I’ve had to become accustomed to a lot of new things since being at university, but there is something I’ve found particularly difficult to understand. As it turns out, not everyone feels the need to live in a space that is clean and tidy.
Now, I’d heard rumours about uni accommodation and the sea of mess it can become, and was warned by many that I must lower my expectations before I arrived. I made sure to do so, and nowadays I tend to disregard crumbs and suchlike. HOWEVER. Some of the things I’ve noticed since being here are, quite frankly, unforgivable.
For example, I can totally understand that most people choose not to do their washing up straight away. They might leave it a day perhaps, maybe even two days, before they realise it should probably be moved out of the way for the sake of their ELEVEN other flatmates. Alas, as I sit here today writing this article, I can’t help but see in the back of my mind that bowl of dirty cutlery that’s been festering in the kitchen for six entire weeks. God it drives me up the damn wall. I would of course, just wash it all myself, since it would take a mere ten minutes, but I’ve been warned that doing so could encourage the culprit to leave their dirty plates for me more often, and so I have resisted.
Another thing I fail to comprehend is the lack of respect some people seem to have for others’ belongings. MY BELONGINGS. I own five tea towels. Everyone uses these tea towels – which is fine. I don’t know where the hell everyone else’s tea towels are but that isn’t the issue. The issue is that occasionally my tea towels are used for purposes that they SHOULD NOT be used for. They are for drying things that are clean NOT things that are DIRTY. If I wanted my tea towel to be covered in crusty pasta sauce I would refer to it as a CLOTH. NOT A TEA TOWEL. Sometimes I find they have also been used as mops, when there is a perfectly good mop in the cupboard. Not only this, but the sodden tea towels are simply left in a heap on the worktop rather than being put on a radiator (which can be found a metre or so across the room).
Part one of solving this problem is acceptance. If you’re thinking that the culprit might be you, well yes, it is you. STOP IT. And for those of you out there who are neat freaks like I am, try to take lots of deep breaths and stay in your room where you know it isn’t filthy.