Roommate gripes

[Pingfah]

I had a flatmate who would leave food on plates in his room for days on end until it turned into plates full of mold, and then he would just move them to the kitchen and leave them there. And his feet stank so badly you couldn't even really go in his room anyway, and he snored so badly you could hear him in the next room.

And he dated a crazy heroin addict stripper who's fake hair extensions fell out all over the floor, and they went on a spending spree with a stolen credit card and got caught committing fraud, with a load of ecstacy tablets on them, which got my flat raided, and everything torn apart by the police, and very nearly got me arrested myself.

So you all can consider yourself lucky.

 

[DanCPA]

I had a flatmate who would leave food on plates in his room for days on end until it turned into plates full of mold, and then he would just move them to the kitchen and leave them there. And his feet stank so badly you couldn't even really go in his room anyway, and he snored so badly you could hear him in the next room.

And he dated a crazy heroin addict stripper who's fake hair extensions fell out all over the floor, and they went on a spending spree with a stolen credit card and got caught committing fraud, with a load of ecstacy tablets on them, which got my flat raided, and everything torn apart by the police, and very nearly got me arrested myself.

So you all can consider yourself lucky.

Wow... the only drug story I have is a roommate that I found all spun out on acid.
That is some crazy story!

Just wondering, did you ever hear from that person again?

 

[Pingfah]

Oh yeah, he's sorted himself out somewhat now, we are friends. We were friends before he went completely off the rails.

 

[DanCPA]

Glad to hear that he sorted himself out

 

[Holdfast]

I'm an only child; I never really learned how to share space, so I would never choose to have a roommate.

Amen to this.

 

[Maestro]

I ended up marrying a roommate. She still does things after 8 years of marriage that were annoying when we were roommies.

She probably feels the same way about me.

Oh well. At least our daughter is darling.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

My roommates have been fine. Well, freshmen year, I would never talk to him, but that meant we never argued and we never got in each other's way (also, his side of the room had the aesthetics of a Spartan so he didn't have enough stuff to make the room messy).

Last year, I had some issues with my roommates, but that was because our room was too small and we were practically living on top of each other. This year, we're all fine (same people). We're in a bigger place. The only real complaint is dishes and, since they don't cook as often as I do, it's usually my fault when they pile up.

 

[An Officer]

I used to live in a building where I shared everything but my bedroom with at least four others, most of them female... We had a cleaner who came in at least once a day, so thankfully there were not many cleaniliness gripes... however, between the hours of each clean, I occasionally spotted a few weird things... like used sanitary towels left on the floor of the shower room, people not flushing after themselves, and dirty dishes hidden away in cupboards, which would then stink after a while, as dishes were not supposed to be left for the cleaner... we had a couple who would try to hide their dirty saucepans once in a while.

 

[kimc]

A couple of years ago a friend needed a safe place to live so she moved in "temporarily". She's still here. The nice thing is we're not in each other's hair much. We have had some disagreements and once she went as far as starting to pack.

As for pluses the rent money is nice. She'll also take the dog for walks if I'm not home and she's a cat person.

 

[FPAlpha]

Stories like these just reinforce my decision never to get a roommate (other than a girlfriend/wife later on).

I'm sometimes a slob where i can go for periods of time without cleaning up my appartment and sorting stuff through but then i'm the only person here so nobody is affected but me. However after a time i get fed up and break put the cleaning supplies and go to town on my place until everything is tidy and shiny.

However a similar attitude by a roommate would drive me nuts and insane.. i couldn't handle it because when i know i'll have someone around i'll clean up the appartment as best as it can be done. Having crap from other persons around and them being unwilling to clean up after themselves is a dealbreaker for me.

Luckily i never had the financial needs to have a roommate to chip in with rent.. at the beginning my parents supported me a bit and after that i had a steady job and could pay for it myself (even while attending university). Once my best friend asked if i would like to "room up" but i politely declined since he has in a bad place at that time (personally and financially) and it most likely would have ruined our friendship.

 

[kimc]

Stories like these just reinforce my decision never to get a roommate (other than a girlfriend/wife later on).

Well one of the reasons I don't mind a roommate (or a dog for that matter) is I felt I was becoming too set in my ways when living alone. Living with someone, romantic partner or not involves a lot of compromise. Assuming that one day I meet a man with a big enough closet for my shoes I want to enjoy my morning coffee while listening to sweet nothings - not things like "You squeezed the tube of toothpaste from the middle AGAIN!"

 

[DanCPA]

Assuming that one day I meet a man with a big enough closet for my shoes...

