I live in squalor! (A picture thread!) :-D

Not that I'm outright complaining, cuz I'm about as much to blame as most people living here, but ew.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow001.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow002.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow003.jpg

And maybe this thread -- discovering a JUG OF PEE in your new bedroom: C or D -- is a good indicator of the %#$%TEdfjkroAHHhhh-ness around here.

Not pictured: cat vomit.

D:

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow005.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow006.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow004.jpg

This all looks much worse in person.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow009.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow010.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow011.jpg

I actually removed a party-size pizza box from the center of the floor there.

...

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow012.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow014.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow015.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow016.jpg

(FEEL FREE TO POST PICTURES OF YOUR OWN FILTH)

thank you for making me feel better about my life.

half full beer on the records, safe!

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow017.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow020.jpg

yw

not even the basement is safe!

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow021.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow023.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow025.jpg

hahaha why do we have this

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow026.jpg

ok that's all for now

I'm esp. impressed by the cigbutz floating in the....liquid in that tupperware container.

Yeah I don't know what that is. My girl speculated barf. But I dunno.

Looks like standard student digs to me...

thank you for making me feel better about my life.

― Matt P, Sunday, November 30, 2008 10:54 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah. Only one of us is actually a student, but we're all 20-somethings. Still, this is really bad. One of my roommates came back from tour and said 'I spent a month doing nothing but sleeping in a different person's house every night, and ours is the worst.' xpost

taking out the trash/throwing things in it is not that hard, is it? i'm mystified

Six people live here, all of which are fairly messy and gross to varying degrees. Look away a minute and it's all piled up again. We could clean up tonight and it'd be a wreck again in a week.

thank you for making me feel better about my life.

― Matt P, Sunday, November 30, 2008 10:54 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― schwww im tired (harbl), Sunday, November 30, 2008 4:12 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

And what do your parents think about this, hmm?

most student digs are better than hat tbh...that's "aftermath of a house party" level of bad.

btw the art of preventing things from getting like that is a lot more impt than being able to clear it up once it does get to that state!! eg don't use plates as ashtrays, don't leave the plate on the sofa when you're done, throw beer bottles away when you've finished the beer &c &c

those pictures are horrifying

http://www.pocketropolis.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/kimaggie.jpg

yeah not a lot of things make me wanna puke, but this does xp

http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/index.shtml

Not far off this kind of level really. Does your landlord come round often?

NOPE!!

tbf this is like the worst it's been in a while.

If you pool your $$$ could you get a weekly housekeeper?

seriously, how can you live there?

I don't remember many student houses that were that bad either, my own included, but OTOH if there really are photos here that make someone nauseous just to look at it might say more about them than anything

maybe we need to look at this one again:

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_is_dumpnow005.jpg

^^can proudly say I had nothing to do with that one

lol at drum throne as furniture

omg. like my room is messy right now but not full of trash or weird substances! it's just too small so some things have nowhere to be put away! but woah. this is even worse than my old roommate's house, which is saying a lot - that place made me sick!

it's not so much the pictures themselves but imagining the smell of stale smoke and beer and puke and old rotting garbage. not sure what that "says" about me that's so wrong xp

It doesn't really smell, actually.

It used to look like this!

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/range_no_dump.jpg

I live in clutter, but not squalor

it has to smell, but you never think your own house smells

Burn it all down.

srsly, smoking houses always smell. you just don't realize it.

...although I have many of the items in these photographs (old games consoles, mismatched furniture, piles of stuff, etc.)

Well I mean it doesn't smell...like trash. ....nearly as much as you'd think.

:(

The furniture w/o legs always gets me. After the filth, that is.

proof: aforementioned gross roommate's house was a smoking house. a while after i moved out, after not being around smoke for a while, i opened a box and this flood of smoke and dog hair came out. it was shocking.
xpost

I'll grant you the cigarettes-in-mystery-pool scenario ain't too pretty but the rest of it is pretty much clutter... yeah chuck your empty cans out FFS but it doesn't make the house a death trap either

how many ppl live there?

i am actually surprised you have found a lady who will spend time at this place!

i would not stand for 5% of that mess

are you putting your feet down, rabes?

wear wellingtons first

that's gumboots to you

dude, rabies, six of you should be able to have that place clean in like an hour -- most of it is just a matter of bagging up all the cans/bottles/boxes and throwing everything out. One guy on dishes and everyone else bags/takes out trash/scours surfaces. just do it

do not volunteer to be the guy assigned to dishes

yeah, FUCK that job

although its the kind of thing where i wouldn't trust anyone else's work either

i'd volunteer for dishes, on the condition that the others should come help in the kitchen if they finished everything else first. at least with dishes you know what to do - with a mess that big in the living room, i'd probably just stand there, not knowing what to start with and where to put it all.

yeah, i always volunteer for dish duty in these situations

whatever you do just wear gloves while you do it

yeah, I like dish duty because I get overwhelmed/paralyzed by massive messes (although bagging up a lot of trash is about as easy as big-mess cleanup gets)

you can always switch off on dishes if no one is amenable

Hahaha, one of the roommates was saw this thread this morning and didn't immediately realize it was our place or that I had posted it. Took a moment for the tidal wave or recognition to hit her. We talked and resolved to clean when everyone got home.

It's much nicer now. Still needs a good vacuuming, and people are going to take the recycling tomorrow.

Whew.

Oh, and BigLurks took on dishes duty. ha ha ha

We've also resolved never to live like this again. At least after we move.

