People with housemates/roommates
Mar. 17th, 2009 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I have a question, because it's been a long time since I lived with people (except my parents, who aren't your typical housemates).
What are things that housemates fight about?
I'll start: leaving the laundry in one of the machines, not doing dishes, leaving your crap all over the common living space.
Now add more. I'm trying to write a scene where two people are arguing about something, and I need a good, old argument that can have them shouting and slamming doors.
What are things that housemates fight about?
I'll start: leaving the laundry in one of the machines, not doing dishes, leaving your crap all over the common living space.
Now add more. I'm trying to write a scene where two people are arguing about something, and I need a good, old argument that can have them shouting and slamming doors.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:24 am (UTC)fighting over the TV/radio/music/different interests
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:29 am (UTC)Let's see. The pan of chili left on the stove for four days, that was nearly explosive.
Stealing the other one's food, that can be a fighting point? I haven't run into it but I'm aware of it. OR taking the other one's stuff without permission. One of my housemates would have had a fight over that with another one by now were he not so very English and repressed.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:30 am (UTC)one or two people getting stuck always taking out the trash because no one else ever does it
leaving the light in the bedroom on all night while the rest of us are trying to sleep
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:31 am (UTC)not cleaning up after your animals.
Having over very loud and invasive friends.
These are all things that happened to a roommate of mine which got her kicked out of the apartment.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:39 am (UTC)Ick ick ick.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:54 am (UTC)Man he was annoying.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 03:11 am (UTC)Okay, done now. :P
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Date: 2009-03-18 03:14 am (UTC)But yeah, srs, ignore. *hides*
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Date: 2009-03-18 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:35 am (UTC)Hope that helps.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:37 am (UTC)Taking things. I bought food for my guests, my roommate ate all the snacks. Once I thought she ate my food but it turned out to be mice... eek.
I had one roommate who always wanted to be invited along with... if the rest of us went somewhere without her. She'd slam cupboard doors and sulk for hours after we got back from a film or an event or dinner out.
Once, my roommate locked the deadbolt and I couldn't get back into my apartment with just my key. It was a mistake, she thought I was in my room... but if done intentionally!
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:40 am (UTC)When I lived with a male, he was very nice, neat, respectful and clean, but we did have some major disagreements about my ex-asshole. My roomate was right about him, and I couldn't see it at the time.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:45 am (UTC)so issues i remember us having:
1. she never handled her own finances well so I was always covering her half of the utilities until she could pay me back, thus screwing up my finances waiting for her to pay up
2. she was always using the last of consumables i paid for and not replacing them. and i am not talking about groceries cause i am simply not that anal. i mean like stamps or shampoo or printer paper. the first few times it happened- no big deal. but then after the third midnight trip to walmart or office depot in as many months to get printer paper for my graduate thesis, i started to get a little pissy.
3. she was forever erasing all the messages off the answering machine or voice mail even when they were for me. that wouldn't really be a problem now. most people use cell phones instead of landlines now but i had a cell that was only for work, so all my personal contacts had my landline and not my cell. (this was like 8 years ago before landlines became obselete)
4. never taking her turn cleaning the common areas or doing the yard work
5. she would bitch for days before and after i ever had company or a party even if i gave her warning in advance by several days
6. she would use things, break them and not offer to replace them, like the vaccuum (she used it to suck up pennies off the floor after her piggy bank broke) or the dish washer (she put a platter that was too large and it caught on the spinny rotating water spout thing preventing it from spinning and the motor burnt out) or the garbage disposal (she tried to run it with a fork down it)
7. she dated my brother but was at times verbally cruel to him and his two daughters- this particularly made me crazed with anger but then my brother always took her back so i couldn't really say anything to him beyond sisterly concern
8. she was often rude to my friends or family when they were over visiting
9. she often had "crisis" that she liked to make my problem too by becoming increasingly hysterical until i paid attention to her or left the house. she often would beg me for advice and then after i relented and told her my opinion, she would do the opposite. yet she would always come back to me and beg me for more advice. i never understood why.
