I live in a shared house with my boyfriend and three others. My gripe is their inability to do any cleaning (well apart from my boyfriend who cleans cos I can tell him too!)

The options I've come up with are...

(1) Passive agressive persuasion a la "I've just cleaned the kitchen, if you want to show your appreciation why don't you hoover the stars?"

(2) Threats "Do some cleaning or I'll move out then you'll all have to find somewhere else to live" - long story but only my boyfriend and I are on the tenancy so if we moved one of them would have to take over or we'd lose the whole house.

(3) Set up a rota

(4) Just carry on doing some cleaning when it needs doing and hope they join in.

This thread is slightly tongue in cheek in that I'd never go with option 2 I just fancied a rant after once again coming home to find someone had spilt stuff all over the hob (milk this time) and just left it for someone else to wipe up (me) I'd leave it too but it would have burnt on when I wanted to cook. :-s

Is it really bad that I'd be tempted to take option 2?
I'd set up a rota- I'd discuss it with them first though, more like 'negotiate' a rota. If someone set out a timetable dictating when I had to do things without consulting me, I'd be irritated.
Option 1 would be out for me, if someone's gonna tell me to do something, I would consider that a manipulative way of doing it, which would irritate me.
Option 4 is definitely out.
So 3 is best, but if it didn't work, I'd be telling them that I won't live like this, and that something has to change (in a manner leaning towards option 2, but more subtle and friendly, of course).
:-)

======= Date Modified 19 Oct 2010 20:39:58 =======

I lived with two scientists for a year. They were lovely but spent most of their time in the lab (final years) and were not familiar with the vaccum cleaner or dishcloth in that period. In defeat I just got used to it. I hoovered about once a month and made sure that it wasn't filthy. But the flat was never tidy.

I'd go for option 2 - the words "losing battle" spring to mind...

Looks like rota is winning then...................hmmm food for thought.

Anyway I'm a bit happier, one of them put the recycling out last night when I'd forgotton :-) and the kitchen is fairly clean.

I don't know what the gender split is but there can be a male female thing going on.  My husband genuinely doesn't notice that the kitchen surfaces need cleaning etc. He is semi-retired and so does more of the housework/childcare and has asked me to draw up a schedule so that he knows how often things should be cleaned (so surfaces several times a day, floor several times a week etc).  I really don't feel like doing this as it feels like I am telling him what to do but he said that I know how often things should be done and he doesn't   So a rota may well be the way to go.

You can do it on either who wants to be responsible for (if for example someone doesn't mind doing floors but hates emptying bins) or on a rotational basis or on a taking responsibility for specific rooms (eg kitchen, bathroom, sitting room, outside space).

Having lived with various housemates by renting out rooms in our house, there is only one real option.

this is to collect any rubbish e.g. pasta sauce spilled on surfaces, hoover dust from thier areas of the house, general rubbish. and put it in their room until they get the message.