any excuse that they ran out of detergent.

Oh, don't bother throwing the dirty plates in his room; you'll just smell the stench coming from his room instead of the kitchen. He probably had a mother who did all the cleaning for him when he lived home and thinks dishes just magically clean themselves if you leave them in the sink.

 

[Kakarot]

only keep 2 dishes. on the bottom write each of your names so he only has one to keep clean and he can't take yours. its not too hard to just keep one clean lmao or maybe he won't clean it and just keep eating off it

 

[JasonRox]

Take a piss in his room when he's not there. The smell will drive him crazy. Blame the dishes for the smell.

 

[gravenewworld]

LOL those are all very good ideas-especially that last one

 

[Smurf]

I can't believe you're listening to JasonRox for roomate tips.

 

[Pengwuino]

Id get a bunch of friends and restrain him somehow and make him smell a lot of dirty stuff (too bad you can't pile the dishes on his face :D)

 

[mapper]

I had a roomate like that. He was worse, no really he was. After many times of explaining i don't like living in filth he still never did anything. So i moved. Problem solved.

 

[gnome]

All those confrontational and malodorous suggestions are fun to talk about, but they're likely to result in nothing more useful than confrontations and bad odors.

The best solution is to get a new roommate.

Next time, have a look at your prospective roommate's current living conditions before committing yourself.

 

[Soilwork]

Good thing you didn't live with me in Residence.

I superglued my roommates drawers shut. He couldn't get to his "valuable" notes and pens. I laughed so hard. Not to mention him trying to get a t-shirt.

Also, when I went away for the weekend to go home or something. I'd spray the whole room with fart spray so it stink like ass. By the time I get back, it's all gone. So much fun.

I slept with nose plugs a lot because then I would snore like a *****, and I'd make up excuses that the doctor told me too. :)

Good thing he's one of those goody goods because he didn't do anything.

Or... the one time I put pickles in his coat pockets! He was pissed!

Is that guy a prick to you? haha and peeing in someone's room is pretty bad...I'd hate to piss you off ;)

 

[quantumdude]

I've been in this situation with a roommate. After asking nicely many times, I decided to go all out and try to outdo him in obnoxiousness. I didn't clean up after myself, I ate his food, I drank his beer, I played loud music late at night, and I stacked my dishes on his. He got the point.

 

[BobG]

I can sympathize. I have two teenage boys. The older one is pretty much the reincarnation of Felix Unger when it comes to cleanliness. He complains about the younger one all the time and we've kind of brushed it off. Everything looks fine and the older one is just compulsive.

Now, I've been stuck with the younger one alone for about two months. I finally understand what the older one was complaining about. The younger one's a total slob! The most shocking thing I've found so far is when I went into the older one's room to get something and discovered the younger one has been letting the cats use the older one's floor as a litter box while he's gone! Aaaaagh!

Fortunately, I can do a little more about it than you can with a room mate. Of course, on the flip side, I can't very easily just move away.

 

[Moonbear]

Now, I've been stuck with the younger one alone for about two months. I finally understand what the older one was complaining about. The younger one's a total slob! The most shocking thing I've found so far is when I went into the older one's room to get something and discovered the younger one has been letting the cats use the older one's floor as a litter box while he's gone! Aaaaagh!

Yes, my parents learned what a true slob my sister is when I left for college and suddenly there was no one else to blame for the messes nor to clean up after her. It's all pretty clear now. I have a clean house, my parents have a clean house, and none of us can stand visiting my sister's house because it's so filthy!

The bottom line is there isn't much you can do to change a slob short of enlisting them in the military. The best hope is to look for a new apt or new roommate once your lease is up (or if you can find someone else who is neat and living with a slob, you might be able to work out a deal where you can trade apts so the slobs live together and the neat people live together). You just have to find someone who's comfortable with your level of neatness. If you're okay with the dishes sitting just overnight (i.e., eat dinner and leave the dishes to do in the morning while the coffee is brewing), then you also don't want a roommate who thinks dishes should be washed the moment you're done using them.

 

[Pengwuino]

All those confrontational and malodorous suggestions are fun to talk about, but they're likely to result in nothing more useful than confrontations and bad odors.

The best solution is to get a new roommate.

Should at least do all the suggestions first THEN get a new roommate :)

 

[Moonbear]

Should at least do all the suggestions first THEN get a new roommate :)

All most of those suggestions are going to do is lose you your security deposit. Sometimes just venting is good, saying "I should..." but knowing you won't really do it. But to follow through on many of those suggestions won't solve anything, and might even make the situation worse. Especially if he is considering breaking a lease, he's going to need to get the current roommate to go along with that and accept a new roommate, otherwise he could make it really difficult and expect gravenewworld to have to continue paying rent after moving out and not help find any new roommate.

Moving the mess to a different room of the house doesn't make it any less stinky.

Besides, we also don't know anything about their lease agreement. Have they both signed the lease, or is it in one name only? If it's only in one name, then one of them has more of a right than the other to stay there, and the other has to leave.

In practicality, for everyone's comfort and health, it's better to just keep cleaning up after him until new living arrangements can be secured. Let his next roommate deal with him.

 

[JasonRox]

By the way, I was joking. :P

I need a clean place.

 

[Sting]

I live in an Atlanta apartment with three guys. One is a doctoral student and he pretty much minds his own business. Another one is a lazy sex-crazed maniac (his girlfriend lives here now and I feel like I'm living on a porno set sometimes). The other one is a Church of Christ religious nut. Apparently taking out the garbage is an anti-aphrodisiac and/or a major sin because it piles up.

I usually have a trash bag in my room and when it gets full, I'll take it out to the dumpster so I don't have to use the main trash can in the kitchen. Most of the garbage is that of Paul's and Jackie's.

My solution? When they aren't too preoccupied making out, I hint to them of an upcoming inspection and bluntly point out to them that most of the garbage is theirs (since we are considered Georgia Tech housing, we have inspections by the housing department every now and then). After that, they'll usually take it out without any questions asked.

 

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

ahhhh god my roomate is the same, i can't stand him, what a slob, uses my dishes(well used to i took my dishes away and put them in my room) his gf and her friend all live in his room, they all cook and never clean, leave stuck on food in the pots, never takes out the garbage yet puts stuff in it to let rot and stink and ooze, leaves his room garbage behind the door so that we may stumble upon it and take it down for him... worste thing is he is leaving tomorrow and leaving everyhting like that, and if I don't do it i'll loose my deposit, and i don't want me or my friend(also a roomie) to loose that money.... so i hit on the girlfriend slaped her ass and everything, what a tramp anyhoo it made up for me having to clean mouahahahaha