People Share The Biggest Unwritten Rules In Their Household
"A Redditor asked: 'What's an unwritten rule in your household?'"
There are rules in life where people are expected to just know how to operate without being told.
For instance, if someone falls down... help them.
When you like a sweater in a store... get money to buy it.
Just leaving with it won't go over well.
And there are more rules, or guidelines to adhere to...
Redditor christygl7 wanted to hear about what is expected in people's homes without words, so they asked:
"What's an unwritten rule in your household?"
If you have to pee... lift the seat cover.
The people in Port Authority always miss that one.
Routine
Cleaning Chores GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"Either my wife or I can do any chore when noticed. We thank each other for routine chores as we appreciate each other."
cwsjr2323
"That’s how my fiancée and I handle chores. Whoever’s around when the core needs to be done does the chore, typically. I find she does more regular cleaning of the whole apartment while I do more dishes and cooking."
radtech91
Trashed
"Replacing the trash bag IS PART OF taking out the trash."
UndiagnosedReptard
"Similar to this, in my house, the rule is if the toilet paper ended on your turn (or there’s barely enough for the next person) then it is your job to procure the next roll and put it in the bathroom. It is NOT acceptable to let it run out for the next person."
wavesnfreckles
"We have extra stored in every bathroom. I make sure of it. However, if it runs low/out on the roll, my wife will 100% of the time take the new roll and set it on top of the empty tube on the spindle, refusing to replace it. I actually called her over and shamed her into changing it in front of me the other night (not in an abusive way - we were both laughing about it)."
on_the_nightshift
Finder's Keepers
"If you find money in the laundry while you are doing the laundry, it's yours."
Rich1926
"Yep. My boyfriend learned that lesson the hard way when we first started living together. He had a bad habit of just crumpling up bills in a big wad in his pocket, usually just ones, but sometimes he accidentally leaves a twenty in there. I tipped myself the twenty. It took him a couple of days of trying to figure out where it went before I took pity on him and told him."
"He now both turns out his pockets and washes his own clothes. I still find the occasional single dollar in the dryer."
Head_Razzmatazz7174
Dropped something?
"If food is dropped on the floor it becomes the property of the dog. The dog knew this rule before we did."
Altruistic-Bit-9766
"That was one of the hardest things after our family dog died. Dropped something? Who cares! Riley will get it. But then he didn’t."
"Also, I don’t live at home anymore but coming home to him barking and crying out of excitement and greeting me always made my day and I looked forward to it every time I opened the door and could hear him wiggling in excitement on the side hahaha. It’s a little less exciting coming home now."
ohno807
Obligations...
Water Stay GIF by Kinda FunnyGiphy"If the water you take from the Brita pitcher leaves what’s left below a certain line, you are obligated to refill the pitcher on penalty of death."
halcyon3608
If you stay in my home and don't refill the Brita pitcher...
I'm setting your hair on fire at 3 AM!!!
Flushed
Go Away Pink GIF by HacklockGiphy"Check the toilet after you flush."
NANNYNEGLEY
"This. My brother-in-law never does this. It's annoying and disgusting! You don't want to clean up after yourself because you think it's gross? How do you think it makes me feel to clean up after you?"
purplestarsinthesky
WAKE UP!
"Wake someone up if their alarm goes off. It's a pretty weird one but setting up alarms is a conscious and deliberate decision for all of us and you want to wake up when it goes off, so we just help each other out."
DonMartiniMacaroni
"I'll do this a few times, but my roommate needs to learn not to hit snooze because he's taught his body that alarms don't need to be woken up to. I don't wake him up anymore. He started waking up to them."
stumblinbear
"I’ll wake them up because it annoys me when people snooze especially if I’m next to them in the bed and I don’t have to get up."
chill90ies
No Exceptions!
"Shoes off at the door. No exceptions."
Next-Dark-4975"
"Shoes-on people must not be using the same public bathrooms that I do. 100% of them have a lake of dirty urine in front of the urinal. They must also be amazing at finding two urine-free spots that are shoe-sized on the shores of said lake. It’s fine if they want to bring that into their homes. It’s not allowed in mine, though."
Bmadray
Table Manners
"No tech at the table."
"Even with a teenage daughter this has proved eerily easy; we all love food though!!"
