When living with other people, you need to be respectful of their cultures and personal preferences.

But what if you found out that your roommate was putting her used toilet paper in a basket instead of flushing it, because that was normal in her home country?

That is what the student in this story is dealing with and she can’t tolerate the smell coming from the bathroom.

Check out the details, but maybe put your food down first.

AITA for asking my roommate to flush her toilet paper and “disrespecting her culture”??

To give some backstory, I (19F, white) have been living with my college roommate (19F, Hispanic) for the past two years.

Last year, our dorm building only had community bathrooms, so I was completely unaware of her bathroom habits as we did not share this space.

Fast forward to the current school year, we now have our own apartment where the two of us share a bathroom.

After about a week and a half of living together, I started to notice a foul odor coming from our bathroom.

I spent hours scrubbing the shower, sink, toilet, floor, and counters, but the smell did not go away.

I convinced myself that it must have been the sink releasing some trapped gas from the pipes or something.

Hopefully, maintenance can get out fast.

I submitted a work order to have the drain looked at and called it a day.

Another week goes by and the smell is almost unbearable.

Maintenance still hasn’t come, so I open the cupboard underneath the sink to try and have a look for myself.

When I open the door, my nose is violated by an odor one can only describe as a porta-potty that has been sitting in full sun on the hottest day in July.

Gross.

I now realize where the stench is coming from as my eyes fall onto the trash can underneath the sink that is completely overflowed with brown and yellow stained toilet paper.

I walk directly over to my roommate’s bedroom and confront her about this.

I ask why she has been throwing her used toilet paper into our trash can rather than flushing it down the toilet.

She tells me that it is “Mexican culture” and I wouldn’t understand.

I have never heard of this in my life so I continue to question her about it.

She tells me that everyone in Mexico throws their used toilet paper in the trash because the septic systems there aren’t designed to withstand toilet paper being flushed down them.

Maybe it is the culture there, but it isn’t here!

I believe myself to be a very understanding person but this is just completely bizarre to me.

My roommate has lived in the USA her entire life and has never even been to Mexico.

I asked her if she wouldn’t mind flushing her toilet paper in our apartment due to the horrific stench that had built up over the first few weeks.

She tells me that this is a part of her culture and she doesn’t appreciate the fact that I am not respecting it.

She has been acting extremely standoffish and rude towards me since our conversation and I don’t know what do do.

Was I wrong for asking her to flush her toilet paper?

AITA?

I have never heard of that but even if it is normal there, it isn’t here.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say.

Here is someone who says this is outdated.

She really is out of control.

This person says this is not about culture.

Here is someone who lived in Mexico.

Yup, she’s mad she got called out on it.

We can respect each other’s cultures.

But we need to respect each other’s bathrooms, too.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.