When it comes to hygiene, everyone has their own standards and boundaries.

Some people are grossed out by boogers, or people not washing their hands after going to the bathroom.

For others, the above are acceptable, but shoes in the house, or someone else using their mug crosses the line.

Then there are people whose pets sleep on their beds, but who won’t share a hairbrush or comb with a family member.

We’re all individuals and as long as others respect our boundaries and idiosyncrasies, everything goes quite smoothly.

However, sometimes – like the guy in this story – you cross someone’s boundaries without even realizing it.

He was totally prepared to apologize, but thanks to what happened next he was never able to.

Read on to find out how a tiny mistake potentially ruined a relationship.

AITA for using my friend’s nail clippers and kind of screwing things up with his girlfriend?

I am a 30 year old man, and was house-sitting for my friend Tom (32, male) for a few days while he and his girlfriend were out of town visiting her family.

It wasn’t a huge deal — I’ve done it before. I was feeding his cat, watering his plants, bringing in his mail. He told me I could crash there if I wanted and to “help myself” to whatever.

On the second morning I was there, I noticed I had a nasty split nail on my thumb. Like, one of those deep ones that keeps snagging on stuff.

Of course, I didn’t pack my own clippers, and I didn’t want to leave it — so I figured I’d just borrow his. Not a huge deal, right? I’ve known the guy for 10 years. We’ve literally shared food and beers and stuff. It’s not like I used his toothbrush.

Let’s see how this innocent action turned into a huge drama.

So I found the clippers in his bathroom drawer, used them once (just on my thumb, it’s not like I went on a foot-trimming spree), ran them under hot water, wiped them off, and put them back where I thought they went.

Anyway, a couple days after he gets back, he texts me: “Hey, did you use my nail clippers?”

I say yeah, sorry, had a split nail, cleaned them after, figured it was fine.

He says “okay,” but then a little later he calls me and goes, “So… now there’s kind of a problem.”

Read on to find out the true source of this problem.

It turns out his girlfriend noticed they weren’t where she left them, and asked if he used them. He hadn’t.

But instead of just saying it was me, he says he “didn’t know” who used them — which now makes it sound like someone broke in or snooped around the bathroom while they were gone.

She’s apparently super germ-conscious and now she doesn’t want to stay over until the bathroom has been deep-cleaned.

She’s creeped out.

The way forward seemed quite clear to the house-sitting friend.

I told him, dude, just tell her it was me. It’s not like I was going through her stuff — I used one clipper, cleaned it, and left.

He says no, because now he’s already lied and if he comes clean it’ll be “a whole thing” and she’ll think he’s gross for not caring that someone used them.

So now I’m weirdly trapped in this lie he made up, even though I offered to tell her myself.

I get that I didn’t ask first, but I genuinely didn’t think nail clippers were that personal. I didn’t touch anything else, didn’t damage them, didn’t even mention it because I figured it was a non-issue.

And this tiny thing has really blown up in his face.

But now apparently I’ve “violated trust” somehow and there’s this whole narrative that I disrespected their space and now she’s mad at him and everything’s tense.

Was I wrong for using the clippers? Or for pushing him to just tell her the truth?

I feel like this all went way off the rails over something super minor.

AITA?

This is absolutely not about the clippers.

This is about a relationship in which her anxious behavior is putting him on edge, causing a situation in which he doesn’t feel like he can be honest with her, and she can’t trust him because he doesn’t share the full truth.

It’s a whole cycle, and it’s not helpful for anyone – it’s just unfortunate that his friend has ended up embroiled in it too.

Let’s see how folks on Reddit responded to this.

This person agreed that the only person who’d done anything wrong was Tom.

However, some people thought that the girlfriend’s phobias were causing the problems here.

Meanwhile, others speculated that perhaps she didn’t know anyone else would be at his place while they were gone.

And this Redditor explained that for Tom, and for everyone involved, honesty was the only right answer.

They need therapy.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.