Houseguest etiquette is not complicated. Bring your own towel, use your own towel, and do not touch the one that clearly belongs to someone else.

A woman who had generously opened her apartment to her roommate’s friend for a few days discovered mid-stay that he had been using her personal towel to dry off after showering, multiple times, without a word.

Horrified, she decided she couldn’t let this continue. So with the help of a few sticky notes and a strongly worded text to her roommate, she made her stance on the matter loud and clear.

That didn’t prevent everyone else of accusing her of being overdramatic, though.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for not letting my roommate’s friend use my towel?

I (F20) let my roommate’s friend, Mike, crash in our apartment for a few days while an event was going on that they were going to attend since our apartment is closer than Mike’s place.

We have separate bedrooms and a shared common bathroom, and he was going to stay in her room.

They’d both be out of the apartment from around 7 AM to 10 PM for the event, so it was basically just somewhere to sleep.

I’ve met Mike in the past and have let him stay over before with no issues, but we’re not close.

But then Mike crossed a line.

I found out that Mike had been using my towel in the bathroom after showering — two or three showers at that point.

I had been apparently incorrectly assuming he brought his own towel, or an extra, or was using my roommate’s towel.

They are hung on opposite ends of the towel bar and are different colors and patterns.

She explains how she came to this realization.

The reason I figured this out was because I went in and realized my towel was missing from the bar, even though I always put it there.

The last person to use the bathroom was Mike, and my roommate has no reason to take it since she has her own towel.

By the time I realized, they had both gone to sleep already, so I texted my roommate letting her know I wasn’t okay with this.

I also left sticky notes on the bathroom mirror directed at Mike, telling him I was not happy with him using my towel, that he was NOT welcome to use it, and to return it immediately.

Mike didn’t seem to think it was a big deal, but she strongly disagreed.

Mike got annoyed at me for overreacting, saying that it’s just a towel.

I argued that if he was just drying his hands, I’d be okay with it — but after a shower, drying his entire body, is crossing a line I don’t see as unreasonable.

My roommate agrees with me that it’s crossing a line and didn’t realize Mike had been using mine — she also assumed he was using hers. However, she thinks I might have overreacted a bit.

AITA?

She did them all a favor, so this is some way to repay her.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a young woman who didn’t expect closing her door to study to lead to a sibling blowout.

What did Reddit have to say?

Sometimes it really is that deep.

The roommate isn’t totally blameless here either.

Surely there were other towels to be used?

A grown adult should have known better.

Being a generous host does not mean absorbing every inconvenience quietly and saying nothing, and finding out a guest has been using your personal towel for multiple post-shower dry-offs is not a small inconvenience.

She handled it the only way available to her at that hour, with a text and some sticky notes, and woke up to a guest who thought the reaction was disproportionate to the offense. The offense was two or three showers worth of someone else’s towel, with no ask and no acknowledgment.

Two or three showers isn’t a mistake, it’s a pattern. Next time, pack your own dang towel.