I'm a year older than this guy, I took a year off before going to uni and I lived in a house share.
When I moved into the halls and went to put stuff into the kitchen, I just put my stuff wherever there was free space and I notcied other people followed suit. For example, I put my spices and pasta in a free cupboard and then I notcied someone else put their tea, coffee and jam next to my stuff which I thought nothing of since it's a shared kitchen. I put my pots and pans in one cupboard and someone put their pans next to mine etc..
In fact I was happy to see other people were utilising the cupboard space rather than having this immature "This is MY cupboard" attitude, which I hate.
I've heard some halls have allocated cupboard spaces and locks etc but the kitchen here isn't organised like that at all, all the cupboards have huge varitations in sizes which doesn't really lend itself to each person taking their own cupboard as it would be unfair.
Anyway, I recently bought a set of cutlery;one fork, one knife and one spoon. And 2 chopping knives. This is all the cutlery I have. I went to put them in the kitchen and automatically put them in the cutlery drawer. As there was a lot of mis-macthed cutlery in there and I could see that there was a cutlery organiser that was provided for us by the accomodation, I assumed this was the communal cutlery drawer. There were no other free drawers for me to put my cutlery in.
When I went to get my cutlery I was confused to see it was all missing, then I looked up and each piece of cutlery had been taken out and individually placed in a line on the worktop.
I was baffled, I placed them back into the cutlery drawer but this time in the free space at the front of the drawer so as to not get in the way of the other stuff.
But now my cutlery has been taken out 4 times, and I've had to wash it everytime it's taken out because it's being placed into the worktop which is filthy. I've figured out who it is and I'm going to confront him soon.
But after looking through the kitchen, I could see that there was cutlery in all random places, some people keeping it in a cup, in a tuperware under the sink etc. I'm not going to do this. When I lived in a house share we kept everyone's cutlery in the cutlery drawer, everyone's plates and bowls in the crockery cupboard, everyone's pans in the same cupboard, etc. It's an efficient use of space, this is how adults live.
This person has taken this entire cutlery drawer to himself, he has about 5 forks and knives, 3 pizza cutters, spatulas etc. Where as I only have what I listed. I am not taking up his space may I add, whenever my cutlery is moved out of the front of the drawer it's not to make room for his stuff, it's still free. He basically just has a problem with my stuff being in the same drawer as his stuff.
I can understand wanting your own food cupboard, although I couldn't give less of a **** if people put their food next to mine. As long as they're not eating my food it's not my problem. I would have liked to have my own food cupboard, sure, but that's not how the kitchen is set up.
I'd like to clarify again, this drawer that this guy thinks that he can have to himself is clearly intended to be a cutlery drawer as the accomodation provided an organiser for us. I don't see why he thinks he can just claim this drawer as his own just because he put his stuff in there first? Again, my stuff is not in the way of his, it's not even in the organiser. I'm still letting him have the entire organiser to himself.
The way I see it, if you have a problem with your stuff being near other people's stuff, don't put it in a COMMUNAL kitchen; keep it in your private room. I think most people agree that University isn't just about academia, it's about learning how to live in the real world.
But before I confront this guy, and although I'm a normally a shy girl I have absolutely no anxieties about ripping into him, do you think I'm in the wrong here? Am I breaking student etiquette by thinking I can share communal spaces?
I know it sounds like I'm validation seeking here, but genuinely, I'm so baffled about this guy's attitude that I want to hear what other people think.