Roommate stinking up apartment

The BBQ Pit
#1

No, he showers regularly. Yes he picks up after himself. I’m talking about the intentional stink. Incense. Perfumed cleaning supplies. Today he apparently boiled some seemingly toxic scented oil.

I’m fairly easygoing, but if my home has to smell like anything, it’s going to be old socks, old garbage, and old food. I can’t deal with all these friggin* perfumes and scented candles and other unnatural and ungodly stinks.

*yes I know it’s the Pit and I can say whatever I friggin’ please. I like the word friggin’ a lot more than the alternatives. Say it outloud to yourself. Friggin’ friggin’ friggin’ friggin… ahhhh.

#2

If it is your apartment and this person moved in with you, kick him out.

On the other hand, if the apartment is his and you moved in with him, move out yourself or enjoy the smells.

#3

this reminded me of my freshman year in college…

My roommate (a REAL tight-ass!) used to go home every weekend, allowing me to hold parties while he was gone… one weekend, someone spilled a milkshake into the radiator. I thought nothing about it, until several weeks later, when the radiator began to STINK! every time the heat came on.

Roommate said nothing about the smell, nor did I (as I didn’t want him to scold me for the parties while he was gone… he was a real piece of work!).

A few weeks pass I was looking for something (a textbook? Seems unlikely…:slight_smile: ) and ended up searching for it under the bed, when I found one of those “stick-up” deodorizers stuck on the underside of my bed!! “WTF?” I thought, as I began a search of the rest of the dorm-room…

I found IIRC, 23 “stick-ups” ALL on my side of the room!! Several under the bed, several under the desk, several in my closet, etc…!!

This pissed me off a bit, so I took all of them and stuck them, lined up in ranks, on the outside of the door… with one facing the ranks. I made a cartoon ‘speech’ bubble out of construction paper, and had the “sargent” “stick-up” directing his men where to go to combat the smell in the room… (Platoon 1, you will infiltrate the closet! Platoon 2, you will secure the underside of the desk!).

I thought this was hilariously funny, but apparently the roommate did not! The residential director called me the next day to discuss my attitude with respect to my roommate…

Roommate moved out about 2 weeks later… God, I missed him!

#4

Astroboy, that is so funny! I think I would have forgiven a roomate just about anything to see that tableau. (“Alright men! Steady on!”)

MonkeyMan, that sucks. I’m not a big fan of perfumed smells. Cleaning supplies should smell clean, not fruity. Insence is okay, but I’d rather not live with it. Kick him in the head a few times. Leave boxes of baking soda and activated charcoal around, imitating Astroboy’s roomate. (I’d give them marching instructions, but thats just me.)

#5

Allergies. These are your ticket out of this situation. Many people (myself included) are severely sensitive to scents in household products and to perfumes in general. For instance, insense gives me a blinding headache. If I can’t get out of the scent range within a few minutes, I have difficulty breathing.

All you have to do is “develop” such an allergy to some scented product roomie uses. Hell, it might happen on its own. Too much of that stuff can’t be good for you. Of course, you might want to have a talk about the excessive use of scented stuff before you start exhibiting symptoms. Say you haven’t been feeling well lately and that your doctor thinks it might be a reaction to said products. Say you have a friend with allergies that you worry might not be able to come over. But you should do something; you pay rent on the place too.

#6

I had a room mate in a small house I rented and while he was a very personable guy to everyone he met, he was an absolute pig in private.

He’d use all of my dishes and hated to wash any, so when I decided to protest by letting them pile up, when we ran out, he bought paper plates and microwave food! When the pile in the sink started smelling like a septic tank, I washed them.

His room had no clear floor space left because of stinking, dirty clothing, assorted paper plates with mummified or festering food scattered about, stacks of Newsweek (he fancied himself an intellectual and read only Newsweek), scatters of newspaper, cups, glasses and ashtrays packed with cigarette butts, partially consumed bags of snack foods and quarts of milk, always with about an inch left in the bottom, souring. I bolted a smoke detector on his door.

Eventually, I threw him out and he left a lot of trash behind. His bed was mine and I pitched that because it reeked! I figure he changed the sheets once a year. They were yellow with body oils! I found, in the closet, milk and soda jugs full of pee! Gallons of it! He was too lazy to get up and walk to the bathroom down the hall!

I also discovered where all of the roaches were coming from, along with ants – his room. His bed was in a corner and the wall at the head was white. (Note: Was!) Since he worked as a printer for a local paper, he got covered in ink mist. He leaned against the wall to watch his TV. The wall was black in that spot.

He showered a lot, daily, but each lasted like 5 minutes and bars of soap in the shower seemed only to shrink when I used them.

The worst part was hauling out the piss bottles! The garbage men got a surprise! I threw out everything, had to steam clean the carpet, scrub down and repaint the walls and bug spray the whole house! Then I bough several of those cheap bottles of liquid potpourri, (mulberry scent) and poured them in a yard sprayer and sprayed the room.

It took me a month to get the room rentable again. The stink even got into the window air conditioner! I had to flush it with a watered down bleach solution and replace the filters!

So, if your roomie is only using scented oils and such, enjoy it. You could get the ‘Pig From Hell’ like I had.

#7

Jugs of pee?!

Dear God. If I had a roommate like that, I would have to disinfect his room too, but only because I wouldn’t want the stench of his rotting body wafting up from under the floor, where I’d stuffed it after I snapped.