One of my ex-landlords owned three houses - the place where he lived with his family, the place we rented, and another place. This third house was occupied by law students and was the biggest tip imaginable. I got to see it after all the occupants had moved out. We thought that our student place was bad - rats came inside the house because the interior was a bigger mess than the garbage pile out in the back yard. But this law student place was unbelievable - I think all of them must have been smokers or something. There was so much stuff piled in the kitchen, especially on the worktops, that I couldn't tell where the sink was.

With 6 people you could easily have afforded to have yr home cleaned once a month.

You can get someone to clean house for $50-60 for 2 or 3 hours, and split 6 ways that's the price of a beer or two at the bar. DO. IT. Once a month, someone will wash stray dishes, disinfect the bathroom, etc, so you get to start fresh even if people have been a little lazy.

I despise cleaning rotations (even though I'm usually the one scrubbing the floors voluntarily on a Sunday morning) because I refuse to deal with people watching me, waiting for me to do as I've been told, and that's how cleaning rosters always end up. Plus there's always one person who thinks "clean bathroom" means "give it a spritz of Windex and hurry off to brunch" and then wants to know why you didn't do YOUR chore yet.

thank you, this thread made me feel better about my perpetually messy bedroom!

i have actually cleaned since this photo was taken. still pretty messy in here, but i'm no longer afraid of having guests to the house.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/Mandalion/012.jpg

Nice! I was hoping for more outside contributions.

(xpost) have you have a burglary or something?

that's how my bedroom usually looks! i like your dresser and mirror.

kind of funny that on the same day as the "passive-aggressive housemates" thread revival, this thread inspires poster's housemates to start cleaning....

Haha, er, this thread wasn't so much passive aggressive as...I mean, we'd talked before about needing to get together and clean sometime soon, but contextualizing it in picture form and posting on ilx was sort of the wake up call for how bad it'd really become.

This thread made me clean the two worst rooms in my home yesterday.

this thread made me shower

Oh my god. This . . . there is just . . . I'm so glad you cleaned! I am not a neat freak by any means but those pics actually made me feel a little sick.

Clearing up can have it's dangers...

...so be careful now.

although its the kind of thing where i wouldn't trust anyone else's work either

― roxymuzak, Monday, December 1, 2008 6:04 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^ otm on dish duty :(

i'm so glad it all got cleaned up.

Haha Mandee thats kind of how my bedroom's starting to look atm :/ Its the one room I am a bit of a slob in, I chuck all my clothes all over the floor. In fairness we only moved in 6 months ago and I *still* havent completely unpacked/sorted/thrown out stuff.

thank you for making me feel better about my life.

― Matt P, Sunday, November 30, 2008 10:54 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― schwww im tired (harbl), Sunday, November 30, 2008 4:12 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― lex pretend, Sunday, November 30, 2008 11:21 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9513/imageuploadimageoi8.jpg

(not mine)

i am having frantic cleaning time because friend is coming to stay here last minute! oy! still not as bad as anything on this thread, but man, i have too much crap. or at least need to get some shelves.

HAM

Robinsons' Mincemeat
lonely can of lavender air freshner
"Nothing sucks like an Electrolux" ...except perhaps living knee deep in filth.

i, too, had a cleaning spree on dec 1st after reading this thread

I got so fed up of Emma leaving nail polish and hand cream on the shelves in the living room that I bought her a Componibili to put her shit in. This house... makes me feel ill. I didn't live like that when I was a student, even when I lived with the awful football boys.

depressing

componibili:

http://www.componibili.co.uk/images/compo1.gif

pretty cute!

It looks sentient! HAI I STORE ALL YOUR THINGS

my house was so completely fucked a month ago that i got impromptu eviction and was forced to move out within 24 hours with the threat of lawsuit. it wasn't my fault though i swear. via some kind of fucking miracle i managed to clean all of it out and find a new place to live all in like 6 hours!

omg sam, is it even legal for them to do that?

no, i mean it wasn't a technical eviction. more like a "get the fuck out or i will sue you".

wow, how bad was it?

looked pretty much just like the photos up-thread.
...while moving out i found a CAT in my closet.

uh

a LIVING cat?

haha yes.

phew

Anyone in this bitch have experience with relatives living in squalor? My mother is in appalling conditions, made excuses when my sister and I tried to address it, and brushed off offers of help. NOT NOT NOT looking forward to the next confrontation.

i was in a pretty bad situation a few years ago - nothing like the above pictures - but we had fruit flies and stuff. the way to deal with it is just to throw shit out. don't do those dishes, go get yourself a few lawn and leaf bags and just throw the dishes in the trash. buy paper plates if you must, but honestly it doesn't seem like any of you are missing having dishes if they've been in the sink that long.

After you throw everything out and then dust, sweep, vacuum, you will feel so much better about life. that shit could be cleaned up in hours, I bet.

and if you do, i think i speak for everyone on this thread when i say we want some 'after' pictures. shit is making me feel all OCD just looking at it.

I don't know what to tell you, j.lu.

I have an older relative who lives in a mess. When I ask her if she's ready to move somewhere else, she protests that she'd have to clean everything up first.

gah years ago a friend of mine lived in that sort of situation - one day i was over there and in some weird uncharacteristic fit i couldnt take it any more and i just grabbed a garbage bag and started collecting all the trash - the roommates feeling guilty no doubt joined in and we threw away like 20 bags full of crap - of course a week later the place was completely destroyed again

― ice cr?m, Sunday, 30 November 2008 17:16 (4 weeks ago) Permalink

^^maybe this? j.lu

The first step is getting them to admit they have a problem, which alcoholics and heroin addicts seem to have an easier time of doing than chronic hoarders who live in squalor.