Hiding things which flatmates may use

Do you ever do this? Nice follow up to the passive aggressive notes thread.

Generally I have a good relationship with my flatmates but today I bought washing capsule things and since they've disappeared almost instantly anytime I got them before and they're expensive (and I'm broke) I decided to keep them in my room.

In a way I felt this is better because I don't have to worry about them being taken or be paranoid or count them or some shit, and flatmates would just buy their own and it saves any confrontation.

This got me thinking though that I would never do this with food (even stuff that doesn't need to be refrigerated), it just seems too tight wadded and I can sort of understand someone using olive oil you bought if nobody else has bought any.

My former housemate did this with washing powder, drove me insane seeing as to my knowledge the rest of us never used hers.

how did you find out?

how did you know about it then?

xp

It was hidden behind three bottles of spirits in a cupboard.

lame. she should keep it in her room.

hiding things behind booze is either totally stupid or a cry for help.

She also used to write her name on bottles of milk. This offends my loose commie sensibilities.

that is pretty lame. I drink soy milk so thankfully my flatmates never touch it.

fucked health issues 1-0 society

The trouble I have is he’ll finish off or use all of something and then replace it with corner shop cheapest brands. He used the majority of a bottle of olive oil while I was away and replaced it with cheap cooking oil. He’s emptied my salt and pepper pots that many times without replacing any that I now don’t refill them.

The worst though is I have a couple of decent pans which were quite expensive and he always uses them. He’ll cook something and then leave some in the pan so I can’t use them; it’s a pain in the arse. I said I wanted the pans one night and he stropped big time and said there are loads of pans in the cupboard. I said I wanted to use the pans I bought and not his crappy old burnt ones.

Despite this, we do get on, and as far as sharing, he’s the best flatmate I’ve had.

Wish I lived alone though, it must be great to find stuff where you left it.

i had to hide my booze and drugs in college

shit don't get me started on this

dood will only buy "fresh squeezed OJ" (yet he never does) but will open a new carton of my tropicana or kill it off without a second thought

my freshman year roommate used to lock his closet when he went home on the weekends, i case i was going to steal his polo shirts or something

dood will only buy "gourmet bread" (unsliced, yet he never does) but will open a new loaf or kill a load without a second thought

so i have THOUGHT about hiding things. but you can't hide food in your room. it's pathetic.

dood will only buy "fresh squeezed OJ" (yet he never does) but will open a new carton of my tropicana or kill it off without a second thought

^ oh man the very same thing did my head in the other day, i bought a litre of orange juice, planning to drink it at breakfast the next day, and someone else got through the whole thing that evening. shit still hasn't been replaced. it's not the cost that annoys me, it's the principle... next time i buy some i'm putting a plastic bag around it or something.

while we're on this, what's your etiquette on washing machines/hanging up etc. since i've been unemployed I find it fucking hard to wash clothes because my flatmates are up early putting on washes, then they leave them steeping in the machine all day.

today I just thought fuck it and dumped a wash out of the machine onto a chair. I'm assuming this won't be a problem.

x-post yeah hiding food is pathetic. and bringing it up is pathetic too. I mean I guess I just assume I do annoying stuff too.

olive oil though, I buy rivers of the stuff. and another big annoyance for me is that whenever the olive oil, which I bought, runs out, flatmates use groundnut oil until it's gone. I mean I buy a tiny bottle of groundnut oil cos some recipes require it, so I'll always have it.

seriously some people just don't get how to co-habitate with another. i wouldn't dream of finishing someone's food without replacing it immediately.

What in the world are groundnuts?

i'll hang up my housemates' clothes, grudgingly. but i'd never leave *mine* in the machine (it makes you stink)

groundnut oil = peanut oil

You know, there are basic rules, like "Use some of the other person's milk but only enough for yr coffee and not if it's almost gone already." Right? How hard is this??

Then again, I just left an apt in which no one would buy toilet paper for like two months. Finally I kept a roll in my room just cos I was the ONLY GIRL and no one else would bother.

my freshman year roommate used to lock his closet when he went home on the weekends, i case i was going to steal his polo shirts or something

How do you know he did that unless you tried stealing his stuff?

I'm the only one who buys loo roll in our house. But I only buy cheap brand roll anyway (89p for 12 rolls or something) so it's hardly worth the argument.

