Having decent, dependable, and responsible roommates is essential because we see their faces every day. However, not everyone is as fortunate. In the compilations we’ve compiled for you today, folks share their worst roommate and flatmate stories. These are stories about living with people who were so chaotic, terrible, or even frightening that their lives resembled scenes from a ʜᴏʀʀᴏʀ film.
Story 1
One day, I arrived home late and noticed my roommate swiftly enter her room, wrapped in a wet towel. I greeted hello, but she ignored me and avoided eye contact. I shrugged it off, thinking she hadn’t noticed me. Five minutes later, I heard her return home from outside. Confused, I inquired, “Weren’t you just inside in your bedroom?” She grew pale and instructed me to rush to the car, lock it, and dial 911.
That day, I was frightened to learn that my roommate is schizophrenia. She sometimes skips her prescription, which causes her to detach and become paranoid. In her dissociated state, she had left the house without recognizing it and then returned, convinced she was dealing with an intruder. This explained her peculiar conduct of initially ignoring me and then requesting me to go to the car, as if there was a stranger in our house when it was actually her.
I’d been living with her for two months and had no idea about this. I still love her and consider her a friend, but I had to leave immediately since I no longer felt secure living there.
Story 2
We had a communal kitchen between the three of us. We established cleaning schedules, but they never followed them; they simply heaped stuff up until it was my turn. After receiving repeated complaints that I was the only one cleaning, I quit cleaning. Three weeks later, there was rotten food and fungi throughout the kitchen, as well as a cockroach infestation.
A cleaning company had to be engaged, and the expense was shared among those living there. I objected to the bill based on previous objections. They didn’t argue, therefore I didn’t have to pay. I even received pay for eating out every night.
They were kicked out a week later. It was a triumph for me in the end, but it was a terrible period beforehand. © Mezame_Drgn / Reddit
Story 3
I once cleaned the entire apartment because the landlady was coming by. It took literally all night. He didn’t help at all. I cleaned pots with more culture than a classical concert.
Five minutes after the landlady left, he walked into the kitchen, made a lot of commotion, and when I awakened from my trance and went in, everything looked the same except for the mold. © cyberpudel / Reddit
Story 4
She’d brush her lengthy hair and clean the brush. Then, to dispose of the hair, she would stuff it down the sink drain.
Normal folks discard it in the trash. She regularly blocked the sink. © blackday44 / Reddit
Story 5
I had a roommate who wouldn’t wear deodorant. He also worked a physically demanding job and went to the gym, so he stunk a lot. He’d swear he showered twice a day, but no one ever saw it.
He then began defrauding our other housemates (in a four-bedroom apartment) by borrowing money and never repaying it. Then he started skipping his portion of the bills, followed by the rent. He eventually was kicked out.
While he was there, we joked that the best location to conceal our money from Mark (his name) was under the soap. © Overall_Draft_9416 / Reddit
Story 6
He had severe and undiagnosed OCD. He had a long list of rituals that consumed his entire day and irritated me.
One of his routines was to play a movie and music simultaneously on his laptop before taking a two-hour shower. We shared a room, so after he went, I’d close his laptop, and after his shower, he’d come out and say, “Why did you touch my laptop?”
I’d tell him the noise was too distracting, and he’d urge me to just use headphones. This occurred every Tuesday and Thursday night. © Burrito_Loyalist / Reddit
Story 7
I inherited lovely porcelain dishes for special dinners, as well as everyday dishes. She went out of her way to get the porcelain plates and actually tossed them into the sink, smashing them.
I asked her about it multiple times, and she said, “It’s your fault for owning nice things.” She was a crazy hippie. So I put them in a box and stored them in my room till the lease was up. © mencryforme5 / Reddit
Story 8
She would come home, stock the fridge with food, and then leave a couple of days later to spend months with her 50-year-old boyfriend. Her food would spoil in the fridge, forcing me to throw it away. When she appeared unexpectedly, she would protest that we had eaten her meal.
When she went to go to her boyfriend’s, she would give me somewhere between $1,500 and $3,000 for her portion of the rent for the next few months. I’d have to watch her money, which made me paranoid. © Sirduckerton / Reddit
Story 9
She’d declare something was filthy and throw it away, along with everything else it touched.
Then she would demand that I buy replacements for everything (hers and mine) that she had ruined without informing me first. © KiddPresident/Reddit
Story 10
She would “wash” our dishes in cold water with no soap and place them on the drying rack. I got tired of reminding her that utensils and food-caked plates needed to be washed with hot, soapy water, so I would just rewash them when she finished.
To make matters worse, she never cleaned her hands after using the restroom and claimed to be a germaphobe (she wouldn’t let people lay on her bed wearing outside clothing). Oh, and she wants to become a pediatrician… © f**Nissjuverdeen / Reddit
Story 11
My sophomore year of college, my roommate and I shared bunk beds. I had the upper bunk, and he had the lower bunk. If I was in bed, I could tell when he removed his shoes by the smell. He rarely showered, therefore he was a stinky dude.
He also had severe mental health concerns for which he refused to seek treatment. I’m talking narcissist (it was never his fault), manipulative, and a compulsive liar. Fortunately, he moved out about halfway through the year. And he was going into education. © celloman78 / Reddit
Story 12
When my older brother was rehabilitating, he moved in with me for a spell. He had a pet snake, which he repeatedly lost in my apartment. © Amy_G***linger / Reddit
Story 13
My one-semester college roommate was the smelliest person I’d ever met. His day would start with drinking half a gallon of milk, followed by sitting in his room, mumbling to himself in the dark while playing video games. He showers approximately twice a month if we’re lucky, and every time I go past his room to get to mine, I gag from the odor.
It was the worst semester of my life, especially since I had pneumonia during my winter abroad in Canada. © Toronto_Phil / Reddit
Story 14
He got a window air conditioner instead of a fan like other people because he intended his room to be an icebox. Even in the winter, he would run it in direct opposition to our furnace, so we were simply increasing our power bill. He didn’t care, though, because his wealthy father would simply pay his share at the end of the month. © Nickelas / Reddit
Story 15
She always brought a fork with her lunch to work. The forks never returned. We highlighted it because it hadn’t been an issue before she moved in. We bought a carton of forks. They began to disappear as well.
She denied it until one day, when we caught her taking her lunch and asked to check her bag. She apologized and purchased a box of plastic forks. We requested her to leave shortly after, because she was odd and not a good match. Strangely, we never had the fork issue again. © wlane13 / Reddit
Our significant others live with us under the same roof, and even though we think we know them well, we might one day be shocked to discover a hidden, disturbing side. This is what happened to the people in this article, and they were brave enough to share their poignant stories with the world.
