By KillerChipmunk - 05/12/2016 08:19 - United States - Fair Oaks

Today, I finally found out why all three of my roommates were ignoring me. They like to disinfect everything every time they use it, and I don't. They had a problem with that, so they were hoping that by not talking to me, I'd "notice something was wrong and change." FML
I agree, your life sucks 8 922
You deserved it 876

KillerChipmunk tells us more.

OP here! This actually happened a little over a month ago. I'm in student housing, so they got our RA to come and mediate a meeting. Things have gotten much better since then, but it still irks me that a 21, 23, and 24 year old picked up a 6 year old's tactics and thought it was a good idea to just ignore me for about three weeks. Ultimately, I'm not doing much different, just making a bigger show of it when I do clean. I never was gross about anything (imo), I just don't believe in the whole anti-bacterial thing, like wiping down the tv remote and couch weekly, or using Lysol on my bed every morning. To everyone telling me to find new roommates, my lease is up in May, and I'm already looking for new people to live with, but at least things have gotten better since all this happened.

Top comments

Yeah you should change immediately, into a new house with less crazy people

kitsuneluvuh 12

As a microbiologist, I can say that they really shouldn't be using antibacterial cleaning supplies so much-- it's just selecting for bacteria that are resistant to the anti-microbial substances, which can translate into antibiotic-resistant infections. Plain soap and water works fine in most cases, and if you really want to sterilize something wipe it down a few times with an alcohol-based solution: 70% ethanol/isopropyl alcohol and 30% water solutions work pretty well. That's what we used to disinfect stuff in the lab I used to do research in, and it's what I use to clean surfaces like my phone and tv remotes and stuff.

Comments

I once had a roommate for a few weeks that expected us to rotate weekly on who would bleach the entire shower and bathtub, toilet, and sink, take out the trash and recycling, and expected that we werent allowed to use the same normal useable items like toilet paper and soap. In the end she moved out after about 2 weeks. Bitch took the toilet paper too.

LOL, I don't know why but that last sentence was the funniest... if she's such a germophobe, wouldn't she want nice clean TP? People are ridiculous.

Soap on the washbasin is a community item IMO. But supply your own shower soap.

livi456 3

LOL literally having the same problem right now. I have a roommate who wants EVERY trashcan- including the kitchen one with a garbage bag- dumped DAILY and wants our entire apartment cleaned top to bottom at least three times a week, meaning bleach and scrub the shower, wash rugs/towels, etc. I feel you OP, some people are just impossible to live with

I loathe passive aggressive people, so **** those roommates. But I do wonder what it was that you weren't cleaning. Are they just germaphobes, or were you being a slob?

In their own words, they're just germaphobes. I do have some issues with organization, but that's only in my own space. Anything shared I'm pretty good about keeping neat. They were mostly concerned with the fact that I don't Lysol nearly everything I touch like they do.

Based on your full explanation below in the comments, they definitely sound overly obsessive. I mean wiping the remote once a week isn't bad, but the couch only makes sense if it's pleather or vinyl. And I've literally never heard of lysol spraying a bed. Does that stuff even work on fabric? Even if it did work, that's YOUR bed, not a common/shared area. So long as you wash the sheets often enough to avoid odors, it should be none of their business.

That is some serious bad luck to have gotten stuck with not one, not two, but THREE babies as roommates. Apparently they haven't yet learned how to adult. I hope for their sake as well as yours that they eventually come to realise that sending people to Coventry is not the best course of action in the grownup world *rolls eyes*

Just start sneezing on everything and wait for them to buck up and open their mouth if they have something to say

OP here! This actually happened a little over a month ago. I'm in student housing, so they got our RA to come and mediate a meeting. Things have gotten much better since then, but it still irks me that a 21, 23, and 24 year old picked up a 6 year old's tactics and thought it was a good idea to just ignore me for about three weeks. Ultimately, I'm not doing much different, just making a bigger show of it when I do clean. I never was gross about anything (imo), I just don't believe in the whole anti-bacterial thing, like wiping down the tv remote and couch weekly, or using Lysol on my bed every morning. To everyone telling me to find new roommates, my lease is up in May, and I'm already looking for new people to live with, but at least things have gotten better since all this happened.

kitsuneluvuh 12

As a microbiologist, I can say that they really shouldn't be using antibacterial cleaning supplies so much-- it's just selecting for bacteria that are resistant to the anti-microbial substances, which can translate into antibiotic-resistant infections. Plain soap and water works fine in most cases, and if you really want to sterilize something wipe it down a few times with an alcohol-based solution: 70% ethanol/isopropyl alcohol and 30% water solutions work pretty well. That's what we used to disinfect stuff in the lab I used to do research in, and it's what I use to clean surfaces like my phone and tv remotes and stuff.

While their way of dealing with the situation was very immature, cleaning a house fully once or twice a week isn't weird at all. Especially when 4 people live there. Bathrooms especially would definitely need to be cleaned every other day. From your reaction to their cleaning habits my guess is that while your roommates might be a bit of clean freaks, you're also quite a bit the slob OP.

mariri9206 32

26, did you, did you not read anything OP had to say? They like to clean the remote each time they use it and wipe down the couch and spray their beds. That's excessive cleaning. OP cleans, just not as obsessively or excessively as OP's roommates do. It's a little odd to wipe down the remote every time you use it or to spray your bed with disinfectant. Although, if they're using the bed AND mattress provided by the school, I can see why they'd disinfect it but doing so every day is excessive and unnecessary.

In his comments op said "weekly" the FML might have been quite vague on that part but the op himself said "at least once a week". Whether it's more it's irrelevant. I just said that it's normal to clean a house of four people at least once a week.

I agree, I clean the house at minimum two times a week, one day super good make sure the entire house and everything in it is clean and the other just kinda whatever and on top without moving things. this was how me and my sisters grew up and I prefer the house being nice clean over kinda dirty.

There was definitely supposed to be an "at least" somewhere in one of my comments. Cleaning the apartment once a week makes perfect sense, and then cleaning other things as you go throughout the week. I have no problem with that and that was already my common practice. The issue arose because I don't believe in antibacterial/antimicrobial stuff. As someone else pointed out, all you're doing is making yourself more likely to sick with worse things. And it escalated because of how obsessive they all are about being clean. One of them took three showers in one day and complained that she still didn't feel clean.

If you disinfect everything often. You will get sick more easily

OCD stands for obsessive compulsive DISORDER let's not get into their other disorders remind them that the hyper cleanliness imposed on them by their parents is the reason they have all these allergies

I hate when people try to force hear kinds of habits on others. If it was something you were doing that was gross, I could see expecting you to change. But as no one's health is at risk here, if it bothers them, it should be on them to do it. Not you.

Your roommates sound like weirdos, you're not a mind reader, they should have gave you a heads up their hardcore germophobes plain and simple