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Having a roommate who’s passionate about cooking sounds like it could be a pretty great arrangement—right up until you discover their passion apparently ends the second the food leaves the pan.
Just one week into a new living situation, OP says her randomly assigned roommate cooks multiple times a day and proudly claims he likes to keep the kitchen “spotless.” Unfortunately, his definition of spotless seems to include oily floors, food-covered counters, crumbs everywhere and dirty kitchen rags scattered around.
Add in late-night cooking directly beside OP’s bedroom and unexpected overnight guests sleeping in the common area, and she’s already had to raise several issues with someone she’s barely known for a week. Now she’s wondering how to get the kitchen under control without becoming the roommate who’s constantly nagging.
how to get roommate to clean the kitchen
just moved into a new space which I love- the only problem is my randomly assigned roommate is obsessed with cooking, saying it is his biggest passion, but does not clean up after himself, despite saying he will.
we have only been living with each other for a week and despite saying he likes to keep the kitchen “spotless,” every time he uses it (which is multiple times a day).
he leaves oil on the floor, large crumbs of food everywhere, and scraps of food/powder strewn about the counters.
Gross.
he has a line cook setup for efficiency, yet all the gross rags he keeps thrown around the kitchen do not seem to get the food chunks up.
I have already gotten onto him about letting me know when people sleep on the couch (I am the only one on the same floor as the couch and do not know these people,).
the oily floors, and keeping noise down/cooking really late because my room is right next to the kitchen and there is no noise barrier.
That makes things 10x worse.
For reference, he does not have a job and has not left the house for more than a grocery trip or two since we have moved in.
I feel like my requests are very reasonable and I am dealing with someone who is very clueless.
I really do not want to keep nagging this guy because things will become more awkward, but the mess he keeps making really stresses me out and I don’t know what to do about it!
Commenters largely agreed that OP’s requests were completely reasonable—and that addressing the problem after one week was much better than silently cleaning up after him until she eventually exploded.
Readers weren’t particularly impressed by the roommate’s “line cook” setup or his insistence that he likes a spotless kitchen. If he’s leaving grease on the floor and food scraps across the counters multiple times a day, commenters felt his stated cleaning standards clearly weren’t matching reality.
Many encouraged OP to be direct and specific rather than repeatedly hinting at individual messes. Instead of asking him to clean one oily floor or one dirty counter, she could establish the broader expectation that whoever cooks needs to fully clean the kitchen afterward—including counters, floors and anything else they dirty.
Others suggested OP avoid taking responsibility for his mess in the meantime. Once one roommate becomes the default cleaner, that arrangement can become surprisingly difficult to undo.
And while commenters understood OP’s concern about creating tension so early, they pointed out that the tension already exists—she’s just currently the only person experiencing it. A potentially awkward conversation now may be preferable to spending the rest of the lease tiptoeing around a kitchen covered in yesterday’s dinner.
This person says he’s wasting his time.
This person has a similar situation going on and feels OP’s pain.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who stops helping his neighbors out with his snowplow after they complain about his farm.
And this person has a decent suggestion.
If cooking is his passion, cleaning up the crime scene should probably be part of the recipe.