One of my roommates once colonized part of the hallway storage area for her shoes! She must have had 40 pairs of shoes in there!

TighsEye, a man with a big closet

 

[TheBrew]

I live with my brother (with us both being college students). It's pretty great since we know each other's boundaries and call each other out on our shit. He will probably be my last roommate since I will be entering "real life" after this and I sure as hell am getting a place to myself for graduate school in a few years.

 

[archeryguy1701]

Stories like these just reinforce my decision never to get a roommate (other than a girlfriend/wife later on).

Well, the thing to bear in mind is that this is a roommate gripes thread, so you're obviously going to hear all the bad stories. It really depends on who you get. For example, I had my year and a half of problem children roommates, but the guys I have right now are great. We don't bother eachother, we're friendly, all dishes are taken care of within a day or two. We haven't had any issues.

And, sometimes it's just the luck of the draw. You can get someone that you think everything will work out with and that turns out to be a disaster, or you can sometimes get with someone who you think it'll never go well, and they turn out to be the best roomies that you've ever had. So, if you don't have the need, certainly don't run out and try to get roommates, but at the same time, don't entirely condemn the thought because we're all whining in a whining thread.

 

[freak]

I've had roommates in college. One of them was really nice but was hardly ever in the room and when she was she was always noisy! But we did visit alot and talked..I kinda missed having her around..but she had her own friends and I had mine. I remember one evening she came in around 3am and started using my labtop, stayed up til 7am or later in the morning to do a stinking paper, had the lights on in the room ALL NIGHT LONG, waiting til the very last moment to do a paper for a class. I couldn't sleep at all cause of it. One time, I'll never forget, she really annoyed me. I was taping one of my favorite shows (Star Trek Voyager at the time!) while I was in another girl's room watching another show with her. I had left a note on my VCR and TV saying: I'm recording a program which will be done within an hour..please don't use until such and such time! Thanks!..you know what she does?? She stops my tape, pulls it out, and then goes to find me saying that she had accidentally stopped my tape, knowing that I had a note stuck to my TV set saying I was recording something! I even left her a note on the door as well. So, I didn't get to see all my show that evening and I was thoroughly pissed off about that. I don't like missing my favorite shows. She was gonna watch a movie(A Midsummer Night's Dream I think) with her friends and that's cool, but when you see there's a note saying I'm recording something, then I'm recording something!!!! I was so angry at her that night.
I've also had psychotic roommates in college as well..one was a self mutilator. I had never dealt with anything like that before and it was during my freshman year that she had slept all the time and was using razors to slash her arms up. I had to tell my coordinator at the time about it and they got on the phone with my parents about it. Dad wanted to take me out of college right then and there, but I decided to toughen it out and stay. The good thing about all of it was that I made a friend and she let me stay in her dorm that evening..we hung out, had a little pizza, and watched some great TV shows and visited. I was literally in tears, telling her that I was really upset about what had happened. She was very nice and understanding which made me feel so much better about the situation. I left a note on my dorm room door saying I was gonna be out that evening and not in the room..to not worry. I come back the next day and find my bed messy..SOMEONE HAD BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE!!! My psychotic roommate had had visitors over and they had slept in MY BED!!!!!!!!! So I literally threw the sheets off my bed and washed them in hot water. I couldn't beleive that she stooped that low! I confronted her about the situation and she got all pissed off and denied everything. I told her that my bed smells differently. We got into a huge arguement over the whole thing and didn't speak. Suffice to say, about a month or two later, she got kicked out of the college and I moved upstairs to another room with a much better roommate who was normal, but very environmental. I told her: you and my Dad would get into a heated debate! So yeah..I have had my share of crazy roommates!

 

[JimCasy]

Yeah, college roommates...thankfully I only had one. It amazed me how they managed to match me with someone so unlike me. She was in a sorority and spent hugely long amounts of time getting ready to go out. One time I had a couple friends over and we were watching a presidential debate (in 2000), and she spent that entire time putting on makeup and doing her hair. She also had two boyfriends and they would like trade off spending the night. We had our beds set up as bunkbeds, and I was on top...and was woken up one night to the bed swaying from them having sex. A little awkward. I thought about starting to masturbate really loudly to make it even more awkward.

We never really talked much, but toward the end of the year we both got really sick of our friends and just holed up together in our room and hung out a lot, so that was kind of cool.

 

[kimc]

One of my roommates once colonized part of the hallway storage area for her shoes! She must have had 40 pairs of shoes in there!

So were you thinking that's a lot?

 

[An Officer]

^ I believe the above poster has now left the building. Went out with a bang too.