Sharing a place with roommates is a mix of different things. It’s cool because you can save money and have friends around, but it also means you have to deal with things like splitting responsibilities, figuring out your own space and setting personal boundaries. Someone on Reddit shared their own story about such a case and asked for advice from the online community.
“I had a roommate years ago that always ate the food I purchased. And sometimes the leftover food I made. He always had an excuse, like he was too tired to go to the store, but he would replace my food tomorrow. He never replaced my food.”
“So I decided to be petty. I had a half gallon of milk that I left outside for about two weeks. I let it get nice and spoiled, then put it in the fridge.
The morning after, my roommate decided to help himself to a bowl of my cereal, and lost it when he poured chunky milk into the bowl. It smelled awful and had the most disgusting texture to it. The entire kitchen and living room smelled rancid. Of course, I was the one to blame because I kept the milk past the expiration date.”
“This one was my favorite. I simply took non-hard boiled eggs and put them in a container labeled ’hard-boiled eggs.’ I woke up the next morning to him yelling and cussing, as he stormed into my room and asked why I did that.
I asked why it mattered how I labeled my food. He was sitting in the living room and tried to crack a couple eggs at a time on the coffee table. The raw egg got all over his hands, the table and on the rug under it.”
“This didn’t stop him from taking my food, but it happened less frequently. I spoke with him several times about this, and he agreed he would stop. But he never did. He just told me what I wanted to hear and ignored it after that,” he went on saying.
Reddit users swiftly chimed in voicing their support, and they shared their own stories and even “recipes.”
- One of the milder things I put on my food is smoked ghost chilies. So pretty much everyone knows not to even start taking my food. © chilehead / Reddit
- It is with a bit of shame that I admit I used to be this roommate. And one of my roommates did precisely this! He loved spicy food and so he started putting Scotch Bonnets in all of his food! It worked a charm! Until I developed a taste for it. In the end, I stopped eating their food, and started cooking with said roommate, making loads of spicy curries and stuff together. © ancon_1993 / Reddit
- No space for another fridge but kept my lil treats (goldfish crackers, cookies) in a box in my locked armoire. My roommate somehow figured it out and yelled at me. © johjo_has_opinions / Reddit
- When I was 17, my boss used to steal my ham sandwhiches. Did a week with adding mayo then next week half of them had laxatives plus mayo on it. I ate all the ones without at like 10 a.m. and sure enough by noon he ate them. By 2 p.m. we were done for the day. © MidwestMSW / Reddit
- Since you’re not going to be able to eat your leftovers & other things because you know the roommate will eat it all, when you go to wrap up leftovers or put take out leftovers in the fridge, I’d start sprinkling different “surprises” in each one. He’ll get so paranoid he won’t know if your stuff he’s about to eat has “something extra” he’s not going to like. © kirbyhope72 / Reddit
Many people go through similar stressful situations. Some people live with the ones who to defy the rules. Or have to work with colleagues, who act weird.