How clean is your house?

LegacyUser

Hi,

It's my first time living in a shared house and I am a bit uncertain as to how the rules about cleanliness are meant to work. i would describe myself as a clean and tidy person. I wash dishes the minute I finish with them. I never leave food lying around. If I drop something or make a mess I immediately pick it up. I clean the bath and shower out after I use them, wipe work surfaces and cooker immediately after using them etc. But other than that, how often is one meant to clean the house?

I ask because one of my flatmates went off on one at me last week about not doing enough around the house, and now I am feeling uncomfortable in my own home. Basically she went on a big rant about how she works hard all week and had just had to spend the second weekend in a row cleaning the whole house and how it wasn't on. I was a bit confused, thanked her for cleaning and apologised for not noticing that anything was dirty. I said that my standards must be different to hers so in future if she wanted something done, she should just ask me and I'd do it immediately. She then said that she wasn't my mother and shouldn't have to ask.

I was furious,but I hate confrontation and ended up getting really upset as we are meant to be good friends. Basically all she had done was sweep the bathroom floor and wash the bath, tidied her own room and moved around a load of junk in the kitchen (junk that belonged to her) and swept the floor. Yet she made a massive song and dance about it. Then one of the other housemates later on mentioned how they had all been helping to clean the kitchen (ie. wash their own dishes and clean up their own mess) and I hadn't helped. Could they not have asked me? I was sleeping in my room so I didn't even know this was going on until I went out to get food.

I'm upset that she wouldn't say anything before getting angry, but also feel a bit hard done by. She leaves food lying around all the time, unwashed dishes, mess on the floor in the living room from rolling joints - I'd rather she didn't, but she's my friend so it doesn't bother me in a big way. She doesn't have her own phone charger so always has to borrow mine, often taking it away with her for days at a time so I can't charge my phone. It's irritating, but she's my friend so I don't say anything.

What made it worse was the next morning when another housemate asked me if I wouldn't mind tidying up the couches in the sitting room that day - the same housemate who leaves his dishes for days and who I often wash up after. It feels like everyone jumped onto her side just to save themselves from getting given out to, so are now blaming me for their own mess...

But anyway, if everyone tidies up after themselves, how often does the whole house need a massive clean? I'd be of the opinion that it needs doing whenever it gets obviously dirty, but in a shared house do you have to tidy to the standards of the cleanest person? I don't want to have to live with massive rules imposed on me in my own home and neither do I want to have to spend my weekends worrying about whether all my housemates are secretly getting annoyed at me for not helping them clean up their own mess.

LegacyUser

If there isn't a set of rules laid out then you will constantly have these issues.

No two people have the same sense of tidiness / cleanliness.

My sis (who I lived with) wasn't clean (she used to leave the oven and sink in a state) but she was tidy (used to get annoyed at me at leaving things around the living room (coats and newspapers).

My present housemate is scatty and when I get to the sink I work around her dishes - or, if I'm in the mood I'll do hers too just to get the place clean.

The kitchen is never left 100% clean by her and she never puts away the clean dishes.

I am moving out later this year and not going to make an issue of it. She though might say that I leave dishes out or leave my washing in the machine for too long.

So you need to sit down and either do a rota or figure out with them what each house member's responsibilities are..... that way, no one is doing less than they should (or more).

There doesn't need to be hard and fast rules but there does need to be some standards

D-Generate

Sit down with them and make a rota for chores that aren't related to cleaning up your own mess. Makes you look pro-active and will stop them being on your back to clean up after them.

Overheal

Dishes are a bloody peeve issue in multishares. The best way around it, is use your own dishes, which are clearly different in appearance, and, keep them in your room when not in use (preferably also clean, erm, in your room).

When my roommate started accusing me of leaving hair in the trap, I shaved my head.

Cleaning showers after each use, does not work seemingly. It only takes one lazy ****er, whos in a rush that morning, to forget, and then the next person notices, decides they want to go on strike, and then thats when it starts to go wrong. Showers on fixed Rota.

we have a rota, i think that's the best way to go

Leaving grungey plates lying around all the time...that is not dirty that is bloody disgusting. :mad:

Honestly if I were you, and my housemate made me feel like that.
I would move out.
Often good friends are the hardest people to live with it.

The best situation in a house share, where people have different ideas of clean.
Is to have a cleaner come in and blitz the social places once a week.

LegacyUser

Either a rota or a cleaner for all the communal areas is the only way to go.