How to Help a Messy Roommate
If your apartment is sterile, you may be a neat freak, but there’s nothing wrong with being tidy. However you label yourself, if your roommate isn’t as clean and organized as you are, there may be some friction. It’s easy to want to kick them out and search for a cleaner roommate instead of solving the problem. Before you give up on your roommate, you should try to figure out the cause for their disorganization. There are many pathways to help your roommate solve their messy habits.
Figure Out Why
While it may feel like they’re doing it on purpose, your roommate is most definitely not being a slob intentionally. There are many reasons that lead to a scrambled and cluttered personal life. If someone is feeling clouded or confused mentally, it will cause them to keep their possessions in a scattered mess, as their belongings have become the expression of their mental state. Likewise, it’s possible your roommate may simply feel sad after experiencing a breakup or losing their job, which will cause an apathetic attitude. In other situations, they may be trying to keep their stuff orderly, they just aren’t as good as you are at it. Whatever the reason is, you need to figure out “why” your roommate is messy, as there is usually an underlying reason. When you are able to have this conversation with your roommate, they will learn they can confide in you, which will only strengthen your relationship with them aside from preventing an unneeded argument. Hopefully, you will be able to get to the bottom of it and begin to work towards a cleaner apartment.
The Apartment is Divided Into Spaces
The worst assumption you can make is to think the whole apartment will be maintained at your level of clean. While there are some communal areas in an apartment, you and your roommate both have your personal spaces. The best thing you can do is worry about your own space and the communal areas. As far as your roommates’ personal space, you can encourage them to clean, but at the end of the day, it’s their space and they’ll keep it how they feel. You will have to set ground rules with your roommate as how the communal spaces are expected to be kept and how you will take turns sharing the chores. Structure prevents strife!
The Help of Professional Cleaners
If you and your roommate work more than forty hours per week, it can be hard to keep the apartment clean. If you can budget for it, consider hiring a professional cleaning service. You can split the cost of professional cleaners with your roommate, and they’ll clean the apartment once a week. When you pay for someone else to clean your apartment, hopefully this will motivate the two of you to keep the apartment neat.
Divvy Up Chores
If you’re better at keeping clean, simply ask your roommate if you can do the cleaning if they take responsibility of other chores. Not everyone is good at cleaning, so if you are, use it to your favor. Perhaps your roommate remembers to take the trash out, but can’t vacuum if their life depended on it. An easy compromise would be to have your roommate wheel the trash out each week if you vacuum as needed. Compromising is key, and will greatly better your living situation with a messy roommate.