I guess keeping stuff that belongs to you in your house/cupboard is a hangover from uni/college, yes? I mean, when you're a student you have to hide everything cos it'll go whether it's any good or not, but as a grown up you'd hope that people have outgrown their dickishness.

Regards washing machine stuff: I always assume that if there's clean washing in the machine that I can just take it out and put it on a chair, yeh. If that happened to me then I wouldn't mind, so I assume that the converse is true.

sorry to vent here, but regarding the OJ, one day he came home from work, and i had finished my carton of OJ. he looks in the fridge and says--"oh i was going to buy OJ but i thought you would have"

like i'm the fucking orange juice man.

How do you know he did that unless you tried stealing his stuff?

he saw him lock the closet?

A likely story!

I haven't bought toilet roll in a long time but someone else does, haha, hence why I'd never bring up this stuff with flatmates. That said I think I am easily buying enough stuff to not feel bad. Butter, oil etc etc.

One other thing that I find irritating is when nobody is buying something that's really useful, eg in our flat, kitchen paper, and I am discouraged from buying it cos whenever I do it's gone so quickly.

x-post so when you put their washing on a chair, is it cool to then put your wash you do afterwards on the rack to dry. I sort of feel the queue system is forfeited if you leave your stuff steeping in the machine.

my freshman year roommate used to lock his closet when he went home on the weekends, i case i was going to steal his polo shirts or something

How do you know he did that unless you tried stealing his stuff?

he padlocked it shut

so don't want to live with people ever again

Padlocking? Bloody hell.

Use the milk for a cup of tea or borrow an onion if they've got plenty and you're gonna replace it tomorrow, but don't rely on someone else to bring you juice, that's just not cool.

re washing: the queue for the rack and the queue for the washing machine are separate. It's first come first served on the drying.

leaving ur washing steeping in the machine all day is kinda gross anyway

honestly some of the flatmate stories i see here are unbelievable - in like 6 years of cohabiting with friends & randoms i have never lived with anyone who'd dream of doing anything like this. the worst girl, who i thought was pretty bad at the time, is but a mild irritation compared to some of this behaviour. can't believe some people still can't work out basic cohabiting etiquette!

xps

I mean, when you're a student you have to hide everything cos it'll go whether it's any good or not

i never had a problem like this when i lived with students!

does anyone else's flat always have way too much garlic? In ours, presumably cos garlic is so essential, we always have a ridiculous amount of cloves of garlic and the skin on this one shelf. Everybody buys garlic every day or something.

Fascinating.

x-post Lex is this because you can't cook beans and just ate out all the time as a result?

i've always assumed that stuff like olive oil, butter, most spices, etc., was pretty communal. in some arrangements it has been explicitly so (we'd split up the communal expenses on a monthly basis ("i bought TP, you bought olive oil, etc"), in others it was just sorta on the honor system.

oddly enough, i've been more annoyed by current roommate's willingness to *duplicate* shit i've already got. like, we've already got veggie oil, why are you taking up space w/a bottle of the EXACT SAME BRAND

i honestly can't even remember what i ate as a student.

oh man you are asking for a world of hurt re: the laundry

I'm just saying, prepare for an argument

^^ this is why i never skip the rack queue

(basically, the situation you're currently in has no one right or wrong answer, so prepare for a fight that will determine what the appropriate protocol should be)

i've always assumed that stuff like olive oil, butter, most spices, etc., was pretty communal. in some arrangements it has been explicitly so (we'd split up the communal expenses on a monthly basis ("i bought TP, you bought olive oil, etc"), in others it was just sorta on the honor system

yeah I generally assume this. tho sometimes you kinda think "is this actually fair?" if you are buying a few of these condiments constantly.

x-post I don't think there will be a world of hurt. our flat is built on nobody ever bringing up issues in a way which actually works better than it should.

it's only communal if the person who hasn't purchased the item realizes when it's depleted and replaces it. and if you aren't aware or keeping track of these things then you are a bad roommate.

