At one point or another, many of us had to cohabitate with strangers.
It was a small sacrifice to pay in order to save money for tuition or to acclimate after moving to a new city.
But finding the perfect roommate is like winning the lottery.
One wrong pick would leave you with a Single White Female situation, and we all know how well that ends.
When Redditor EDS_Vibez asked, "What was the absolute worst roommate you've had?" those who survived to tell their disaster stories answered the call.
Complaints included a roommate who had a tendency of borrowing underwear; a woman who drank excessively and brought men home; a brother who spoke loudly on the phone at night; and a guy who practiced his saxophone – completely naked.
Do any of these roommates fit the description of someone who made your life an absolute nightmare to be with?
The Man Who Wore My Undies
"My first college roommate was the worst."
"He hated doing laundry and would 'borrow' my underwear, even though I told him not to in the clearest possible terms."
"Worse still, he'd wear my undies for a date, then return them used (unwashed). After he'd do that, it felt weird wearing them again - as if they were now his and no longer mine."
If Your Name Is Mindy, Proceed With Caution
"My first college roommate. She was a doozy. I should have known she would be awful."
"She insisted that she was going to bring everything to furnish the apartment because she had received it as gifts. The only thing she didn't have was a microwave. Cool. I brought one and some cooking stuff, along with my bedroom stuff. She then lorded over me that she supplied EVERYTHING for the apartment and I only brought a microwave."
"She had two boyfriends. One the 'safe' guy her parents liked and one not liked by parents. They didn't know about each other. If I answered the phone I was not supposed to say anything about what was doing."
"She had one matching set of panties/bra. She showed me and acted like it was a big f'king deal. She wore them for days at a time so each boyfriend saw her on them. And if she went out, she wore them."
"She was an alcoholic. Everyday day around 1 she brought back a 12 pack of Natty Light. It would be gone by evening."
"She brought men home from bars. I locked my door if I was home. I mostly ended up staying with friends or my boyfriend because I didn't feel safe. One time I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. There was an old naked man in the hallway."
"I left after one semester. My boyfriend helped me move out while she was out at a bar. The lease was in her name and I didn't care."
"Mindy from SIU - if you're reading this f'k you."
My Nude Saxophonist
"My first roommate in college- we lived in the room below his girlfriend, and he'd call her every morning around 6 am and every night around 9 pm. Dude. Just go talk to her."
"He also was naked in the room. Like.. a lot. I'm not weird about that kind of thing, but he absolutely never wore clothes unless he needed to. It was strange."
"The nudity was made weirder by how needy/social he was. I'm a relatively reserved guy and did my best to keep to myself. If I was working on something for a while and didn't acknowledge him, he'd tap me on the shoulder and I'd have to turn around and have a conversation with a naked guy about why I'm avoiding him. I was never 'avoiding' him- I just never felt the urge to talk to him constantly."
"Also, he played the saxophone and practiced in our room (naked, of course) until I put a stop to it. Put yourself in my shoes for a moment. You're doing homework at your desk and are interrupted by a hairy naked guy playing the saxophone in our dorm room (very close quarters)."
"For those of you who aren't aware, the saxophone is not a quiet instrument."
Get It Together, Bruh
"My brother always is on his computer when im trying to sleep and talks to his friends loudly, bangs his desk, and watches videos on his phone with the sound on. Good sleep isn't a thing for me."
The Liar And A Thief
"Brent: both a liar and a thief, continually used my food, toothpaste, laundry detergent and most anything he needed. Drank my beer and when I asked, he denied it, I showed him the bottles in the trash and he still denied it."
"Tired of it, I switched my powdered detergent with powdered bleach and placed it back on the shelf. After several weeks, he ruined all of his clothes and never touched my detergent again. When he moved stole a bunch of tools from me too. He was and is a total a-hole, and the reason i lived alone after that."
