Hiding instead of tidying: The five most frustrating household habits

Living with other people can be hard – why can’t everyone be as perfect as we are? We like a grumble in our office about what ticks us off at home, so we thought we’d share some of the offences (as we see them) our nearest and dearest commit on a regular basis.

Dirty dish woes

The kitchen is often described as the heart of the home, so it’s no surprise it’s also a hot bed of pet peeves. Leaving dirty crockery on the bench is the hallmark of someone who needs to be thinking about living somewhere else.

Some people think it’s perfectly acceptable to leave dirty dishes on the bench rather than unpack the clean dishes from the dishwasher. It’s not.

And what about those people who leave dishes “to soak” in the sink to escape actually washing the dishes. Then when someone else takes the dodged job on, they have to fish them out of the grimy cold water first. Just ew.

Which way to roll the roll?

Do you hang your toilet roll over or under? No matter which way you roll, your choice is guaranteed to grind the gears of someone in your household and no one needs to hear shouts or groans coming from that part of the house.

As an aside, the way you hang your toilet paper may also offer a window into your personality. In 2016, “relationship expert to the stars” and TV therapist Dr Gilda Carle, devised a personality test which deduced that “people who roll over are more dominant than those who roll under”.

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Cutlery up, or down?

It’s the age old debate: should you load knives and forks up or down in the dishwasher? Some say the sharp end of the cutlery should point down to reduce the risk of injury, while others are adamant that they should point up to ensure the silverware receives an optimal clean. Just pick a house rule and stick to it already.

Waste not, want not

Waste is at the heart of many household grumbles. Whether it be someone leaving the lights on in a room that no one is using, neglecting to empty the bin or running the tap while they brush their teeth, it can sometimes feel like housemates missed the memo on saving the earth.

Another waste-related frustration that occurs in many households is forgetting to throw out empty toilet rolls. It seems to be a teenage (and sometimes adult) right of passage to leave these empty rolls to spend their rest of their days littering the bathroom floor.

If all your attempts to get your housemates to transport the empty rolls to the bin have been in vain, think about investing in a small bin for the powder room. This will not only provide a convenient place for the female members of the household to dispose of sanitary products, but it will also give lazy family members no excuse but to throw out used toilet rolls.

Hiding instead of tidying

An edict demanding kids tidy their rooms is usually met with a chorus of resistance, which is in itself enough to make your blood boil, (“Who do you think does literally EVERYTHING else?”) But what really grinds your gears is congratulating them for a job well done, only to find (when the kids are not within earshot) that their use of the word tidy was just a euphemism for throwing it under the bed or in the cupboard.

– This piece originally appeared on Stuff