How to lose friends and alienate flatmates
Posted on 10. Mar, 2010 by The LandLady in Confessions, Housemate stories
There was stuff everywhere
We were one short in our house and the person that we moved in needed somewhere to live as their flatmates were a bit psycho.
We would later find out that said person never got on with any of their ex flatmates and would always have some excuse for moving out, which was never their fault.
After about a month I started to notice that our new flatmate never helped with anything such as cleaning, never emptied the bin, generally sat on their backside while myself and my other flatmate did everything.
Raising the issue – kindly
We decided to sit flatmate down and have a friendly chat and it was agreed that we would all pitch in i.e. said flatmate would stop being so lazy and do something. This promise never materialised and whenever we would try to bring the subject up again they would always get defensive, even though we were polite, practically walking on egg shells or they would change the subject. The situation just got worse and worse as time drew on.
Repercussions
Flatmate never ever did anything, never swept the floor, cleaned the bathroom, hoovered, or even put the dishwasher on, ever!!! Or for that matter opened their bedroom window. It got so bad that when they were on holiday once we had to break into their bedroom to open the window as the smell drifted all around the house, it was like gone off cheese. When we entered the bedroom there were paper and plastic bags and dirty washing everywhere, used condoms and the sheets looked like they had not been washed in a year.
“That’ll learn ya”
Anyway the big lessons I have learned from my experience are:
1. Some people just don’t give a toss about general hygiene/cleanliness, they would rather bask in their own filth.
2. If you have a bad feeling about someone that lingers and after talking to them numerous times (politely) about helping with cleaning/tidying and they still don’t give a toss, ask them to move out, because if I had of listened to my gut and not have just ”put up” with them, this person and I would still be friends.
3. As my mother says ”If you want to know me come and live with me”.
Shared by: Derek, Location Unknown
What advice have you for anybody who finds themselves living with someone who just will not pitch in – despite being asked to?
What other housemates say…