I don't know, for me "laundry on chair while roommate's is drying" = "world of hurt"

also, current roommate has pretty much confirmed my fundamental desire to just live alone or exclusively w/ppl that are already very dear friends: she's low-maintenance, really friendly and pleasant, and totally not a problem. it's her mere *presence* that's a drag---it could be anyone! like i want to go and listen to the radio in the living room, but the apt is so small and we're both home, so it's headphones or nothing :(

xp that's what i meant, cutty! like, it's usually worked seamlessly in my experience, or was made explicit (everyone keeps track of what they're 'giving' for communal use) and then squared up

I used to keep a few good utensils and bowls in my food cupboard when I lived in a shared house, only because a couple of my housemates were horrible at washing dishes and would leave flecks of food on everything and it annoyed me having to re-clean things that should've already been clean. Thankfully (with the exception of current arragement) I have never done the communal food thing.

With the washer/dryer in that house, we just took out other people's stuff and set it aside in a bag if they weren't home to do it themselves.

ie to clarify, current arragement being that I live with boyf and not randoms

my shampoo started to get low too quickly. one day i tested roommate's dozen or so shampoo bottles--all empty. she was helping herself to mine. i felt petty about caring--and yet, one shampoo bottle will last me like a year, but she has shoulder+ length hair, clearly she goes through a lot, and my bottle was noticeably lighter every morning. what to do? carrying it back and forth to my room was just too...weird (plus i would forget and have to run back to get it). solution: store bottle on floor between tub and wall (we have an old-fashioned clawfoot tub thing, you could never see the bottle there unless you moved the shower curtain and looked down). that felt weird too but at least it was easy.

after i determined she had bought herself shampoo i put mine back in the customary spot. no one said anything :\ choose your battles innit? the fight over CLEANING the bathroom was much more direct.

this was months ago. this week she did a similar thing with the facial cleanser, except she poured it into her dispenser. didn't even bother to screw the top back on tightly.

i got my wash onto the rack and put the other one back in. perfect crime. almost.

fwiw in that situation ronan i would put my washing on the rack, maybe hang up what i could of the flatmate's (stuff that needs to be hung, like shirts), leave the rest in a basket or something - putting them back into the machine will make them more skanky

though if i was the one who'd left them in the machine all day i'd accept the entire situation was my fault anyway

How come the people who are willing to swipe other people's stuff never post on these threads? Come on, defend yourself.

doesnt that just mean if one is bigger its polarized and if not its not? you soon find out if you have it in the wrong way.

Well, exactly.

i've never been quite convinced that american plugs are, like, real

and i mean i've seen and used them and everything and it's just, you look at them and mentally a little voice goes "really? really?"

the fairy dust gives them away a little

i seem them and i'm like "what's the matter, you like house fires?"

pish

Yes, with our large American peckers we can put out any housefires with voluminous torrents of urine

voluminous torrents of urine

okay technology has officially gone too far

"British power outlets incorporate shutters on the phase and neutral contacts to prevent someone from pushing a foreign object into the socket. Sockets from most manufacturers have shutters which are opened by the earth pin alone. This is longer than the others and must always be present"

"The phase and neutral pins on modern plugs have insulated bases to prevent finger contact with pins and also to stop metal sheets (for example, fallen window blind slats) from becoming live if lodged between the wall and a partly pulled out plug."

"- The plug base is broadened near the pins to help keep fingers away from the pins
- The plug is polarised, so that it cannot be inserted with the phase and neutral pins reversed
- The longer earth pin ensures that the earth path is connected before the live pins, and remains connected after the live pins are removed.
- The plug is firmly fitting and therefore difficult to dislodge by accidental knocks
- The cable always enters the plug from the bottom, thus making it difficult for people to unplug the plug by tugging on the cable
- If the cable is forcibly pulled from the plug, the phase wire disconnects first, the neutral second, and the earth wire last. This is ensured by forcing the different wires to have varying amounts of slack in them by design of the internal channel of the plug."

we is crazy safe

fwiw, US electricity has been dumbed down to 1/2 strength.

- The plug is firmly fitting and therefore difficult to dislodge by accidental knocks

^^^ this is my main one (i know nothing about electricity). US sockets can't support the weight of an international adapter of a macbook converter so those things barely hang out of the socket gently hissing sparks.

international adapter of a macbook converter

or

p.s."- If the cable is forcibly pulled from the plug, the phase wire disconnects first, the neutral second, and the earth wire last. This is ensured by forcing the different wires to have varying amounts of slack in them by design of the internal channel of the plug."

lol not when i wire them.

to stop metal sheets (for example, fallen window blind slats) from becoming live if lodged between the wall and a partly pulled out plug.

