Roommate Problems Solved – Letters from Readers Answered
Dear Apartments.com,
Okay, I have a question about a roommate problem. See, Joe* is a great guy, I haven’t had any problems at all with him since he’s moved in. He does his share of the dishes, gives me privacy with my girlfriend when I need it, he even helps with my cat. But there’s one thing that he does that’s just driving me nuts. He snores. I don’t mean like normal snoring either, I mean, inhaling the ceiling, I can hear it through the walls; it wakes the neighbors, kind of snoring. I feel bad for the guy and like I said, he’s great to room with but I just can’t take it anymore. It’s been about three months now and I haven’t gotten a full night sleep since he moved in. Both our names are on the lease and I’m not really sure what to do.
Thanks,
Sleepless in Sandwich, IL
Dear Sleepless,
Don’t move out yet because there are ways to stop this frustrating problem. Snoring results when air flow is restricted. This can happen for a variety of reasons including being overweight, smoking, drinking alcohol before sleep, allergies, illness or excessive fatigue. At a time when you are alone with your roommate and you are both relaxed, tell Joe that you have something that concerns you that you’d like to talk to him about. If you keep the focus on the concern you have for him versus its annoyance to you, you’re more likely to get him to respond. Tell him you’ve done some research and know what causes snoring and let him decide which of these problems are causing the issue. Give him a chance to respond and try to change some of his behaviors, such as drinking less or getting more sleep. In the meantime, be grateful for your roommate because he sounds like a great guy. Remember that nobody is perfect!
Dear Apartments.com,
My roommate is a pig. She eats like crazy. Potato chips in the seats of MY sofa. Ice cream spills on the carpet. The oven is a mess, there’s oil splatter all over the walls from her homemade fried chicken. She makes me so mad, I tried to ask her nicely to clean up after herself but she says that she pays half the rent too and if she wanted to have someone nag at her she would have stayed home with her mommy. It’s getting really bad because I found a huge pile of ants in the corner of the cupboard the other day. I’m afraid the landlord is going to find out and I really don’t like to think of these bugs crawling around on me at night.
HELP!!
Creepy Crawly in Crumb, TX
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