Living with roommates means learning to share space, respect schedules, and occasionally have your sleep disrupted.

But when one couple could no longer deal with their roommate’s erratic laundry cycle, tensions tumbled out of control.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for turning off my roommates laundry at 5 AM

I (21M) woke up to my girlfriend shaking me because the laundry was running super early in the morning.

For context, I share a house with three other college guys, and we all have pretty late sleep schedules — except for one roommate, E.

Our washer and dryer are right outside my bedroom door, so any noise it makes (rattling, spinning, etc.) is super loud.

This has become a pretty consistent issue for one roommate and his girlfriend.

I wanted to just try to push through it and go back to sleep, but my girlfriend couldn’t sleep, and I wanted to prioritize her more than anything. So, I decided to turn off the dryer so we could sleep.

She was mad at this point because it wasn’t just the first or second time this had happened — it was maybe the fifth or sixth time just this semester alone.

They never seem to be on the same schedule as E.

Usually, it happened at 1-2 AM when we were getting ready for bed, but this was the first time it had happened so early in the morning.

She asked me to say something in the group chat, but I said it wasn’t worth it and that everyone was probably asleep anyway. I just wanted to sleep.

But she brought up a good point — it’s just disrespectful for someone to run something that loud right next to our room so early in the morning or late at night.

As he contemplated his message, it seemed E had beat them to it.

I contemplated sending the message, and seconds later, E was blowing up our group chat.

He accused me of turning his laundry off “all the time” and said that’s why his clothes never dry.

I told him it was literally the first time I’d ever done this, but he didn’t believe me.

The two quarreled back and forth, arguing about whose priorities were more important.

He kept pushing that I was “sus” and making it out like I was messing with his laundry on purpose.

I tried to explain that I was just trying to sleep, but he didn’t seem to care and was only focused on his wet clothes.

It’s not like he had work, a career fair, or anything urgent.

Neither roommate could really see the other’s point of view.

In hindsight, maybe I should’ve told him right away that I’d turned it off, but I was groggy and didn’t think it’d be a big deal.

When I eventually decided to send the message, he had already blown up our group chat.

The roommate tries to enforce a rule around laundry, but E isn’t hearing it.

E insisted he didn’t have other times to do his laundry and accused me of being disrespectful for messing with his stuff.

I suggested setting “quiet hours” for the laundry, but he said it “wasn’t that serious.”

AITA for turning it off so my girlfriend and I could get some sleep?

This laundry drama has everyone feeling wrung out.

Let’s hear what redditors had to say.

This commenter thinks there’s more than enough blame to go around here.

Clear house rules need to be set and agreed upon — and not everyone should get equal say on what they are.

As is often the case, a lack of communication is what turned this situation so ugly.

Living with roommates is chaotic by nature, so perhaps there’s a limit on how well you can optimize the arrangement.

If the roommates could have had a constructive conversation sooner, this whole ordeal could have gone a lot better.

Everyone has the right to express their needs, but you have to do it the right way.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.