Need Advice: Roomate crap

Kooldino

MOTM Winner Jan '09
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Ugh, I've about had it with this situation.

Ok, here's the cliff notes.

I have a 3 bedroom townhouse with 2 roomates. Before either of them moved in, I explained to each of them that I have two rules they may find odd, but they're important to me.

Rule 1 - Take of your shoes when you come in, ditto for your guests. Reasoning is, I don't want mud and dirt tracked through the house. Or dog s***. No big deal.

Rule 2 - Every week, we all have to pitch in and do chores. Sweep, mop, vaccuum, dust the furniture, etc. Standard stuff. Reasoning is - No one likes a dirty house, so we should all clean it.

For the most part, Rule #1 is always followed. My only beef is that roomate #1 doesn't take off his shoes when he comes in, he wears them to the room and takes them off there. Not the end of the world, but because of it, he tracks in dirt, bubble gum, you name it, on the path to his room. Annoying on occasion, but no big deal.

Now for rule #2. I originally asked Roomate #1 (R1, from now on) when he thought chores should be "due" by. He told me Sunday night, so I made it Sunday night by midnight.

3/4 times, he would have them done by that time, and the other time, he'd make up some lame excuse why it wasn't done.

Recently, it got to the point where 3/4 times he DOESN'T have things done by Sunday night. So usually he'd get them done Monday or Tues, and sometimes they'd be half assed to boot.


Anytime he was late with chores, I'd politely mention it to him "Hey, don't forget to do your chores, man" (this would be on a Monday). He'd almost always give me an attitude back, then tell me he'd have it done at a certain time, which of course, he normally wouldn't.

So about 2 weeks ago I said


"Hey, R1, looks like Sunday nights are bad for you to have chores done, how about we make it Monday for you instead. R2 and I will stick to our regular Sunday schedule.".

R1: Nah, that's not necessary, (blah) (blah) (blah) , I'm gonna try to do them Sunday anyway.

So 2 weeks go by, and he does his stuff on Monday night.

This morning (Tues), I check to see if he did his chores last night, and he hadn't. And I know he's going somewhere tonight, so I doubt they'd even get done tonight even if I mentioned it to him. So he's already a day late on an already lenient schedule. And it probably won't be done for another day knowing him.

Me and R2 always have our stuff done in time. Hell, R2 usually has his stuff done before I do. What the hell do I say/do so that R1 gets his s*** done once a week, instead of every week and a half?
 
unless he is a very good friend kick him out... he agreed to the rules, and he is breaking them. find a more respectful roomate.

this is exactly why I wont ever have a roomate again.
 
Well, he's been a friend for years, and I can't kick him out for just that...besides It'd just hurt my wallet until I found a replacement.
 
remind him that he is the only one not upholding his end of the bargain. it would be one thing if he wanted to be a slob in his own room, but when the comunity area starts to suffer its just not right.
 
I would give him a warning first and let him know this is the only warning he'll receive. He agreed to the schedule, if he breaks it again he can pack his s***.

You've been very lenient and polite about it. Time to take the velvet glove off...and reveal the steel fist.
 
Its always a PITA to get roomates to keep stuff clean. I had to give up in college. There were 5 of us so it was even worse. One time I threw away almost all of the dishes becuase they kept piling up so bad in the sink. I just kept my room clean and used to keep after the bathroom. I had the biggest room in the house so I had no problem hangining out in there, it was like a second living room.

Would it be possible to have everyone do their chores at the same time? We used to do that and it seemed to work the best. Crank up the stereo and go to town cleaning the house. Then we'd kick back and have a couple beers when we finished. Of course that will only work if you've got similar schedules.
 
Just tell him that your going to raise his rent for housekeeping.
If he doesn't want to pitch in and help clean then he should pay a little extra each month for you and R2 to be R1 housekeeper. This would drive me nuts. It doesn't take very long to sweap a floor or do the dishes, dust the furniture. Just get off your ass and get er done.
 
RyanJayG said:
remind him that he is the only one not upholding his end of the bargain. it would be one thing if he wanted to be a slob in his own room, but when the comunity area starts to suffer its just not right.
I have. :(

stark - Kicking him out isn't really an option right now because of $. Unless someone clean here is looking for a place in South Jersey. :D

Same time cleaning IS a good idea, but if he's doing something already, there's a 0% chance of him stopping what he's doing to do chores.

Yeah, personally I'm leaning towards "upping the rent".

When R2 moved in a couple of weeks ago, I made him sign a lease and such (R1 moved in when I bought the place, so he never ended up signing s***), and on the lease for R2, it says that for EVERY day chores are late, there's a $5 fine.


Good idea, keeps him motivated, but it may require some tact to enforce that on R1, since he didn't agree to that rule off the bat. But he DID agree to having chores done on time.
 
MP3intheSTL said:
It doesn't take very long to sweap a floor or do the
dishes, dust the furniture. Just get off your ass and get er done.
Egg fuggin zactly. It's 15 minutes worth of stuff. Seriously.
 
Man, so you're one of "those" roomates. Actually, my freshman year I lived with a girl like yourself, except PMS added to it about 1000%. Personally, I think you gotta give and take a little. You'd be amazed on how hard it is to find a roomate that does exactly what you want...and usually you end up marrying them. :/
 
LOL, one of "those" roomates? s***, dude, I'm just trying to be fair. How would you like it if YOU cleaned all the time, and the person who agreed to help you never did?
 
Kooldino said:
LOL, one of "those" roomates? s***, dude, I'm just trying to be fair. How would you like it if YOU cleaned all the time, and the person who agreed to help you never did?

(werd) Yeah all through college I cleaned all the time, while 2 of the other 3 housemates basically sat and watched
 
jersey_emt said:
(werd) Yeah all through college I cleaned all the time, while 2 of the other 3 housemates basically sat and watched
Exactly. Not effing cool.

I mean, in general the guy cleans up after himself and such, but making sure he cleans every week is a TOTAL pain in the ass.
 
I had a roommate once that was soooo bad. He would finish off a pizza and then put the box under the couch. No joke. He would just leave trash and wrappers all over the place. He would actually be next to a trash can and throw the trash on the floor.
He was the must unkempt person I ever lived with. Never did a dish out of the almost 2 years I lived in the same house as him. His excuse was that he didnt eat there, which he did of course.

Living with people sucks. Its too bad it is so expensive to live all by yourself.
 
Wow, what an ahole. I would have gone mad.

Yeah, at least R1 is good in general.
 

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