If you were to currently walk into my apartment you would see a pile of dishes, sneakers on the ground and plastic cups all over my living room. You might assume I am messy, but I swear it’s not me (amirite?)! By living with three other girls, I have learned to accept the fact that my home will never be clean. Occasionally, there comes a tipping point when I need to ask my roommates to get their acts together and clean up a little. Unfortunately, I tend to dabble in passive aggressiveness for these types of things. Here are 5 passive ways to get your roommates to clean!
1. Bribery
What ever it takes, right? Asking your roommates to clean up by rewarding them can be a very easy and effective way to get them clean. Try having everyone pitch in a couple dollars for a Starbucks gift card. The person who does the best job cleaning up all their stuff that month gets it!
2. Hang Motivational Posters
3. Hide Their Stuff
Ok, I know this seems kind of evil, but if you can convince your roommates to think that they are the problem this could work! Try hiding something that your roommate might leave out all the time, like their shoes. After they have looked for a while, magically make the item appear. This will urge them to put their things away in the proper place so they don’t have to search for them.
4. Put Their Things On Their Bed
One of the most popular ways I get my roommates to clean is by putting all their random things on their bed. This prevents them from being able to crawl into bed at night because everything they have left throughout the house has been put on it. They will slowly learn to put all their stuff away so they don’t have to deal with it later.
5. Ask Them Directly
I know that sometimes it sucks to be the one nagging, but asking a roommate to clean up their stuff shouldn’t be a bad thing. I know that when my roommates ask me to pick up my dishes, I immediately do so because I feel bad that my mess bothered them.