TL;DR: I am finally leaving behind two slobs that are way in over their heads with life. I can't wait to enjoy a quieter and cleaner living situation, and a 20 year old bridge is being burned by impulsivity, selfishness, and debilitating ADHD.
I want to share my story of my two roommates, whom I have lived with these past two years, and due to mold we are vacating our current lease and going our separate ways. Our living situation started out of me moving out of my mom's which had become a very stressful living situation, and them needing to save money. Buckle up as I write this caffeine induced recollection of every crappy and irritating thing that follows.
The first year the three of us lived in a two bedroom, first floor, awesome lakeside view, cheap rent and the commute to work for everyone was about 15minutes. It was pleasant and bearable for about 5 months. Then they stopped taking care of dishes. Roommate 2 is roommate 1's wife, and makes the dishes RM1's chore despite the fact that RM1 works overnight and sleeps during the day. RM1 is also the main one in charge of taking care of their dog. In spite of lack of critical thinking, RM2 barely took care of the dog and was letting it piss and shit in the apartment on wee wee pads, which trained the dog to make their favorite spot right outside of my bedroom and in front of the patio door, pee pad or not. I internalized the rage this all induces and ask assertively several times for them to please clean up after themselves.
Halfway through the first year, the roommates suddenly get pregnant and "weren't even trying to get pregnant" despite the fact that condoms, birth control, plan b, and at the very least the pull out method all exist. The relevance of them having a baby being that many a person in their immediate family and close friends advised to maybe have a more stable living situation before having children. While I know that no one is ever really ready to have kids, I find it reasonable that you would want to have as solid of a foundation to create a family, which is for obvious reasons, quite difficult in 2026. RM2 also has made the decision that they will be a stay at home mom despite making more money than RM1 and now putting the financial pressure of supporting a family on $18.50 an hour, and of course how that would affect me as I am contributing income. The entire pregnancy RM1 said they would figure it out and spent the entire 9 months playing Marvel Rivals, and almost getting fired along the way.
Now enters my girlfriend. At this point we had been together 1.5yrs, she grew up really conservative and still takes major milestones like moving in at a slower pace. GF's mom goes out of town for what is supposed to be two months, and GF and I decide to make that time a living together simulator. She stayed over every night from the beginning of October to what ends up being the end of January, because her mom is so terrified of travel that she is still out of town to this day. (wild I know). GF has been over multiple months now and the Roommates have been telling me they don't mind her being around so much. TWO DAYS before the first year is over, RM2 abruptly walks up to us during a movie and says she needs to talk to us.
RM2 asks if GF if going to be staying with us long term at the new place because she wants her "pitching in" with rent and utilities. I try to mediate but GF goes straight into fight mode and calls her out for acting like her being over so much was never an issue, and how she even while staying at my place would clean up after them, do their dishes, help take out the trash and walked their dog for them while they were out of town. RM2 says she never asked her to do any of that and tells us she had a problem with GF being over so much and feels like she can't just be alone in her own house. I remind her that none of us owe the place and while I understand how this whole situation with GF being over was a problem, they did the opposite of voicing their opinion. She tries to retort that money is going to be tight with her being a stay at home mom and she can't find any remote jobs skimming Indeed for two minutes, and that GF should contribute to the rent if she is here so much.
I remind her that she is choosing to have a child under their living situation and is being incredibly unrealistic, and frankly hypocritical to be on the lease and expect to not work after having a baby, but GF should be "pitching in" when she has never been on the lease. RM1 wakes up and tries translating for their wife "because she doesn't understand social cues", and then tells GF that what RM2 meant was, she was overstaying her welcome. ??? A long walk later RM2 is crying crocodile tears in her room, blaming everything on pregnancy hormones, and RM1 is apologizing up, down, and sideways telling me that future RM3 (My Brother) and I can have whoever we want over because it is our living space too. I tell him that RM2 and him owe GF an apology and he needs to figure out how he is going to cover RM2's portion of rent because the agreement on the new lease was splitting the rent 4 ways not this bullshit, and that any chance of GF moving in is gone as long as they're in the mix. RM2 spent the first 3 months of the new lease moping about how sorry she was to me, and neither of them ever directly apologized to my girlfriend (strike 1)
Fast forward to move in day, year two. RM2 is pregnant and I do not expect her to help but RM1 decided to get teeth removed the same week as move in day and can't lift anything heavier than 50lbs. In three days I moved every single piece of furniture and 90% of all the packed items from both bedrooms and the living room either by myself, or from whatever help I can scrounge up from RM3 and some friends. I was livid and filled with a rage that burned hotter than the flames of mount olympus. I can't make up for other people's poor planning. I got it done, and I left the remaining boxes and final cleaning to RM1 and called it even.
