Some conversations are easy to dread and nearly impossible to start.

One tenant knew exactly what she needed to say to her housemate, who left her bedroom door open and let a stale body odor spread through the corridor.

The housemate also slept by day and gamed through the night, so the two barely crossed paths more than a couple of times a week.

Meanwhile, the tenant kept paying for air fresheners that covered the smell for about an hour.

The real cost was bigger than the smell. The landlady was trying to fill the empty fourth bedroom, and every viewer who walked into that corridor seemed to leave without signing.

As long as the room stayed empty, the tenant kept splitting the bills three ways instead of four, and her housemate’s odor was the reason she couldn’t lower her rent.

She wanted a solution, but she didn’t know where to begin.

Keep reading for the full story.

How do I tell my housemate her personal hygiene is awful?

I live in a shared house, currently with 3 out of 4 bedrooms occupied. I have one housemate who leaves her door open when she goes out, and the smell of stale B.O. fills the whole corridor.

These two tenants don’t exactly share the same schedule.

She is relatively nocturnal (up all night gaming and sleeping in the daytime), and we probably see each other 2 or 3 times a week in passing, so it’s difficult to start the conversation.

But the B.O. isn’t the only problem.

There are other issues. This housemate has never made an effort to clean the communal areas, and most of the vacuuming is her hair trodden into the carpet.

She has taken to spending some of her time in the communal lounge in the middle of the night, making noise and leaving lots of mess (dirty plates and empty alcohol bottles).

Now the tidy tenant feels she’s running out of options.

I keep spending money on carpet air freshener to try and rid the communal areas of the smell, but that doesn’t last long.

The state of the place is starting to interfere with filling the vacancy, too.

The landlady is currently trying to fill the 4th bedroom, and I think the smell is scaring people away. I would like the bedroom filled so that we have a 4-way split of bills instead of 3.

Something really needs to be done about this.

What did commenters have to say?

Why not be as direct as humanly possible?

This commenter encourages a different approach.

Having a slobbish roommate can be a real drag.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who got fed up with all of the cars parking illegally on his vacation land, so he had them all towed.

Some people refuse to listen until it’s too late.

Anyone who has lived in a shared house knows how quickly one person’s habits become everyone’s problem.

This tenant was forced to put up with more than enough. First it was impacting her comfort, but now it’s impacting her wallet too.

She doesn’t need to deliver a speech. She needs to be honest, brief, and kind, and to let her housemate know that her door, her dishes, and her hygiene are affecting everyone.

Sure, the conversation is uncomfortable, but it needs to happen.