"Also murder is out of the question, it is non-negotiable. If any of us kills another then they are outlawed in the true sense."
"Other than this, we are pretty cool."
Dante2005
Woof
Well Done Applause GIF by MOODMANGiphy"Let the dog out to go potty before you use the restroom. (Seriously, the dog is asking to go out and you think she can wait while you take a 30-minute poop first? Not cool.)"
InfiniteBackspace
Always let the dogs go first.
If you wait, you won't like the surprise they leave!
People Share The Best Examples Of 'It Can't Be That Easy' But It Really Was
That pile of laundry has been sitting there, waiting to be folded and put away.
Those emails are waiting to be answered.
A form is waiting to be filled out.
We've all done the thing where we dread and put off something, only to discover later that completing it wasn't that big of a deal.
Redditor UnoAboveAll asked:
"What was your 'it can’t be that easy / it was that easy' moment in your life?"
Auditions
"I Lived in Jersey and a friend invited me to a commercial audition at an NYC bar. I went because of the bar."
"I auditioned after two beers and left thinking it was a waste of time."
"A month later, I get a call that they want to use me for the commercial. The director was the guy who directed the original 'Space Jam.'"
"I got lines and ended up in two of their commercials and got a 40k payday where I thought someone made a clerical error. Started my acting career and am now a writer/director/flight attendant."
- ZDrev10
Home Repairs
"Fixing clogged drains."
"Started out because my sink drain plug wouldn't stay up. Poked around under the sink and found the pop-up rod had rusted completely through and broken. Cost me $5 for a new one at the plumbing supply store next to where I worked at the time. Took five minutes to figure out how to swap, and now I know how sink and shower drains come apart, which makes unclogging them simple."
"Maybe it's just me, but in my brain, it seemed like that was something I'd have to call a plumber to come to unclog, but it's all remarkably simple."
- figmaxwell
Small Claims Court
"Suing someone in Small Claims. It was surprisingly easy because my case was rock solid and I had a professionally printed document of evidence, witness statements, and precise records sent over to the court while the Defendant did literally nothing but send unlabeled loose printouts of my Facebook page as her so-called evidence."
"It was a very quick judgment for the plaintiff!"
- Kelosaurus_Rex
Salary Request
"Got a salary request when applying for a job, accidentally wrote double what I meant to write since the number keys were right next to each other. They accepted anyway."
- ahjteam
Light and Sound
"Worked on an almost five-million dollar lighting rig for a concert as a junior guy on the job. We get it all plugged in and patched but none of it would turn on. All the guys were freaking out trying to figure out why. The team collectively had about 150 years of experience."
"No one checked to see if the generators were turned on."
"I was like no way this is why but I'll just go check if the generators are good. Flipped stuff on and voila."
- Firerobe
Dumpster Diving
"Found a 60” tv by the dumpster. Plugged it in, didn’t turn on. Looked up common problems with the model number, bought a part on eBay for $20, replaced the part, and had a huge TV."
- ThinkIGotHacked
You Can't Win If You Don't Apply
"In college, the professor advertised an internship and wrote the info on the board."
"Out of a class of 150 students, I was the only one to apply and I fulfilled my internship requirement for graduation."
- pendeltonskyforce
Test Retakes
"All the students pretty much bombed a networking final. The teacher said we could retake it but we would be alone (no group). Which worked out perfectly for me; they wouldn't get in my way and I wouldn't have to coordinate them."
"I was also the only person who showed up to retake and brought my final grade up to a 90."
- maiden_burma
Shoelaces
"Tying shoe laces."
"When I was a kid, no one ever managed to teach me how to tie my shoes. I remember never being able to get that last step that ties it all together and in general, I suck with knots. I would have been garbage in the boy scouts. I got into my early 20's relying mostly on velcro shoes."
"But one day, I sat down with a pair of new shoes, determined to figure it out. I put one on and tied it correctly on the first try. I just sat there dumbfounded for a few minutes, wondering how it had been that easy all along."
- IIIMjolNirIII
Renting
"I was recently looking for an apartment and rent in my city, like most cities currently, is outrageous."
"So after three days of looking, I found this two-bedroom apartment with a price that normally would get you a roach-infested one-bedroom or studio s**thole in a bad part of town."