These Are A Few Of Their Not-So-Favorite Things
"Not going to name him out of the sake of anonymity, but here are some of his offenses:"
- Leaving dirty plates and take out food containers in the living room with rotting food.
- Always had sex with the door open/cracked on purpose so people could hear.
- Walked around naked in the apartment.
- Constantly asking to use my car for like 20 minutes, but ended up being like 4 hours.
- Asks for you to spend all day at the apartment in case a package comes.
- Asks to cut his hair (I'm not a barber).
- His girlfriend moved in for a month without asking or splitting bills.
- Constantly forgot to pay the water bill, so shutoffs happened about once a month.
"After that I was done with roomates. Unless we're family or in a longterm stable relationship, then that's going to be a 'F'k no' for rooming together."
When Friendships Sour
"6 years ago, had moved out with a so called friend. I was pregnant and working two jobs (retail)(Walmart) had my son and still worked my a** off. Anyway she decided to let a mutual friend bring a guy over so the friend could use her room for you know what. I told her that's a bad idea and I would never allow anyone to have sex in my bed if it ain't me lol. She decided it's okay. She didn't come home that night so our mutual friend came over with her bf, they did their thing and stayed the night. Roommate decided to pop up back home around 6am.
Mind you I had a baby 3-4 months old, just got off work so I was asleep. The audacity of this heiffa to come in the house mad with her kid seeing the mutual friend laid up in her bed with the guy pissed her off(but she had agreed to it) she starts yelling ain't nobody sleeping in here, swung my mf door open telling me I was a bad roommate for letting it happen etc. I told her I'm not your momma and you allowed and okayed her to do it."
"Long story short she had to sign off so I can get off the lease that day to which she did, then she got mad at me for calling to tell her I would cut off all utilities on this date so get your money up so you can put your name on them. She expected me to leave my name on the utilities but the bi*ch never wanted to pay on time and felt like I should've paid her half because my kids father which was overseas at the time would send money for his child. She called me to tell me she wanted to fight but be friends again and I told her we're not friends nor will we ever be in this lifetime or the next. That was years ago and I wiped my hands with that situation, learned my lesson."
You Don't Want To End Up With This Guy
"Guy I lived with my first two years of college. Got put in a 6 man suite and he wasn't bad at first but slowly unveiled his inner sociopath. Stink like dogsh*t because he was from a wealthy family and never had to do laundry before so he just wore dirty clothes all the time. Joined a frat at a non-party school so thought he was a big man on campus even though the frats are a joke here. Left his dirty clothes and food just lying around."
"Bullied his awkward sheltered roommate by 'purposely' trying to be as gross as possible so the kid would drive home every weekend and made fun of the kid for lying about where he transferred from (the bullied kid went to community first but claimed he had gone to Syracuse) when I just found out this year the bully hadn't played basketball at the school he had gone to before transferring like he'd claimed. He'd just straight up grab girls at the bar and start making out as his method of hooking up which worked occasionally but was generally just him borderline assaulting women. Guy manipulated people into thinking he was their friend but really just used people and convinced 4/6 of us to stay as a group to join with 4 other guys for the next year where he just got worse and worse and we all decided to not live with him for our last year."
"He's basically a pathological liar who feels the need to try to one-up everyone at every single possible chance but the cracks just keep popping up. A few weeks ago I was at the house of the other 4 people we lived with our second year (totally outside to avoid corona) and he just drunkenly showed up and tried to wrestle me because he knew I wrestled and always tried to prove he could beat me up. So he attacked me when I wasn't paying attention by going for a knee I'd torn back in March and I f'king hate this guy so much at this point I had to take him down and then he tried to tell everyone I actually attacked him randomly until someone called him out that he tried to sneak attack me. Dude is a total scumbag grasping at straws to be the 'big man' on campus."
