“Clean as you go” is a concept that’s more foreign to some than others. With bad roommates, “communal living” very quickly turns into communal crumbs, dishes and fruit flies.

How would you handle realizing the hard way that your great friends are NOT great roommates? One woman recently aired her grievances about her own situation like this on Reddit. Here’s what happened.

AITA for removing all my items from the shared kitchen?

I’m (21F) a university student, living with two of my classmates (21F, 22M) in a 3-bed apartment.

We moved in together August 2024, as none of us got places in the dorm.

We have a shared kitchen and bathroom, including a washing machine.

Sounds like some decent amenities.

We don’t have a dishwasher and washing dishes has been a constant issue.

If I cook, which I do often, I will wash everything as I go and then wash everything left directly after eating.

My roommates on the other hand don’t wash stuff immediately and the dirty dishes tend to accumulate over multiple days when one of us finally caves in and washes them.

This really is Communal Living 101.

That person is sometimes me, even though I usually don’t have a single dish in the pile, but after a while it bothers me too much.

My main issue is that most of the kitchen stuff we have is actually mine.

My roommates never bothered buying anything, because I brought one of each.

This isn’t a super equitable situation.

It really annoys me that every time I want to use something, I have to wash it, even though I left it clean.

This semester it’s gotten so bad that my roommates have basically started to refuse washing utensils.

The last straw was when I got back after a weekend home and all, and I mean all, of our utensils were on the bottom of the sink.

Nightmare living scenario.

There wasn’t a single teaspoon in the drawer or the drying rack.

The sink was full with everything.

I didn’t want to wash them out of principle, but it genuinely smelled bad and I didn’t want to get fruitflies again.

All valid reasoning.

There were pieces of pasta and really disgusting vegetables in the sink, and the drain was completely clogged.

I almost threw up.

Another issue was that one of my roommates would just eat food I bought and use my laundry detergent and expensive olive oil without asking.

Not cool in any situation.

I had a glass lunchbox that I kept in my room and left on the drying rack for a night and it went missing by morning, with both of my roommates saying they have never even seen it.

So I got really angry after I had to wash everything and moved everything that I bought into my room.

This included our only spatula, cheese grater, the only big knives, big pot, 2 pans, utensils and plates (not all), even the kitchen towels and the cooking items I really didn’t want to share, like olive oil and honey.

Seems like the only practical way forward here.

I sent a message into our groupchat saying I’m really fed up with them not washing up and using my stuff, and that I removed everything that’s mine.

They initially didn’t say anything, but when they saw how many items that actually meant and that it’s basically impossible to cook in the kitchen now, they got really mad with me and said I’m an AH for doing that.

Just because they’re angry, that doesn’t make her TA.

I said it’s all mine and I just let them use my stuff.

Now they refuse to talk to me.

I need opinions. AITA?

The only thing that’s going to be getting cooked up here is drama. Let’s see if the Reddit comments could offer any words of wisdom.

Reddit readers were in pretty unanimous agreement.

And some issued words of warning.

A few were more facetious than others.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who gets revenge on her neighbors after they keep using her trash bins.

One person put the situation into perspective.

And others offered much-needed encouragement.

Their behavior is a surefire recipe for disaster.