When you live with roommates, you often have to compromise on what you want, but there are certainly limits to what you should put up with.

What would you do if your roommates wanted to keep the bathroom sealed up at all times even though you said that it would cause mold to form?

That is what is happening in this story, so she reported it to the landlord, but he hasn’t done anything yet, so she wants to know if she is out of line for wanting to keep the door or window open.

She seems pretty reasonable to me. Read through the full story below and see what you think she should do.

How do I deal with my roommates forcing us to keep a moldy, chemical-filled bathroom completely shut, and am I crazy for refusing?

I live in a shared apartment.

Sometimes it is just best to ignore your roommates.

One of my flat mates is a woman who has always been very controlling about common spaces and everyone’s behavior, acting like she owns the place.

After a huge argument with her back in late July, I completely cut contact with her. Besides us, there’s another flat mate, plus a couple with a kid.

If everyone wants the rules updated, that is fine.

Recently, this woman convinced the other flat mate and the mother in the couple to start enforcing new rules: putting chemical reed diffusers in the bathroom and keeping both the bathroom window and the door strictly closed at all times.

They started doing this a few days ago without telling me. Yesterday, the other flat mate came up to me and said they had bought these scented diffusers, so I now had to keep the bathroom door and window closed.

Not everybody wants to keep the bathroom closed up.

I explained that I need to air out the bathroom after taking a shower so the humidity can escape (this is an old building from at least the 70s, so mold is a real issue).

I also told him that I obviously need to ventilate the place after using the toilet, and that breathing in those chemical scents in a completely closed, unventilated room is triggering my rhinitis.

The landlord would be the one to stop this crazy rule.

I’ve already contacted our landlord to let him know what’s going on and that they’re trying to enforce this rule, but he hasn’t responded yet.

What do you all think? Has anyone experienced something like this? Am I out of line, or is this whole situation completely upside down? Thanks!

This definitely seems like a problem for the landlord to handle, especially if it is causing mold.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Those chemicals can be very bad for you.

The landlord should definitely stop them.

They can’t just make up rules.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who wants peace and quiet by the pool, but finds guests and loud music instead.

Those strong chemical smells can be awful.

She should definitely air the bathroom out whenever she can.

Keeping the doors and windows closed is only going to make the problems worse.