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Flatmate refuses to take the bin out

It's been going on since we moved in (September). I have always been the one to take the bin out. Before Christmas we both took one out each and she didn't even know the trash bin from the recyling. I went home for a week and we ended up with maggots. I'm sick of being the only one to do it and started my own bin.

One from her room has been put into the kitchen, and has been left on the kitchen floor for over a week with food in. I asked her to take it out, and she refused, just posting a facebook status.

I find confrontation difficult. We have to live together for another three months. Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

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Reply 1

TheCurlyHairedDude

You clearly haven't layed down any authority. You finding confrontation difficult doesn't help, it's part of life. Peopel at my company argue with the MD/FD, confrontations are normal and they fast-track all the emotions and bull****.

Reply 2

Annie72

Leave her to rot in her own mess OP!!.You are not her mum, she can put her own rubbish out.Your flatmate sounds like a lazy git to me!.

Reply 3

PoGo HoPz

Stop talking rubbish.

Reply 4

The_Last_Melon

Just take the bin out yourself if it's that big a deal. No point fighting over a bin. Maybe she uses it less than you?

Reply 5

TurboCretin

Original post by tickedoff

If you're in halls, you could talk to the warden or someone else with authority, because it is a sanitation issue. Otherwise, you will have to just deal with it, not live with her again and warn others to do the same.

Reply 6

Harry.Watts1

Original post by tickedoff

I asked her to take it out, and she refused, just posting a facebook status.

So she's immature AND lazy?
You got a great flatmate on your hand! What sort of Facebook status was it?
A typical girly attention seeking one?

Reply 7

TurboCretin

Original post by The_Last_Melon

Just take the bin out yourself if it's that big a deal. No point fighting over a bin. Maybe she uses it less than you?

If you read the post, a bagfull of food waste has been left out which was solely her housemate's. I agree that there is nothing she can do but take it out herself, but it's not like her housemate is behaving reasonably from the sounds of things.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 8

0range

What was the facebook status? sorry just interested on what kind it was.

Reply 9

username637140

Original post by tickedoff

I asked her to take it out, and she refused, just posting a facebook status.

LOL people can be so pathetic. In first year I decluttered my room and left a bin bag downstairs to take out once I'd finished. I went back upstairs, did more tidying and less than five minutes later opened my door again to find my bin bag passively-aggressively placed outside it. Went on facebook later and saw a status from my housemate complaining how 'some people are so bloody lazy' :rolleyes:

Your housemate sounds like a typical passive-agressive bint like the one I lived with.

Reply 10

Chicharito14

Just be blunt about it, i would.

Tell her to take the rubbish out, mention the fact that it is unhygienic to leave the rubbish in the bin for over a week (in the kitchen especially), not to mention the maggot issue.

If she still doesn't do anything then just empty the bin on her head whilst she is cooking. :colone:

Reply 11

Tinberry

Ive had this situation. You have to just dump it outside her room door with a note "your turn"
It might sound petty but get your halls warden or even a landlord involved even if its just to send a warning letter.

Reply 12

dgeorge

Original post by tickedoff

Tell her straight out to take the bin out, as she's the only one using it, and that its unhgenic and unhealthy to use it. If she still refuses, then take a few pictures of it, and make a complaint to your landlord/warden/whoever you rented your flat from

Reply 13

Disenchanted

Try drawing up a cleaning rota? Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Is it just you and her living there or are there other people who could also help to enforce this?

Reply 14

Cybele

Experienced something similar in my last year. I got so fed up that one day I just put the binbags right outside of her door so she'd practically trip over them when she left her bedroom. I got my point across because she started pulling her weight after that. :h:

Reply 15

NB_ide

I'm afraid every single person has a different "tidying threshold" - how dirty something needs to be before they are moved to tidy it. Or how full a bin needs to be before they are moved to empty it, and so on.

Therefore, in any given household, ONE person will have the lowest threshold generally and so will end up doing pretty much all of the clearning. I've lived in two houses where I was the cleanest person and I did absolutely everything, without exception. That's ok - I never asked anyone else to do it because it's not my place to do so. They weren't my guests. They had as much right to the house as I did and if they didn't want to keep it as tidy as I wanted to keep it then that's ok. If I didn't feel like cleaning it I didn't have to, but I wanted to, for my own benefit, so I did.

In my current house there is a much cleaner person and so now I'm seen as the messy one. I think the bin has some space in it while she decides it's "full", and takes it out, so I basically never take the bin out. I think the sink doesn't need cleaning yet, while she does, so she cleans it.

See how it works? You can't get upset at people about it.

Reply 16

wanderlust.xx

Original post by NB_ide

Erm, I'm pretty sure you can get upset over it if there are maggots crawling around on your kitchen floor?

Or would you simply step over them, do your cooking, and let everyone know that you're tolerant of their beliefs and cleanliness threshold? :rolleyes:

Reply 17

NB_ide

Original post by wanderlust.xx

If there were maggots in my house I'd get rid of them and clean up the source of the problem.

Reply 18

wanderlust.xx

Original post by NB_ide

If there were maggots in my house I'd get rid of them and clean up the source of the problem.

The source of which was clearly the flatmate.

Reply 19

NB_ide

Original post by wanderlust.xx

The source of which was clearly the flatmate.

Presumably they pay the same rent and so have the same right to the house. If they want to leave a bag of rubbish there and cba to move it, they can. If I want to put it in the bin, I can. Everyone's happy.

Expecting housemates to clean up to your standards instead of their own is a recipe for disaster.