At what point does being 'clean' just turn into a psychological warfare campaign?
By @hankee · Social
my roommate has so many weird, unwritten rules about cleaning and organizing our apartment. it's not about being clean, it's about doing things exactly her way and i think i'm losing my mind.
The full story
okay so i get it, nobody wants to live in a mess. i thought my roommate and i were on the same page when we moved in. we're both reasonably clean people. but this has escalated into something i don't even understand. it's not like she gets mad about dishes in the sink or trash not being taken out. it's things that make no sense. for example: the throw pillows on the couch have to be arranged in a specific order (patterned, solid, patterned) and if i mess it up she'll walk into the room and just stare at them until i fix it. she doesn't say anything, she just... projects disappointment. last week she texted me from class to ask if i had used the 'guest towel.' there is no guest towel. turns out she meant the slightly fluffier of our two identical grey hand towels in the bathroom. apparently that one is for 'display only'??? the fridge is a whole other story. she has this invisible grid system where certain items are only allowed on certain shelves. i put a carton of orange juice on the second shelf instead of the top shelf and she literally moved it back while i was standing there watching. she told me the top shelf is for 'tall items' but the carton is the same height as the iced tea bottle she keeps on the second shelf... make it make sense. we have two identical black trash cans in the kitchen. one is for trash, one is for recycling. she keeps moving the sticker labels so the trash one is on the left some days and on the right other days. i'm pretty sure she's testing me. i feel like i'm in a constant state of low-level anxiety about accidentally touching something wrong or putting a coaster down in a non-designated coaster spot. is this just what having a roommate is like or have I accidentally moved in with a future villain?
How people voted
- Side A — 43% (18 votes)
- Both — 31% (13 votes)
- Side B — 26% (11 votes)
Readers say “Side A” (43%) — 42 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@alsofine — Have you tried asking her to just label everything?
@noelmm — Soft.
@mmokay — It's her apartment too, if you don't like her rules then get your own place.
@piaok — Oh sweetie, this is not a normal roommate situation. That sounds absolutely exhausting and it's not about cleanliness, it's about control.
@noelkinda — The 'display only' towel is a work of art and you are a threat to it.
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