"But these apartments look nice, they're in a good part of town, the reviews online are all positive, I can't figure out the catch."
"Then I see there is a year-long wait list for this place, but I decided to go to the leasing office and after talking to the property manager, I get bumped to the top of the list for an apartment that becomes available next month."
"I keep waiting for the bottom to drop out. Most people spend months looking for places in my city and they'd be paying a third more than I'm paying at a minimum for a similar place. I looked for three days and found this place but I think I just got lucky and it was just that easy."
- C0nqueredW0rm
House Chores
"Actually doing the chore you put off for a few days."
- thebigjuicyman25
Sleeping
"I never slept well, ever."
"There’s an over-the-counter magnesium supplement called 'Calm.' I drink a cup every night and sleep like a hibernating bear."
"It was that easy."
- DomingoLee
Squeaky Doors
"I had a loose hinge on my door. It kind of drove me crazy for three years, but I had no idea how to fix the wood that had been stripped."
"Then I found a product on Amazon for $10 where you shove on a sleeve, break it off and then screw in the new screws. Bought two new hinges that don’t squeak."
"Took about 10 minutes and cost $20 and it’s no longer a problem!"
- captain-flak
Finding the Perfect Job
"I've hated every job I've ever had. At 18 I joined the military for six years... that sucked the whole time, then went into customer service at Walmart, and they were a bunch of a**holes to everyone. Tried security and they were just degrading."
"Job after job doing what I thought was the right thing. I decided to apply for a local HVAC company just working call center, nothing big, I think there's a total of nine of us on phones. Honestly, it's the best job I've ever had, we all get along, spend hours a day on our group chat sharing memes, and our management has one on one meetings every two weeks with the goal of 'this meeting is not work-related but we want to know just how you're doing, how life's treating you, what do you need?'"
"There's constant communication about expectations and how we can better meet them and how they can help us perform better. The majority of the company's profits are used to better employee lives (I get monthly commission and residuals, and $30 a month healthcare with BCBS) along with monthly potlucks, paid lunches, and competitive pay starting at $17 an hour."
"I haven't seen any turnover... literally none, my position was only hiring because too many people got promoted."
- zombiem00se
Self-Improvement
"Self-improvement and reflection. Stopped looking at outside factors in my life and started looking at what I could control. Weight, time, who I spent time with, etc. I didn't need to change my whole life in one day. I needed to make small progress."
"Spending one day less a week on gaming and one day a week on improving myself is better than not improving at all. Allowing myself to fail *with intent* to improve is so much easier now that I don't spend time with negative people who demand perfection."
- livinglitch
This particular group of Redditors proved that not only is it possible to get ahead and to accomplish something, but it can be fairly easy to do so.
People Break Down Which Chores They Didn't Realize Would Consume Their Life As An Adult
As a kid, I honestly truly deeply believed that being an adult would mean getting to do what I want.
Several people lied to me and I'd like to speak to all the managers.
Reddit user IseraphineI asked:
"What is something you didn’t realize was going to consume so much of your time as an adult?"
Aside from the fact that bills and taxes don't stop; there's for real no such thing as a day off.
Why did nobody tell me so much of my life would be doing stuff like THIS:
The Kitchen
"Cleaning the kitchen. No matter how many times I do it, it still needs to be done."
- atapia2
"I love the feeling of finishing the mound of dishes and cleaning the counter/sink, then I step back and admire my work."
"Then I turn around to see the pot and pan I forgot were on the stove..."
- buckut
"I've started cleaning as I cook and it feels like its given me half an hour back every night."
- [Reddit]
"Oh my god, seriously!!!!"
"It’s only my wife and I here and I feel like I have to clean the kitchen 3x a day! Where does it all come from!?!?!!??"
- lenny446
"Kitchen."
"Cooking and cleaning didn't consume that much of time when I was in college. Now as an adult, wtf is this?"
- HotPineapplePizza
aaron carter cleaning GIF by MTV CribsGiphyThe Schoolyard
"Dealing with 'office politics' - and not just at work."
"Stupid me actually thought that the schoolyard bullies, mean girls et. al. would grow up and act like, well, adults. Sadly, way too many adults have the manners and morals of entitled toddlers."
- Nachtjaeger68
"Duuuuude. This."
