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How to Handle Roommate Problems

Top 10 Roommate Problems

We’re not trying to stir up any trouble here, but roommate problems are always a hot topic. Venting can be therapeutic, so we thought it might be helpful for you to get your particular roomie problems off your chest.

Here’s our Top 10 Roommate Problems. Please feel to leave a comment and add your own.

1. Roomie transforms kitchen into toxic waste dump. Hasn’t your moron roommate ever heard of dish soap? Or a sponge? Nothing can be more frustrating than living with a pig, unless…

2. Roomie believes in being able to literally eat off kitchen floor. You’ve heard the expression, “My mother’s kitchen is so clean you could eat off the floor.” It’s no picnic if your roommate lives by those standards, and makes you feel like you’re entering a surgical ward whenever you’re getting a bowl of cereal.

3. Roomie leaves chew juice in pickle jar. This falls in the range of those really disgusting habits that a roommate has. I knew of a guy who used to spit tobacco into empty pickle jars, and then store them around the house for easy access. Yuck.

4. Roomie “borrows” things. All the time. Everyone likes to say, “Mi casa, su casa.” However, if your roomie is not only borrowing your clothes, but has their own monogram embroidered onto your shirt, then you’ve got an issue.

5. Roomie permanently borrows things. Wish you’d checked a roomie’s prison record before you signed the lease together? You do if cash/and or personal items start mysteriously disappearing and never coming back.

6. Roomie’s sex life is your life too. Hey, we’re all in favor of romance. But no one likes to hear, see, or in some other disgusting way be witness to someone else’s intimate relations. Please, roomie, get a room – like in another house.

7. Roomie can’t divide. When it comes time to pay the bills, it’s amazing how poor your roomie’s math skills can be. Seems like you always wind up paying a buck or two more on those bills – which is particularly frustrating if your roomie is an engineer.

8. Roomie likes sleeping in your bed. We call this the Goldilocks Syndrome, and believe it or not, it’s one of the leading causes of friction in a roommate situation. For some reason, it’s truly horrifying to find out a roomie, or a friend of a roomie, or a roomie and a friend, has spent a night in your bed without permission. Again, yuck.

9. Roomie reeks. You wish you would have caught a whiff of roomie up-close before you signed that lease. It’s no picnic when someone needs a “how-to” when it comes to hygiene.

10. Roomie always has to have the best. Roomie has to have the best room, the best TV seat, the best parking spot. When they always have to have the best, it’s just the worst.
Okay, we’ve got the ball rolling. Care to add a few to the list?

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