Scratch That, THIS Is Who You'll Want To Avoid
"Told me he wanted to kill people to know what it felt like and dissect them, and that he had no sympathy or sorrow for death, then told me he wanted to manipulate me & was actively trying to find ways to do so. There were a lot of red flags leading up to this. but this casual conversation sent me into a two month dissociative state. I'm no longer mentally able to live with someone besides my mom for more then 3 days without getting overly paranoid and going down a horrible mental health rabbit hole."
Dude, Where's My Funnel?
"I had a funnel I kept in the cupboard that I would use when I made barbecue sauce. My roommate and I shared an apple TV and I could see his YouTube search history. One day I found 'How to give yourself a coffee enema with a funnel.' I looked in the fridge and found a half full pot of french press coffee and my funnel was nowhere to be found. Needless to say I never went looking for it."
Move Over Karen, And Meet "Taryn"
"I had this roommate in college named 'Taryn.' We were renting an apartment together because I had just moved to the area and our boyfriends knew each other."
"Unfortunately, Taryn was controlling and obsessed with being an 'adult.' I moved in a week before her and she wanted me to wait to buy anything without her. Seriously, she got mad when I told her I was shopping for a shower curtain. She made me send her pictures and nixed all of the ones I wanted (beach themed, polka dots, wavy lines, etc.) because they were 'immature' and in the end told me I could only buy a white one. With my own money!"
"We were supposed to be splitting rent evenly, but after the first month Taryn said she couldn't afford it and asked me if I would cover for her for a few months. She was in an unpaid program but would start getting paid in 4 months, so we agreed I would play an extra $100 for 4 months then we would switch. She never kept her end and never paid me back while bragging about all the things she was buying. She claimed that I should pay extra anyway since my room had an extra closet. Her room had 1 walk in closet and my room had 2 standards, so it was still the same size."
"The final straw was when she told me I had to get rid of my ESA because her boyfriends sister was allergic to cats. This was a cat that I got shortly after moving in, with her permission. I had a note from my psychologist and the landlord was aware and approved it. Taryn thought that her boyfriends sister should be more comfortable in our home than I should be."
"She did a lot more and I ended up leaving the moment my lease ended. She told me to take all my crap with me. So I did. All of the pots and pans were mine, the table and chairs were mine, the sofa was mine. Even her desk in her room was one she had 'borrowed' from me. And yes, I took the white shower curtain."
The Definition Of A Slob
"I lived in an apartment with several people, but the guy in the room next to mine was bad. We cook our own food, and he'd leave dirty caseroles in the sink. He'd take his food into his room and just stack used plates and such on his desk, eventually he had his own colony of fruit flies in his room. He'd excercise a lot, which I'd say is a virtue, except he left his dirty laundry on the floor, which developed an odor. He had a condition which required him to take medication at regular intervals, so he'd set an alarm for maybe 2 am. He did not wake from his alarm, I did. When I knocked on his door he did wake and take his medication. I also believe he stole from me, i.e. stuff I had in the fridge would go missing. He moved out, fortunately, and the guy who moved into his old room was a good guy."
Love 'Em Or Hate 'Em
"Children, hands down. They're demanding, messy, don't contribute, and you can't throw them out."
Horrible Zoo Keeper
"Rented a cheap room from an older lady for a few years. She was nice but house was cluttered and dirty. But the worst part was when her grown daughter moved back home. She was immature and entitled, absolutely loved herself. She wouldn't help out, left blood and pubic hair in the bathroom for others to deal with, and wouldn't take care of her pets. One time her mom went out of town for a week, and I realized after a few days the girl wasn't feeding/watering her birds... two of them were dead. But she loved to brag about her 'zoo'. She also would sneak her boyfriend over all the time even though her mom didn't want him there. She would even leave the bedroom door open while she was giving him a bj when me and her brother were home. I was so glad when I could afford to move out. You would think 20 years and 4 kids later she might have matured. But her sister tried to help her out and let her live there- she and her kids were rude and trashed her house, and wouldn't follow covid rules even though the sister has health issues. She finally kicked her out, and the girl cut her out of her life and made the kids do the same."
– lalapine