"I thought people grew up after high school.... Not the case. They're still clique-y, and people are f*cking more mean about sh*t. F*ck people."
- suspline
"Yes! This is exhausting."
"I just want to do my job and go home. No drama please. Hate that I have cried after work related to the bullying."
- Head_Journalist3846
Recovery
"Recovering from work. Sometimes I need the whole weekend to be barely ready for next Monday."
- Can-t-Even
"I can’t recover in a weekend anymore so I’ve just started crying before work as a way to try to physically purge the stress from my system. It’s not going so well."
- finlyboo
"Same. My weekend is literally, 'Laundry for work' 'pack lunches/make meals for work', 'make meals for today'...."
"I get up and I get ready to go to work, I come home, make dinner and go to bed because I need to go to work in the morning. Don't forget to leave an hour before you actually have to show up for work because commute."
"How do normal people do this?! Seriously."
- -Firestar-
Not Nachos
"Deciding what to make for dinner. God, it's the absolute worst thing about being an adult."
" 'I have to eat again. AND go shopping for the ingredients!?' "
"You're a kid and think it's all nachos and Sourpatch Kids until you realize you have to care about nutrition and meal balance."
- Carl__Gordon_Jenkins
"And you have to feed the kids. At least 3 meals a day. Every day."
"They. Never. Stop. Eating."
- Canadian_Decoy
Menial Moments
"Menial tasks such as DMV trips, driving/commuting, doctor appointments, basic household chores."
"I did them as a kid, but as an adult it seems so much more of an annoyance."
"Also, having to pick up groceries or make runs to the store for this that and whatever, fixing broken shit around the house, etc etc..."
- Admirable-Appeal6710
james spader ugh GIF by HULUGiphyAlways On
"Parenting."
"Those little f*ckers are relentless. And they are ALWAYS there."
- MasonJack12
"It never occurred to me that once you become a parent, for the first 5, 6, 7? years you are always on."
"You get up, do your work as a parent, go to work, do your work as an employee, leave work, do your work as a parent, etc etc forever."
"Like there aren't weekends anymore or chill nights after work. It is round-the-clock you, on your game."
"Sure you get moments here and there to retreat and it's all worth it, blah blah, but nobody really prepared me for this existence where life really is f*cking exhausting."
- linds360
"Thanks for writing this."
"Currently wrestling with the fact that even though the smallest now sleeps through the night, she doesn't like to go to bed early, so can be up beyond 9pm. Her older sibling, however, likes an early morning, so is frequently up before 6 am."
"I need 9 hours of sleep to be a relatively well adjusted human. I even went to a doctor when I was in my 20s to check I didn't have some medical issue: all normal."
"So if my smallest is up later than normal, and my eldest earlier than normal, there aren't even enough hours in the night for me to be rested. Never mind the fact that once awake, I am everyone's preferred slave."
"I haven't felt rested in over 7 years. I'm so tired."
- Munchies2015
The Anxiety Trap
"Being trapped into inaction by my anxiety."
- FarseerTaelen
"Oh my god this."
"There's a reason why I'm on reddit right now."
- mindsnare
"I feel this."
"I couldn’t sleep well last night while ruminating on all the things I’ve been putting off, woke up at 5am to have a few extra hours to do things, didn’t do any of those things."
"Circle continues"
- quenual
"I feel this one way too hard."
"Combination of existential panic that I'm a 'real adult' now (mortgage, business trips, what have you) and severe ADHD."
- Carbonatite
Bee-Gees Should Have Elaborated
"Staying alive."
"Cooking, eating, flossing, brushing, exercising, sleeping, dressing, stretching, screaming into the void in existential dread, showering… it all adds up!"
- anaccountofrain
"You can probably combine the screaming in existential dread with the shower to save time. That way you can also stay hydrated at the same time."
- jerrythecactus
Stayin Alive GIF by Bee GeesGiphyAnother Part Time Job
"Commuting. At least pre-COVID anyways."
"I spend about 10 hours per week commuting to my job. That's literally 25% of the hours I spend at my job. It's like a part time job in and of itself."
- Flaky-Fellatio
"We are supposed to return to office in March. Managers are terrified about the loss of productivity that will happen."
