apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I hope that's not a real chart pictured above. Shopping twice a week? Doing dishes only once a week? Not very efficient.

@ Lisa. Picture for blogging purposes only:)

Lol. I thought the same thing...why do you need to buy the toilet paper twice a week?

So glad I do not have to deal with this anymore!! My biggest peeve when I did have a roommate was her constant use of toxic chemicals to clean. With all the green options out there these days, I never understood her preference to chemicals, especially with pets in the house. I guess some habits really do die hard.

I never got why people need to shop for household supplies more than once a week...I guess it comes from living on a budget and making a list every week and sticking to it as much as possible.

I hope the dishes get done more than once a week...two or three days and we're down to paper plates here anyways.

Rommates often have varying schedules, so a cleaning schedule works for us...we break it down into 4 common areas and rotate weekly, and everyone has an off week every 2 or 3 weeks.

Another tip regarding roommates and cleaning: don't underestimate your neat freak tendencies. In the past, I've made the mistake of sounding more easygoing or relaxed about tidiness and regular cleaning than I actually am.

Another bit of advice: If you're a tidy person, you'll have to decide whether you have the wherewithal to deal with messier roommates. Do you want to pick up after your roommate(s) constantly or let things be dirtier and messier than you'd like?

From experience, I've found that people are pretty set in their ways. Messy people will be messy no matter how many chore schedules you set up or civil conversations you have about keeping things tidy. And naturally tidy people (who also tend to be more considerate in general) don't need charts or reminders about keeping the place nice.

Step one. Marry a tidy man

Step two. Give him a man room.

Scheduling always worked best with a messier roommate. But really all in all, the only thing that truly worked was to not live with roommates.

"And naturally tidy people (who also tend to be more considerate in general) "

Poop on you!
(Hey, you're right. I am less considerate.)

It's just my experience, whytepheonix. I've only had 11 roommates (including college). That's 11 out of billions of people, so what do I know?

Our cleaning lady saves my relationship every other week! My BF and I have very different habits when it comes to a clean and tidy house. He enjoys cleanliness it's just not on his radar like it is on mine. When asked nicely he's almost always willing to pitch in but sometimes I just get fed up with asking!

ugh, this has been such a problem for me this year. we even all had the 'clean talk' when we were deciding to live together. it turns out everyone (but me) was more ambitious than realistic, and now I'm the maid.

I actually think a chore chart or schedule would work well, but I think it's too late to enforce it at this point. everyone seems to think they 'just' mopped the kitched floor when I'm the only one that's done it for three months, despite my pleas. and I feel like such a bitch saying 'no, actually, you haven't mopped since january 24th'. :P

in my next move and fresh start, I'm thinking of a strategy: a normal chore chart with rotating duties, but if someone doesn't complete their task in the given week, they have to give up $5 (either to a apartment/party/fun fund or to the next person to has to do the task, haven't decided yet). opinions about this? is it too mom-ish? will I just change from nagging people to do chores to nagging them to pay up? or is money the only thing that might motivate twenty-somethings to maintain sanitary living conditions?

This is the ONLY thing my BF and I fight about. He tells me to just ask when I want something done, but I hate telling him to take out the trash when it's smelled like death for days. How does he not notice these things?

I used to be somewhat messy as a kid but as I got older I gradually became neater, today I am kind of slacking of in some respects but still keep the kitchen/living rooms reasonably tidy most of the time, the bedroom not as much and that's mostly because I have my desk and computer in there and so w/ the scanning projects and all that goes on, it will be the messy place.

I try to keep things CLEAN as much as possible and in some ways probably keep things cleaner than many most of the time.

Twice yearly when I have the time and energy, I CLEAN the kitchen from top to bottom and it's due another one.