Having roommates is a rite of passage as we leave our family home and embark on our adulting lives.
Not only is it a financial benefit to split the rent while going to college or beginning a fresh new chapter in a new city, but it's also an exciting time to forge new bonds or strengthen existing friendships before eventually moving on.
However, it's not always an ideal situation as everyone has a variety of preferences when it comes to accomplishing various tasks, like cleaning or cooking.
Things can potentially become more complicated when there's a clash, specifically due to opposite genders sharing a space.
Strangers online shared a specific situation regarding roommates when RedditorJerswar asked:
"What really surprised you when you started to live with the opposite sex?"
The Bathroom can be very telling.
Under Hot Water
"This may be anecdotal to my life experience, but after living with three women and showering with a few others, I can't understand how women have such a tolerance for hot water. Like the scale goes from "stupid hot" to 'just the hot tap wide open.' I've checked with a few other guys, and they seemed to have a similar experience."
– physedka
Everything Everywhere All At Once
"Showers so hot they remove skin."
"Hair Everywhere."
"Cosmetics Everywhere."
–MicroCat1031
Hairy Situation
"The hair in the shower drain, the shower walls, under things, and behind them. Where does it all come from? How was she not bald?"
– levieleven
"As someone with deceptively thick hair, you might not realize it just looking at me, but I could lose half of it and still have a normal-looking amount of hair."
– flamants
Assortment Of Products
"The...shampoo/conditioner museum!"
– RusticSurgery
"I’ll trade you a Dove and open borders for 30 turns for your TRESemmé."
– sushitastesgood
It's not like guys are spared of scrutiny.
Aftermath Of Shaving
"Can we talk about how shaved beard hairs disperse themselves like a crop duster?"
– Chaotic_MintJulep
"You clean them off the sink, come back five minutes later, and it's covered like you didn't even attempt to clean it up."
– stumblinbear
The Audacity
"When I moved out of my ex’s, he was amazed how dirty things got. He just assumed everything stayed clean, not thinking it was clean because I was constantly cleaning it."
– GardenDreams95
Presumptuous Guy
"Omg, my ex-husband once said to me, 'Why would I re-hang and dry my towel? It’s like fresh clean ones just magically appear in the cabinet.'”
"No. Sir. They do not just 'magically appear'. He did call me after I left and said he missed me when he noticed he was out of laundry soap. Ok, sir."
– anonymouse550
Mood Killer
"The first time you are taking a bath and this handsome guy in your life with whom you share love and romance and stars in your eyes just stomps right on in and pees loudly into the toilet."
– MissHibernia
Can't Be Helped
"Men smell. And I don't mean they're gross and dirty and smell (well, some are...). Just, they have a very strong smell. I thought my dad just personally smelled bad. It's all of them (FWIW I have an extremely sensitive nose, so I'm not blaming men here. It just is what it is)"
– Lonelysock2Unfinished Business
"WHY do men constantly leave cabinet doors open? Every dude I’ve ever lived with has done this."
– bumblebbeeetuna710
Tension builds between the sexes.
Disappearing TP
"The high volume of toilet paper she used. Every week, I expected to find a paper-mache, life-sized statue lying around the house."
– shanehiltonward
After The Pee
"My first male roommate was astonished to find out that girls wipe after they pee. It all started after his comment, 'where is all the tp going?' I blew his mind."
– Extension_Practice99
"I think an under valued variable here is some people have different techniques for wiping that use more TP for the same job."
"It's similar to a more open activity of paper towel use. Have you ever witnessed someone yank the paper towel roll and use an arm length to clean up a spill, when two would've completed the job?"
"There are people that are so grossed out by poopy yucky, they completed wrap their hand in layers of TP for a single pass."
– Quixan
Territory Wars
"I'd have to fight for storage space."
– Romnonaldao
"I have a walk in closet. She’s slowly invaded it. She is the Genghis Khan of closet space."
– randomemployee2023
"There’s no such thing as just getting up and going. Deciding to go somewhere is a decision with work involved and time."
"I was used to just getting up and putting on shoes and walking out the door."
– Tsukune_Surprise
Wardrobe Expansion
"The amount of CLOTHES and SHOES. I hang up ALL my clothes, excluding socks/skivvies, and it fits nicely in a small closet. When my wife moved in, we turned the spare bedroom into a walk-in closet for her, and it...wasn't...big...enough....WHAT???"
– themysteryoflogic
It's A Toss-Up
"I’ve lived with a good mix of both men and women over the last decade. Men f'king stink. But women are far, far far messier."
– Ultraromero7
I lived with a close friend of mine in New York City after she and I had known each other during our college years and working in various entertainment jobs together.
Being roommates with her remains one of my fondest memories.
That being said, the minor grievance I had about living with the opposite sex was the scented products catered for women.
While I never wore cologne, I would have friends convinced I was wearing perfume whenever I met up with them out of the apartment.
The strong flowery scents from her various shampoos, deodorant, and hair styling products combined with perfume were pretty intense for a guy who could've used products of his own to at least mask the scent he silently griped about.
Ahh, memories of Herbal Essence smells are flooding into my nostrils.