- diegojones4
"I calculated recently that I was spending the equivalent of 26 DAYS - just shy of a month of the year - on trains and buses going to and from work. It was bullshit."
- RedWestern
"Commuting to work. It frightens me how 2 hours of my day are just wasted sitting in a car and doing nothing. That's 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month, 480 hours a year wasted."
- Estbolbotkzn
Money Money Money
"Budgeting."
"I'm fairly meticulous with documenting the money I spend because I know I badly estimate how much money I have or have spent without having it laid out in front of me."
"I was always broke when I first started working because of that."
"So now I take some time each day to document every purchase I made in a spreadsheet that I've been using for a few years now. It is segmented into six month periods and broken down by pay period."
"It took me a while to set it up in a way that consistently worked, but now I know where every bit of money I spend is going."
"I also have my own little tricks that I can play on there where I'm always saving money, at least according to the almighty spreadsheet."
- HaroldSax
Out To Get You
"Having to worry about what's out to get me as an adult. There's just so many things."
"Is the IRS going to audit me someday on a past tax return?"
"Is my health insurance going to f*ck me over by deciding not to cover something when it should?"
"Is someone at my job going to have a bad day where I'm fired over it? And taking the time, if I care to, to fight for it back?"
"So much bullshit to worry about."
- [Reddit]
Moment of honesty, as someone who has worked from home for pretty much a decade - the commute thing kills me EVERY SINGLE TIME I need to go into an office.
It's so much wasted time! Why? This could've been an email, folks...
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If only all the things we excelled at were also the very things we loved to do most. But sadly, that is not the way it goes.
Instead, some horrible force of the universe made you way better at, say, sewing the holes of pants than playing guitar. The universe can be a spiteful, fickle jerk.
It often seems that the most boring things are indeed the things we are best at. Perhaps because they're mindless and demand minimal creativity, so the learning curve is easy to get past.
Or maybe it's a "grass is greener" thing, where we yearn to be great at the things we know we aren't.
Redditors who know all about the plight of expertise in all the wrong places recently weighed in with their personal examples.
itch_bay asked,
"What’s something you’re really good at but don’t actually enjoy?"
Art, Forced Upon
"Not me but - my friend has taken piano lessons since he was 6 years old and is f***ing amazing at it. But it was much more of a 'parents with high expectations forcing him to take lessons' sort of deal."
"He hates playing the piano, which is really sad...and his parents kind of suck"
Conditions for Very Good Work Ethic
"Cleaning. I f***ing hate it, so when I do it, I make sure not even the smallest stain is left so I can postpone the next session as long as possible." -- avadakabi***
"I have a weird quirk where, when I get sick, I have a compulsion to clean. Its like my brain says 'you are already miserable, you may as well do stuff that you hate so you don't have to be made miserable later, when you are feeling better.'"
"My wife has gotten to the point where she almost looks forward to me getting sick because she knows the house will be spotless by the end of the day." -- BranWafr
The Introvert's Dilemma
"Being nice to people. I can be very pleasant if needed, but it's also very draining." -- nomadinlimbo
"This is me as well! People are so surprised when I tell them that I identify as an introvert."
"People need to understand that being an introvert is not necessarily always about an inability to act naturally in groups, sometimes it's more about how hard that might be. When I've spent time in social situations I feel completely drained afterwards." -- DorneForPresident
The Debate Goes On
"Coding. Never make your favorite hobby your job, kids!" -- Mortambulist
"Too late. Turned my hobby into my college major and then into my job. Now I don't like doing it anymore lol." -- SpecialChain
"Eh, or do. Often it works out. I held off going into tech precisely for that reason and did physics instead. Hated it and switched."
"I enjoy my job, it happens." -- ApprehensiveSand
Can't Decide If Kafka Would Be Proud or Devastated
"Bureaucratic red tape type paper work. I guess I am just very good at filling out tons of forms and papers. Also sort of part of my job."
"I don't like it, but I am very good at it."
-- BigBearSD
The Go-To Friend
"I am fantastic at moving furniture, either around the house, or from one home to another. I don't f*** up walls, and I can definitely get that bureau of yours through the doorway."
"But don't call me and ask me to help you move sh**, I'm busy that day."