10. whenever she would lose something, she would insist on searching the entire house, including my bedroom. and then she would move my stuff around and not return it to the place it was when she found it. i was perpetually looking for things, like a broom or the laundry detergent. it made me crazy.
so hopefully u don't think i am a weirdo with my list of complaints. if you knew me, you would realize i am very homey and don't mind messes. it was more of a frequency issue... the more she did these things despite the fact that we agreed to be more considerate of one another, the more frustrated i got. hope this helps your fic!
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:46 am (UTC)Uh...honestly, dishes piss me off the most. Using up all the hot water comes a VERY close second. Having to take a cold shower when the weather is in the minuses is horrible.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:48 am (UTC)It's worse when it's in the shower and well...you can tell the hair didn't come from their head.
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Date: 2009-03-18 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 12:59 am (UTC)MONEY. If you pay for mutually decided upon furniture, rent, groceries, etc, with the understanding of being paid back and roommate (a) conveniently forgets to ever pay you back (b) roommate buys something s/he wants and claims that it "counts as paying you back because it's for BOTH of us," (c) complains about being broke whenever the situation is brought up, and then buys him/herself booze, DVDs, $200 pants.
All of the above happened to a friend of mine. Needless to say, she is no longer friends with her former roomie. Also, said roomie made off with all the furniture my friend had paid for. 0__o.
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Date: 2009-03-18 01:46 am (UTC)- not cleaning up hair in drains
- moving other people's toiletries around
- not doing their dishes / cleaning up kitchen areas
- not warning before monopolizing the only bathroom in the flat for over an hour to take a bath
- not warning before dismantling major appliance for cleaning on a work morning (i.e. taking all the bits off the stove so you can't put the kettle on, or emptying the fridge onto the table)
- being passive aggressive and posting NOTES everywhere complaining about things other people do, instead of sitting down one day after West Wing to actually TALK to each other.
- not cleaning up the hairballs from the cats she swore you would never have to deal with if they came with her
- never ever taking their turn shoveling the walk or cleaning the common areas or buying the milk
- emptying the milk (or tp or dish soap or other common supply) without buying new, or adding it to the communal shopping list
- making a fuss over missing a rerun of some syndicated show or having to pause a DVD they had on over dinner when your regularly scheduled new episode of weekday TV comes on.
- not warning before having a party / loud guests in the common areas
- not *inviting* you to the party they're having at your flat
- borrowing your stuff and not using it correctly / not putting it back / not recharging or refilling / not *asking* first
- nitpicking the flat rate phone bill or the electric or gas bills because they 'don't use the appliances/heaters/phone as much'
- never taking out the trash, from the bathroom, bedrooms, or common areas, EVER. even when asked.
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Date: 2009-03-18 02:24 am (UTC)Well you already mentioned dishes, that's a big thing.
-leaving dishes on the stove
-using all the soap
-not replacing things when you use it all up
-using up all of something (paper towels, trash bags, toilet paper), especially when you weren't the one to buy it
-eating the last of something that wasn't yours
-taking up all the space in the house (my situation was that my only space in the house was my bedroom and I freaking own the house)
-leaving your shit everywhere
-losing the other person's mail
-breaking things (like my sink that i just found was cracked)
-not keeping your space clean
-scratching hardwood floors
-staining the furniture
-saying your going to do something (like walk the dog when I'm at work and not doing and then leaving the mess for me to clean up when I get home from work)
-paying rent late and having to be reminded constantly
-coming in super late and waking up everyone in the house by clomping around
-turning the tv up really loud when the other person is asleep
I could honestly go on for quite some time...but those are all personal experiences for me over the last year and a half.
