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One of my roommates gets their period all over the bathroom...
I live with three random roommates. They are nice girls and we get along well, but at least one of them has been consistently getting their period all over the bathroom, and not just on the toilet but on the floor, bathmat, etc. It is hard to say for sure who is responsible for the issue because we kind of get our periods around the same time. I just know that it isn't me, because I meticulously check the toilet area after changing my tampon/pad.
This started happening within the first month of us moving in. I waited a while and then said something to the effect of; "Hey guys, there's been period blood on the toilet seat for a few days now. I'm very squeamish about blood and would prefer not to touch it because it isn't mine." I ended up cleaning it myself, however, because I was sick of not being able to use my own toilet.
I know it's not *that* big of a deal to just wipe down the seat, but it's just really unpleasant. Currently there is blood down the sides of the toilet, on several splotches of it on the floor, etc. It's not really noticeable so it's plausible that the person who made the mess didn't notice, but *I* did and I'm not on the lookout for it.
What should I do? I don't want to be the one roommate who makes a big deal out of everything.
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You need to have a one to one conversation with the person, if you do it in private there should be no problem, its the mature thing to do and the right thing to do , more respect should come out of it, after all we all have to grow up sooner or later. PS good luck you should never hide your feelings, that a bad habit to get into, you should speak your mind you will get further in life..billy
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They need to know you are serious, so your casual mention didn't faze em. There may be a second issue here where the one responsible is embarrassed by a 'problem' she has and so is unwilling to fess up, plus she doesnt have the same cleaning standards as you.
She may be a heavy bleeder and its fast too. I knew of a coworker who in just the time of stepping out of the shower to dry off and put on p anties with pads, she'd already dripped blood all over the rugs. To always have an uncontrollable gushing type of period and never having gone to the Dr. for help, I suppose a person can mentally shut down inside and become tired of the constant cleanup required after them self. So you might ask the group as a whole if one of them suffers with constant heavy periods with uncontrollable gushing. Because that can be treated with medication by a doctor so she can have more normal flows. My daughters friend in 6th grade had the same issue and was taken to a Dr. who put her on something to help normalize the period flow. If there is such an issue for one of your roommates and it is taken care of, then there should be less occasions where she needs to clean up after herself. You might also mention that for health reasons, they all should be cleaning up their own blood and not having to do anyone elses. Blood can pass along born born illness's. Caretakers, Dr.s nurses and dentists all take this very seriously because its dangerous to have someone elses blood come into contact with your skin.
You may have to take control of the situation and get the cleaning products needed and bring all roommates into the bathroom and tell them you want to show them how you were taught to clean a bathroom. Make sure you have a box is disposable medical gloves under the sink and each gal if squeamish about cleaning up after herself, checks the bathroom each time after her use of it for blood, puts on a pair of gloves and cleans up her mess. Blood just wiped off with tp isn't good enough. You need a bottle of sanitizer to spray both sides of the toilet seat and the toilet rim and anywhere else blood landed such as dripped near the waste basket, on the walls, etc. The sanitizer may as well be sitting out on the floor next to the toilet for the days you all are on your period, and the garbage will need to be wearing tainted gloves, the safest way to remove them is have everyone practice wearing a pair and grabbing at the fingertips of one to ease it off the one hand and scrunch it into a ball with the one remaining gloved hand. Then insert a finger at the wrist of that glove to pull it off inside out with the other glove hidden inside it. This is a way to make sure your fingers and skin do not come into contact with the blood or harsh cleaners that were used. Hope this helps.
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Missundersmock has the right idea. You are roommates not maids to each other. Each must be responsible for their own mess be it in the bathroom, kitchen or any other room of the house.
You don't say if you three are college roommates living away from home for the first time without mom to clean up behind you or just 3 ladies sharing a house or apartment. If any of your other 2 roommates are living away from home for the first time then she may be the culprit though it really doesn't matter. The house needs to be cleaned on a schedule and not by just one of you.
Having a house meeting and a regular basis, probably Sunday evening is a good idea. In this meeting you air any complaints one might have. You also assign cleaning duties for the upcoming week. You are all responsible for your own room of course. Then each of you is responsible for a different room in the house each week.
Roommate 1: Bathroom
Roommate 2: Kitchen
Roommate 3: Living room & Dinning room.
List out what needs to be done in each room each day and each week such as dusting, vacuuming, mopping so on and so forth. Each week the duties rotate so no one roommate has the same room each week. What is important is that each roommate knows what needs to be done for the room she has that week and can do so on her schedule. This way the house stays clean.
The bathroom is one room that requires extra attention. You use it you clean up after yourself. Meaning you take a bath or shower you rinse down the tub and shower. Wipe down the sink and counter when finished. If you leave a mess on the toilet you clean it. Once a week the bathroom needs to be scrubbed, toilet starting with the tank going to the floor and the inside of the bowl. The shower and tub get scrubbed as does the sink and counter.
The kitchen once a week everything gets wiped down and cleaned with a cleanser, the floor mopped. The refrigerator checked for outdated or spoiled food to be thrown out. If there is a dishwasher the dishes in the dishwasher get washed and put away.
The living room and dining is dusted and vacuumed weekly and any magazines put in place. Everyone is responsible for putting their own things away daily that might be left in the living room.
If you want you could even add to your house schedule who does the cooking each week if you like to eat one or two meals a day together. Just one thing the person who cooks does not do the KP that is how we do it in the Fire Station. In fact the schedule I gave you is how we do things in the station. Each shift each of us have a different chore and one of us also cooks. The house stays clean, our equipment is checked and ready for use and we are able to relax between calls in a clean and safe environment so we are at our best to help you the citizens we serve.
Talk to your roommates and try my schedule. It has worked in Fire stations since just about the time of the first fire station.
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Ok, heres the thing. I think MOST people dont like seeing blood or period spots all over the place in the bathroom (even in a public bathroom) so what you might do is have a "house meetings" and see if you can get them to agree to doing chores. youll ALL have a hand in making sure certain things get cleaned regularly, and if anyone tries to get out of it you can say "well you live here too so if you use it, you need to help clean it, this is a team effort"
Try to appeal to to this being a team effort, and that you want to work towards just making the house more comfortable for everyone. No one wants to worry about there being bodily fluids all over the place when they walk into a shared bathroom.
Idk if your just school roomies or if your all adults and in an actual lease in an aprmt. but there has to be basic rules set down when rooming with anybody.
Ask them what they would be OK with making sure gets done or if they'd like to just worry about themselves and are willing to make sure they clean up after themselves.
Theres no real pleasant way to have this talk, so maybe before you have a house meeting you can walk them each into the bathroom and ASK them if what they see there is gross or not, and ask them if they feel we should have a house meeting about cleanliness and see what they say. Tell them to think about any concerns they have as well that they can bring to the table when you have the meeting, so that you can figure out a way to all happily live there without being grossed out.
what your feeling IS normal, thats gross, and someone is obviously either oblivious or just not paying attention.
i personally would have one person that takes the trash all the time, someone else that does the dishes and mops the kitchen, and someone else that does vacuuming. Ive roomated before and alot times if your all rather young, everyone will think your place is some sort of crash pad where they dont have to respect anything and can get things dirty or use them and then just not clean up after themselves and i had to let them know this was not the case.
good luck! ; )
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