There are plenty of problems to worry about when you move in with someone. One thing that tends to get overlooked are the little, everyday habits we have that seem normal, but may gross out others.
Picture: abbamouse/Flickr
Some habits may be perfectly fine if you’re living alone but become gross when you’re in close proximity with others. For example, putting pizza crusts back in the pizza box before grabbing another slice doesn’t matter if you’re the only one eating, but it gets icky if you have to share that pie (sorry roomies!). As Apartment Therapy puts it:
The most entertaining way to broach the topic would be a viewing of the Sex & The City episode in which Charlotte deals with Harry’s tea bag habits (“A Woman’s Right To Shoes”, Season 6 Episode 9), but the best way is probably just to be aware of your own actions and ask about things as they come up. If you’re drinking the previous day’s coffee, cutting your nails, rinsing a dish you need rather than properly washing it, or enjoying a nice floor picnic, you can casually ask, “Is this gross? Or not gross?”
Of course, many habits are just differences in personality that will take some getting used to (you shower in the morning, your partner or roommate showers in the evening). However, spending a week or so examining your daily habits both before and after you move in can help prevent conflicts before they arise.
Home Habits: The Gross-o-Meter [Apartment Therapy]
Comments
7 responses to “Do A Gross-Out Audit Of Your Habits Before Moving In With Someone”
My former housemate was always grossed out as I would use a teaspoon to place coffee in my cup, stir it then just rinse it and put it on the drying rack, even when I stressed that said spoon was not use to consume anything. Am i a bad person?
How is that at all gross? It’s not like you were using it for raw chicken, or licking it then putting it back in the drawer.
Everyone should be aware of their actions but some people are finicky to the point of being pathetic.
This is how half of the dishes in my apartment of three people get cleaned even after they’ve been eaten off. Pretty normal?
My pet hate is when my wife hangs the toilet paper backwards. If only I’d known about her freakish habits before I fell in love with her….
Nah, that’s pretty normal I think. It’s not like it’s going to be much there from the few seconds it spends in the coffee that’s gonna kill anyone.
Does this mean people at home pick their noses and leave the snot on the bathroom door, toilet partition or above urinal as they seem to do at work?
It is grossing me out to the point I would rather not go to the toilet at all.
Peter, if by “backwards” you mean open end towards the wall. I used to hate this too (still do really) but when you have kids it starts to make sense. Before I started putting it on backwards the kids used to use loads of paper as they’d just spin the roll and grab some paper. If it’s on backwards then it’s a little more awkward to spin the roll the other direction.