Shared housing with roommates has a funny way of turning generosity into obligation.

So when one overworked college senior became “the cook” in a house full of part-time-working roommates, he learned the fine print included doing all the dishes too.

From that moment on, he decided he wasn’t going to be treated like staff in his own home.

Keep reading for the full story!

College Roommates

This was a long time ago, my senior year of uni, when I moved into a house with three friends.

Now, these friends had tuition paid for by their parents, me not so lucky.

This college student was no stranger to hard work.

So, I worked full-time as a cook. During summers, I worked about 60–70 hours a week to support myself and pay tuition.

I was a little bit of an outsider, as these girls had already lived together the year before. A previous roommate had moved in with her boyfriend.

I wanted a new place to live, as my last landlord was very creepy. The girls told me they had a chore chart.

Now, I wasn’t home that much because I was either working or in the library. We didn’t all have laptops to carry around to do research back in the day.

Soon, he found a job he actually enjoyed doing around the house.

I was “The cook” for the week. I like to cook, and I am good at it.

At the restaurant, the owner gave me food to take home. He did this for me frequently, as he knew my situation, and I worked my butt off for him, and he appreciated it.

I made a great dinner. I cleaned up as I cooked because it makes things easier.

So, I made chicken parm, with sautéed vegetables and marinara. They loved it.

Dinner was over, and they left to relax. I went to study.

But then his roommate started to take his skills and his kindness for granted.

One roommate said, “You can’t leave the dishes. You have to clean up.” I was like, what?

“The cook” cleans up. That’s the rule.

I said, “You mean I worked all day and made a great meal, and now I have to clean up the dishes too?” They said yes, that’s the rule.

I said, “You didn’t tell me the rule.” “It’s always been that way.”

So if they wanted to play by the rules, he figured he should at least get a chance to negotiate the terms.

I said, “Ok, tell me ALL the rules now so I know them, and start with the cooking rules.”

So, the rules were: leftovers are ok, but you can’t make the same meal every day, gotta have one healthy thing, and gotta clean up after.

Apparently, the last roommate cooked tacos each meal for a week and was really messy.

So this cook decided to put in a lot less effort.

The next night, I reheated the leftovers. The third night, we had veggie soup and sandwiches.

The girls were like, “What’s this?” I said, “It’s different, and you have veggies. It’s within the rules.” Easy clean up.

They didn’t look happy, but they ate it. Fourth night, chicken nuggets and salad.

Fifth night, oatmeal with their choice of fruit to top it.

The roommates start to catch on to what he’s doing.

They started saying, “But you can make such great food! How come you aren’t cooking food like you did the first night?”

I said, “You guys work maybe 10 hours a week for fun money. I go to class, then work. I need to study.”

I am not busting my butt on a great dinner and then having to clean a bunch of dishes, and they weren’t Gordon Ramsay.

The times I was home, they made frozen veggies and chicken nuggets.

But eventually, the house started to come to a better understanding.

And I cleaned up after myself. I said, “You want good food, clean up when I am done. I clean as I go, and there’s not much left when I finish.”

I said I wanted changes made to how they cleaned the bathroom, because they thought cleaning the bathroom was flushing the toilet.

So, they finally agreed to clean the dishes, and I showed them how to clean a bathroom so it wasn’t gross.

The next night, we had gnocchi with grilled chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms. They agreed it was a good change.

Seems like everything worked out in the end.

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

Many people would agree it’s more fair to split up household chores.

This commenter has a different perspective.

All things considered, this cook handled things pretty well.

According to this commenter, there should be a whole law forbidding this.

When the roommates refused to share the effort, that’s when the five-star meals came to an end.

You get what you give!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.