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Date: 2009-03-18 02:33 am (UTC)The TiVo. My ex-roomie would set all of her shows to TiVo and then mine would get erased because there wasn't room. Or she would have so many FUCKING shows on there that none of mine would record. Or on her day off she would lay on the couch and watch TV all day long and then when I got home from work and want to watch my one show or something, not even offer to change the channel and continue to make me watch whatever crap ass show she was watching. Oh and not sharing the couch! It was like she owned the couch. I hadn't sat on my couch in a year before she moved out in February.
My biggest pet peeve right now is that she's been moved out for 1.5 months and all of her shit is still here. It's like she still lives here and she hasn't given me any money for 'storage' or made definite plans to get the crap out.
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Date: 2009-03-18 03:01 am (UTC)That's all I got for now. :D
Woo boy...
Date: 2009-03-18 04:13 am (UTC)1. Listening to heavy metal at 12:00 at night on loud
2. Dealing with the police at 12:00 because the neighbours complained
3. Locking her cat indoors at night and not letting her out (cat poo anyone?)
4. Leaving chicken thigh fillets on the floor for days at a time for her cat to eat (and she wondered why we had cockroaches the size of rats???)
5. Not flushing the toilet at night no matter what was done...
6. Not doing the dishes at all, even if bowls of cereal had to be left because there was no room near the sink
7. Having friends over till arsecrack o'clock the night before a major exam, despite me warning her weeks in advance
8. Occupying the only living space available with so much junk and rubbish it stunk
9. Leaving used tampons and pads wrapped up in toilet paper lying around the bathroom
10. Watching slasher films on full volume until early morning when she couldn't sleep
Now at first I tried to talk to her about it, being reasonable and all. When that didn't work I spoke to our landlord who said tough luck and if the place was a mess when I left, I'd have to pay part of the damages fee. We then had another discussion and nothing changed. We then had an argument. I then got so fed up I didn't enter the kitchen, use the living room etc. I ate at my friends place, and basically stayed in my room until the first year was over and I moved back home.
NEVER AGAIN!!!
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Date: 2009-03-18 05:47 am (UTC)I've only ever had two roommates (separately) and I DO NOT miss them. They were both guys, and in retrospect I can't believe I agreed to it. The first roommate brought friends home at 3am and decided to make soup - my soup, because he didn't bother to buy groceries. And I once walked out of my bedroom into the living room and found him sitting on the sofa, with his girlfriend shaving his chin. Another day, he left his toenail clippings on the coffee table.
Second roommate once used my toothbrush, because he thought it was his. He threw his old one away but didn't open the new one he'd bought, and somehow thought my toothbrush had magically appeared (complete with my out-of-province dentist's name/address printed on the handle) for his use.
Worse: This went on for a few days before we realized what had happened and still grosses me out.
WORST: We realized at 12am on a Tuesday so I couldn't go buy a new one, and he used the brand new one leaving me with the 'shared' one.
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Date: 2009-03-18 05:44 pm (UTC)The one trouble I ran into with her being a party person who liked to drink was that on more than one occasion, when she came home in the middle of the night, I'd wake up the next morning to the front door hanging open with her keys still in the door because she must have pretty literally stumbled in and fallen asleep. Finding an open door with keys still in it set off ALL kinds of WTF NO panic alarm bells in my head. The first time was bad enough; the second and third times made it kind of hard to get to sleep when I knew she was out on the town...
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Date: 2009-03-18 09:36 pm (UTC)But the main squabbles seem to be eating other people's food, not paying their share of bills, not washing up/cleaning up.
Having said that, there have been times I could have murdered my husband for snoring . . .
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Date: 2009-03-19 10:40 pm (UTC)I ended up sleeping in the kitchen shared between my room mate and i last year (my uni halls were wiered)and she left sauseges in the bin in my room over the month long christmas break *shudder* that i'm vegaterian only makes it worse.
My current room mate and her boy friend lying on top of each other on the couch when im in the same room is also pretty annoying.