Whether it’s your first apartment after college or just another checked off of your list until you’re living on your own, your space needs to feel like your home. While your stuff might make you feel comfortable, if your roommate is making you uneasy 24/7, you might want to reconsider whether the reasonable rent is worth the stress. Overall, if these five signs seem all too familiar, it’s probably time you dump your roommate.
1. They don’t respect your stuff
Prepare for the obvious: there’s hardly anything worse than when your roommate doesn’t respect your stuff. If they leave your fancy dishes unwashed in the sink, which leads to unavoidable stains, they’re clearly not thinking about you when committing said crime.
If they steal your stuff, that’s offense number two. Kelsey, a Louis Vuitton sales associate, says, “I had one roommate that would go into my room when I was gone and would help herself to my clothes. I confronted her, but she continued to do it and would return stuff covered in stains.”
And if they don’t tell you when something is wrong with your beloved stuff (especially if they’re the cause!), you can just call it strike number three. They’re out!
2. They leave all of the cleaning for you
If I could rate your roommate leaving all of the cleaning for you to do all of the time on an annoyingness scale, I’d give it an 11 out of 10. If your roommate is doing this to you, well, first of all, congrats! They think you’re responsible and clean.
Second, consider how lazy and/or dirty they are. Do you really want to be living with someone like that? Riley, an elementary school teacher, says, “I’ve had roommates who didn’t do their dishes and left all their mess while they went out and partied. Then I’d stay up cleaning our townhome just for it to get destroyed again.” So sad.
3. They’re constantly raging
It’s fun to have parties sometimes – who doesn’t love dressing up for a good shindig and seeing all of your friends? But when it’s 3 a.m. on a Wednesday and you’re trying to sleep because you have work in the morning, and they have some inebriated pals over blaring music like they’re still in college, it can be pretty annoying. Tiffany, from Austin, TX, had a roommate like that right out of college. “‘I’m having a couple of friends over’ usually meant I’d come home from work to 20 people in my tiny living room,” she says. “Getting woken up at 4 a.m. on a weekday was at least a monthly occurrence. I like to go out as much as the next girl, but this was too much.”
Chances are your roommate needs to grow up and learn to be more responsible – as well as more respectful of you – as a roommate. You’re probably acting as their roommate and their mother, and that’s more than you signed up for. It’s time to jump ship!
4. They’re always negative
I believe in surrounding yourself with positive people, and that’s literally impossible if the person you’re living with is constantly bitchy. If they’re adding unnecessary negative vibes to your life that you just don’t need – whether they’re putting you down, complaining about other people, or just saying inappropriate things that make you uncomfortable – you don’t want to be in a situation that makes you feel like you’re living with Lord Voldemort. If you take a sigh of relief every time you leave your house, there’s something deeply troubling with that.
5. They’re not financially responsible
There’s something so comforting about living with someone who you just know will pay their entire share of the bills. It’s great when you can find a roommate who will pay rent on time, split electricity and water bills, and all of the other unfortunate adult bills. But here’s the thing – as someone in your twenties, splitting bills can be easier said than done for some people.
Maybe your roommate has never been on their own before and just doesn’t know how to be financially responsible because their parents always took care of this stuff for them before. Or maybe they just aren’t good at managing their own money. Regardless, money is a sensitive but extremely important subject, and you can’t avoid the topic forever. If you’re constantly arguing about them not paying their fair share, some serious action needs to be taken.
Is there ever a wrong time to be happy in your own home? Nope! So if you’re not happy in yours due to your roommate, you should definitely wave goodbye to them.