#8

Ugh, one of my friend’s freshman roommates saved his urine in Gatorade bottles in his closet. They had a sink in their room, so it wasn’t purely laziness. :stuck_out_tongue: It seemed to defy explanation. Of course my friend was afraid to confront him, let it fester for a few months before finally shrieking “WHY, WHY, WHY are you saving your piss?”

“For later.”

I guess I’m off to GQ. “Why would anyone save jugs of their pee for months at a time?”

#9

Monkey: I noticed you didn’t mention whether or not you’ve asked him to stop. I’ve found that this can be fairly effective.

#10

If only it were roaches, I would be fine. As I mentioned, he pickes up after himself, has standard hygiene and so on. He’s a fine roommate, except for the whole perfume thing.
Juniper- love the allergy idea, but I’m a terrible actor.
me- Wha-chooo!
roommate- Are you practicing for a play?

“Of course, you might want to have a talk…” Yeah right. That’s way too mature. I like the idea of setting up the deoderant platoon around a scented candle.

#11

p.s. jugs of piss? Ewwwww.

#12

It’s definitly not a sneezing kind of allergy. Go for stabbling headaches. Get dizzy. Watery eyes are good if you can manage it. Then, wheeze a little. Express concern that you’re having trouble breathing. Wheeze more. Leave house for several hours. Reapeat. Eventually he’ll pick up on the behavior and ask what’s wrong. Then you tell him the doctor says you’re having reactions to the scent. Or you could skip the playacting and tell him that to begin with, thusly:

This will be especially effective if you’re like most guys I know and you never go to the doctor unless you need something amputated. I can provide other pointers, for this is a noble quest.

#13

In case he ever got stung by a jellyfish?

#14

OK, jugs of pee in your room is just weird.

That being said, when you are in a tent in the mountains and its 10 below outside, an empty 32 oz. Gatorade bottle can be your friend. Empyting it in the morning, however, is SOP.

#15

I dunno. I have a hard time feeling sorry for you after i lived with this rommate for a short time who had a foot fungus of some sort.

The smell was so strong that you could tell whether of not he was home upon entering. It smelled like nothing else I had ever smelled in my life-
It made me want gag, and no amount of Lysol and other cleaning agents could get rid of the smell.

Every day after coming home from work he would takeoff his boots that had been tucked in his pants all day, and scrape all the cheesy stuff off his feet and rub his feet on the carpet and go “aaaahhhhhhh” until I kicked him out.

After an ordeal like this you can’t sypathize well with someone who has a problem with a roommate trying to IMPROVE the odour of the house.

#16

I don’t stink, Turpentine. I have a messy room, but it’s messy with books and laundry- not rotting food. If not for the incense the apartment would smell neutral. My belief on scents is that they are good on prepared food and absolutely nothing else. Nothing other than a dish of food should have an identifiable odor. Not my armpits, not my date, not the refrigerator, and certainly not my house. I can’t deal with “atmospheric” scents. Why would you want to make your apartment smell? I almost always associate smells with something bad.

Do you smell something? (a gas leak)
Here, smell this. (no thanks)

My nose is a warning and food appreciation system. Nothing more.

#17

I was with you up ‘till here, MonkeyMan. Flowers and freshly cut grass have no place in your world, do they?

#18

I like the use of incense from time to time, and buy scented candles to put in a candle lamp of mine, but if I had a roomie, and it bothered him, I’d keep the scents to my room.

The very last roomie I had was not much of a slob, but he liked to get drunk far too often and, I discovered when I had it with him being way too far behind in his share of the rent, did not care where his pissed when blasted. Since I’d thrown the bed out with the previous roomie, I put in a small fold-a-bed couch and this guy slept on it.

Well, apparently when he got tanked he peed in bed, a lot. When the bed was soaked, he neatly folded it up, curled up on the floor, using the cushions as pillows, and peed on the carpet. When that got soaked, he slept on the cushions and peed on them. Since I never caught any smell and his door was closed and locked all of the time, I never discovered this. I mean, he had enough empty booze bottles around to use to pee in! I guess he just passed out and let it go. After I tossed him out for nonpayment, I went in to get his room ready for any future roomie and the carpet squished when I walked in.

I threw the sofa bed out, steam cleaned the rug again, with a whole lot of disinfectant rather than carpet cleaner, then burned about a pound of assorted incense cones in there with the a/c off, doors and windows sealed.

He was my last roomie. I was considering putting in an add for a female roomie only, but then just moved to a smaller, cheaper apartment.

That’s all I would need is a chick wobbling in at night with a guy du jour and starting some crap that I’d have to handle. Guys can be real pain in the butts over chicks. (I know! :smiley: ) I have no idea what it is with dudes and pissing! I never pulled stuff like that even when blasted. (Well, once when real crocked, I kind of peed out the window, but it went outside!)

I will not have another male roomie.

#19

All right, xtal, yes, I like freshly cut grass. Everything has its place. I was trying to make a broad statement. Notice my previous statement: “i almost always associate smells with something bad.” Maybe it should then read “Generally, my nose is a warning and food appreciation system. Nothing more.” Sorry, it’s hard to think with all these clouds of odourous smoke surrounding me.

#20

Maybe, but several jugs worth? What was he worried about running into a whole fleet of jellyfish?