I'm fed up of laziness

The Red m

I moved into a house share two years ago and we all pulled our weight without having a house rota and being told what to do. There was four of us in the house.

Over the past year, people moved out and others moved in. There has been two girls that moved in over the past year.

There are things that need doing around the house like emptying bins, emptying the dishwasher, our dryer is broken and the hose drains into a 5 litre bucket, this needs emptying. Two of us seems to be doing things but the the other two girls in their 20s don't do things. I don't know if it's an age or sex thing. The males hadn't an issue cleaning things. Half the men are gone now, and left with one who does do things. I'm in my early 30s and do these things.

However it's the younger girls that just move in and do nothing. Because there was already one girl who moved in and took advantage and moved out, I wasn't having it again and I mentioned it to the first girl after that. The second girl moved in about two weeks ago and it's more of the same thing. I had to ask the first girl after she moved in to take out the bins. I thought this might be enough to open her eyes but 4 or 5 months went by and she wasn't doing anything. She would however move my things and she thought this was cleaning but
ignored the shared duties. It blew up a few a weeks ago when I turned passive aggressive. And she is doing more now but I think she thinks I've got an issue with the bins and she takes out the bins. But we all take out the bins here. Well most of us. Anything else isn't being done. She's happy to use the dishwasher but won't empty it. Its 5 or 10 minutes spared out of her time not emptying it. But it's 5 or 10 minutes onto someone else's time. The dishwasher gets used every two days, with four of us in the house, we all should be emptying it once every eight days. I'm just after getting up this morning to find the dishwasher has been opened after a cleaning cycle and it wasn't even emptied. I emptied it last Monday and again this morning. This is twice a week for the one person. So it's OK that I can do double the work while they have no issue loading it up. It's back breaking work and I'm fed up with it. The second girl hasn't done a tap since she moved in either.

I'm by far a clean freak, and I was going to just let the dishwasher sit like that with the clean dishes inside and door opened, I've already emptied it this week but I did that once before and they start loading in dirty dishes on top of the clean ones again. I'm just fed up of doing things while others are getting away with things.

How do I sort this issue out with one and a half undomesticated young adults? Do I make a cleaning rota and list out things that has to be done and put people's names on it. It seems very bossy of me to be telling grown women what to do. At this stage having two in the house who does the minimum, I'm absolutely fed up. How are household rotas made up anyway and do I just bounce in one day and hand them the cleaning rota.

kylith

The Red m wrote: »

Do I make a cleaning rota and list out things that has to be done and put people's names on it. It seems very bossy of me to be telling grown women what to do. At this stage having two in the house who does the minimum, I'm absolutely fed up. How are household rotas made up anyway and do I just bounce in one day and hand them the cleaning rota.

I'd recommend this, but call a house meeting about it first to say that you feel the cleaning is getting out of hand and that a rota would be a good idea, then draw one up. You're in a good position in that the other long-timer probably agrees with you regarding the cleaning, so it's not just you appearing bossy.

The Red m

kylith wrote: »

I'd recommend this, but call a house meeting about it first to say that you feel the cleaning is getting out of hand and that a rota would be a good idea, then draw one up. You're in a good position in that the other long-timer probably agrees with you regarding the cleaning, so it's not just you appearing bossy.

Thanks for your reply.

I think I have to do this. There isn't any other option really. Do rotas work? I mean, are people going to be taking the pee with it? By that I mean, would they clean up after themselves or not bother because it's someone else's duty?

kylith

The Red m wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

I think I have to do this. There isn't any other option really. Do rotas work? I mean, are people going to be taking the pee with it? By that I mean, would they clean up after themselves or not bother because it's someone else's duty?

Make that a point of the meeting, that you're still expected to clean up your own cookware and plates and generally not be a dirty fecker, that the dishwasher is to be turned on/emptied by the person who sees it rather than being left to the one on duty that week, but that the rota is for stuff like hoovering, taking out the bins, cleaning the bathroom; stuff like that.

The Red m

kylith wrote: »

Make that a point of the meeting, that you're still expected to clean up your own cookware and plates and generally not be a dirty fecker, that the dishwasher is to be turned on/emptied by the person who sees it rather than being left to the one on duty that week, but that the rota is for stuff like hoovering, taking out the bins, cleaning the bathroom; stuff like that.

Thanks, would it be best to assign a room to one person and rotate every week or just a list of duties. It's the kitchen with most of the work, I know if I list rooms for each person, they might leave that room to the one person on duty and not bother with bins/dishwasher. This is horrible that I have to draw up something like this for people in their 20s.

The Red m

If I'm going to bring up the topic of a cleaning schedule, I guess I'll be the one to draw it up. Before I talk to them about it, I have quickly made a sample one.

A list of duties and the week.

I think I have to list every duty because this is how unaware people are.

So I have, kitchen, living room, bathroom 1/2, stairs/hallway, then there are things that are done more frequently like taking out bins and empty dishwasher. I don't think it's fair that whoever is on kitchen duty should have to do it 3/4 times a week. But then again, they might get a feel how some of us feel.

The Red m

I might also have to also mention a kitty as well for shared items in the house. Guess which two are buying more things for the house as well. I can't believe I have to do this.

The Red m

It feels stupid having basic chores like taking out the bins on collection day and back in again. But if this is what I have to do because it's a piss take with the people I'm sharing with now. It's funny though, they have no problem sitting in front of the shared TV but has a problem doing shared duties.