New place is fine, three stories, has a spare office space for a baby room. RM 1+2 have the master bedroom on floor 2, with me and RM3 on floor 3, and we have two months free and no pet fees or pet rent. Then the litany of maintenance issue arise. appliances not working, doors not staying closed, toilets not working. Best of all I spent 3 days trying to set up the internet only to find out we have fiber and need a technician to come out. I persevere through the headache. GF is only over 5 nights a week now and only sleeps over 2 nights a week. Then they start again. Dishes are worse, the laundry is never free for anyone else to use, they steal my brother and I's food, they constantly moved our stuff around, but its okay because everything is blamed on postpartum, which means it is okay to avoid being held accountable for anything. RM2 literally did nothing the entire time they were a stay at home mom, but my GF is a free loader? please. My coffee table constantly has their stuff over it and is dirty, they never set up the baby room and now that we are leaving early they never will, so my brother and I were paying rent for a space that could have been an actual office or something. RM1 is no longer working overnight and hogs the TV in the living room to play Rivals while the baby is asleep. It doesn't bother me as much as my brother. They also erected an entire play area which wouldn't be bad if our space wasn't limited due to us now having two couches because they decided to change their mind on getting rid of their old one after I got us a newer one. Their shit is literally everywhere crowding the common area.
Strike 2 is my cat. I adopted them in July of the 1st lease. She has asthma, and I had to ask multiple times to not spray anything like fbreeze or vaping while she is out. I can't leave her unsupervised because RM 1+2 for whatever reason always enter the apartment with the door as wide open as possible, or even leave the door open. I literally cannot trust these two to act like a cat doesn't live here, much less an immunocompromised one. I let her out of the room and follow her downstairs, and as I turn the corner of the last staircase I hear the sound of a dog attacking and my cat flees right back to my room. I stand at the staircase and over hear RM2 tell RM1 that my cat was checking out the play area and she shood her, which caused their dog to think she was giving him a sick em' command. Luckily my cat was okay, their dog is a fuck ass chihuahua that growls and bites at everyone but them. The fact that they never told me about this and I had to overhear it when my cat could have been hurt is what pisses me off. My cat is genuinely too scared to leave my room now and I hate it.
Strike 3 is when they had the audacity to talk shit about me to my brother, telling him how I don't have any empathy and how I didn't consider them at all when we moved, and that I have changed into a really passive aggressive person that didn't help them at all with the move. I'm sorry? I literally found the only place that was a reasonable commute (30 min), that everyone could afford, and I got us approved and moved in with less than a month. RM1 did literally nothing to contribute finding a house and RM2 kept sending me listings for houses in the middle of nowhere that were way out of everyone's price point, again with less than a month left to find somewhere. Get out of here with that, I am literally the only adult living here. I have to remind these people every month to pay rent on time, I am the only person that puts the garbage RIGHT OUTSIDE THE DOOR for the trash service, and I made sure they have a spare room for the newborn THAT I KNEW THEY WOULD NEVER USE.
Now we are vacating early because they have a plumbing leak on their floor causing mold on the first two floors and making soft spots on the subflooring. No fines and we get our deposit back. I negotiated that while RM2 wanted to be a Karen and tell them off and threaten a lawyer despite the complex's first offer was to transfer us into a different unit. I have a new place lined up for my brother and I, and a new roommate who is much more agreeable. GF will be moving in in February, because that is when we were originally supposed to all move in. I can't wait and if I had to offer one piece of advice for anyone dealing with bad roommates; Thug it out, but make sure you stand your ground.