Just got a text from my daughter (college freshman) saying she's a little stressed out because her roommate is asking her to do a lot of cleaning and chores, including:
- making her bed every day
- straightening up everything every day
- do a "deep cleaning" weekly of windows, mirrors, sink (they have a sink in their room), medicine cabinet, desks
- vacuum once a week
- wash sheets once a week
My daughter, frankly, is kind of a slob. At home she never made her bed, and her clothes pretty much lived in the laundry basket (as in, she washed her clothes, got them out of the dryer into her laundry basket, and used them out of the laundry basket for the week). Floor not *entirely* covered with stuff, but certainly not pristine.
I told her (a) her roommate's demands are nuts, (b) it's none of the roommate's business how often she washes her sheets, (c) roommate can do her own damn "deep cleaning" and vacuuming.
I also said she could compromise by agreeing to make her bed every day, because she can just fling the comforter over the bed even if there's stuff underneath. (There won't be food or anything gross -- she's a slob but she's not a pig. She doesn't even like to throw out food in the bedroom garbage can -- on move-in day she went down the hall to the dorm kitchen to throw out the remains of a plum she was eating.)
I also told her that she may need to ask the RA to step in and mediate between her and roommate. She said she's going to try to handle it on her own. She was not nearly as judgmental of her roommate as I am -- she said "it just threw me because it's just so foreign to me." Haha.
Opinions, advice, comments? Similar stories?
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