Living with someone usually means putting up with a few things you wouldn’t choose for yourself.

One woman is trying to remember that after her roommate started cooking fish nearly every day.

The smell has gotten so strong that she can barely use the kitchen without feeling sick.

So far, she hasn’t said anything because she doesn’t want to sound rude or insensitive.

But, at the same time, she knows she can’t keep living like this.

Read on to learn more about her dilemma.

How to negotiate with roommate about cooking fish

I’ve got a roommate that cooks fish nearly every day.

When she cooks, the smell wafts and permeates through the whole apartment and stays for hours on end.

The smell makes me retch and gag. I can hardly put words to explain how overwhelmingly smelly it can get around here.

She has something written up, but is unsure how her roommate will take it.

I haven’t yet said anything to her, but our microwave (which she used a whole day ago) smells like it now, and I can’t use it myself.

I’m not sure how to broach the subject kindly with her and in a way that’s culturally sensitive.

I also don’t want there to be any animosity or bad blood between us from here on out, of course, so I wanted to ask if you guys could help me with putting together a message that acknowledges that she’s entitled to cook whatever she pleases, but that it’s also detrimentally impactful to the person she lives with.

I’m not sure yet if she’ll take it badly.

Not wanting to cause more issues, she’s looking for advice.

I’ve had a few issues with her so far, including her tendency to not clean her dishes for days and leaving them soaking in water covering the sink’s drain, not taking out the trash (and with the fish smell too), and using my cooking items and my dish sponge without clearing it with me first.

She can also be exceptionally noisy and occasionally inconsiderate.

Could you guys let me know what you think? She’s not a bad roommate by any means. It’s definitely too early and rather presumptuous to be making that determination at this point, I imagine, but the fish issue is really starting to bother me. I’ve thrown up twice in the past week.

Yuck! That sounds absolutely miserable!

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit would handle the situation.

This probably is the biggest problem.

Yes, that would work.

There’s nothing like the smell of tuna and onion in the mornings.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who spent days clearing his land only to find his neighbor snuck over and planted a tree.

Here’s someone who knows how to get rid of the smell.

The roommate has every right to cook what she likes, but they still need to find a way to make the apartment comfortable for both of them.

A calm conversation would probably help, especially if she explains how strongly the smell affects her without making it sound like an attack.

From there, they could agree on a few small changes that keep the smell from taking over the apartment.

The longer she waits, the more likely all that frustration is to come out the wrong way.