Bad at Parties
"Being analytical. Life would be so much easier if I could turn my brain off and just have a knee jerk emotional reaction to everything like society expects right now."
"Pro tip: when asked about a current hot topic, 'I'm waiting for the whole story to come out' is not the correct answer."
Doomed to Phone Duty
"I'm good at customer service, helping people on the phone, etc. but those jobs are soul sucking black holes" -- TheRealOcsiban
"I so feel this. I've had a few customer service jobs, and I was very good at them but I f***ing HATE customers, entitled little sh**s, every last one of them, even the nice ones. Instead of picking up the phone or standing at the desk thinking 'how can I help?' I'd just be thinking 'WHAT do you want NOW?'"
"But I was good at it, and as I think it's due to me genuinely liking to listen to people's problems and help them (just not in a customer service setting) I decided to retrain as a Psychologist." -- Zhylia
Hospitality Trumps Laziness, For a Night
"Cooking. I only cook for other people (I love throwing parties) but when I'm eating by myself it's takeout, ramen, and frozen meatballs all day. The idea of slaving over a stove for hours when I just want to grab a bowl of canned junk food and go back to watching youtube videos irritates me."
Cook smarter, not harder
"Still too much work."
-- ryeshoes
The Logical End of the Game
"Monopoly, like freakishly good at it. I'll win every game. But people are going to hate me..." -- sadpanda___
"My oldest son is like that. No one in the family will play with him anymore." -- momtimesthree
"This is the way. The trick to monopoly is to grind the other players into dust. Slowly. Brutishly. Inevitably."
"Then you never have to play the wretched game again and as a bonus you've ruined the game for others. You must do your part to break the cycle of familial abuse that is monopoly." -- nefariousinnature
Bleacher in Residence
"I have discovered that I am very good at bleaching and coloring hair. Both of my teenage daughters change their hair color 3 or 4 times a year and have for years. The first time I did it because we couldn't afford to get it done professionally and my oldest just wanted a single, bright color."
"So I bleached and colored her hair. It turned out so well that, unfortunately, I have been doing it ever since. And it went from single color jobs to multiple colors, stripes, hombre, etc.."
"They have gotten to the point where they are staggering the colorings, so I end up doing it for one of them about every other month. And I have even had to do it for a couple of their friends who couldn't afford to get it done at a shop."
"I don't HATE it, but it's not easy and it can be a pain in the butt. I would not be sad if I never had to do it again. But, I will. And I will do it, because that's what being a parent means."
-- BranWafr
Functional Sociopath
"You know how sociopaths are often very charming, because I guess they're always putting on an act for people and after a lifetime of experience it becomes automatic?"
"Well that's what waiting tables has turned me into"
One Pleasant Interaction is Plenty, Thank You Very Much
"Social interaction. As a matter of fact, I was in the Safeway picking up some chicken tenders, and energy drinks and this lady walked up to me and was gawking over my curls..."
"and asking what kind of products i used to make them that way because she had a daughter with curls similar to mine or something like that but she didn't know how to manage them."
"And me, not wanting to be rude, just recommended a few products she could try and how to apply them and stuff like that. Spent a good half hour just talking about that and when we finished talking, I was BURNT OUT so I just checked out drove home and passed out on the couch."
-- Vakendo
When Blissful Ignorance is Impossible
"Keeping up with politics. I'm really good at understanding law and I have a back around in psychology so I can see the REAL reason why people make the choices they do."
"And I often have to explain it to people who can't keep up (I'm asked, not like I'm going around dumping it on Facebook) but I've hate it. U wish I could just be clueless about the world."
Setting a Friendly Bar
"Speaking. I have days when I want to be completely mute, but I have to talk or people will just badger me to death about why I'm being so quiet."
"In school I used to pretend I'd lost my voice so I wouldn't have to talk."
The Go-To Friend
"I'm pretty good at talking to people who are going through a hard time and getting them into a better mindset, but I HATE doing it."
"I am not a therapist and most of the time I don't even care about their problem. I'm just really good at telling people what they want to hear."
The Plight of the Type A Mindset
"Organizing things."
"I actually love doing it, but its when people tell me to organize stuff, only so that everyone in the house can leave stuff out and completely ignore the amazing system I have precisely calculated into perfection."
"What's the point?"
-- TheIconicNZ