I'm going to go on record as guessing that no one in the history of America has worried about this eventuality, ever.

^^^ this is my main one (i know nothing about electricity). US sockets can't support the weight of an international adapter of a macbook converter so those things barely hang out of the socket gently hissing sparks.

alright, you've convinced me to take my British adapter plug for my Macbook to Hong Kong

I'm going to go on record as guessing that no one in the history of America has worried about this eventuality, ever.

Furthermore, the ones for whom this was a concern didn't suffer for long.

It's never even occurred to me, and judging by other people I've lived with, I have a reasonable grasp of How Electricity Makes Things Work and What to Do About It -- so I'm pretty sure it hasn't occurred to anyone.

xp kekekeeekee

on the other hand, American plugs have allowed for such delightful contrivances such as battery chargers whose prongs fold into the body

xp It's for the kids (british pins are big enough to get baby fingers in)

Yeah, why couldn't the engineers be thinking about THAT? xp

was delighted once when i'd forgotten to take an adaptor on hols, and opened up the plug of my video camera charger to find one of these:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Euro_converter_plug2.jpg/180px-Euro_converter_plug2.jpg

that was in europe. same trick didn't work in costa rica unfortunately so had to strip the wires from the cable and wrap them round the pins of a table lamp plug.

I begin to see why the British government has mandated about 400% greater safety measures than generally required.

Wait, I have a q. If the plugs are giant and the cords must always face down etc, that would mean you couldn't have the US outlet with one, err...input above the other, because one of the inputs would always be inaccessible. So how are outlets arranged on the wall??

side by side

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/07/24/plug_sillitoe_2.jpg

coming from a family of inveterate electricity savers, I absolutely love those on/off switches on British sockets

notice it's 'off' on the empty socket to stop the electricity leaking out.

Yeah I've been diggin those in NZ xp. How much do those actually do?

i really want to know the answer to that btw

Mostly what they do is make you grow up crazy paranoid that they're somehow unsafe when 'on' with no plug in. Though I guess it's kind of necessary when uk plugs are a lot more difficult to pull out of the wall than US ones.

the cord doesn't exactly always have to face down - i think all phone chargers i've had have had the cord coming out the top, above the earth pin.

Maybe i just had to watch too many electricity safety videos in primary school (and uh FE college) but I'll never take a plug out of the wall without switching it off at the wall first.

My god. Is the incident of electrical house fires actually lower there due to these reams of precautions? I guess if our current is only half the voltage, if that's the right term, then maybe it's best to take more srsly.

if you've been reading wired lately you'll know that things are afoot in the world of uk plug design:

http://regmedia.co.uk/2009/06/23/folding_uk_plug.jpg

rabies - a lot of electronics like TVs and VCRs and computers and stuff draw a lot of power even when they're in 'off' mode, they're great for electronics in general

what the fuck is that, it looks like a B-wing xp

there's also a hand 3 into 1 adapter that's only as big as a standard plug

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/06/24/folding_uk_plug/

*does a sweep of the pad looking for red on switches*

i missed the on/off switch when i first got here but soon learned that you can pop the TEST button and a whole bunch of outlets will turn off.

Hahahahaha yes if your building was re-wired after oh I dunno, the 1980s or something. Have never had a test button on any outlet in any apartment in NYC, pretty sure.

it still freaks me out that in the US, plugging stuff in often produces a spark. and it annoys me that every socket in our house will only fit a two-pronged plug, so we have all these adapters, which are flimsy and don't support the weight of the plug.

good luck usa

Don't US powerpoints in the wall have on off switches? That would weird me out. Which is odd, because our power-strip type extenders often dont have them, but you'd never ever see a wall outlet in Aus without switches.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Australian_dual_switched_power_point.jpg

Outlet thus gives the option of plug with or without earth pin. As in the UK, many outlets have a saftey inner barrier that wont open up unless an earth pin's inserted. My bf blithely said the other day "so I just jam the plug in really hard til that breaks".

thats the spirit!

Yeah and when his Fender amp blows up, I'mma laugh.

"so I just jam the plug in really hard til that breaks".

i hope this is not a general philosophy he holds!

Dammit I *actually* had a mouthful of water when I read that.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Australian_dual_switched_power_point.jpg

looks like an ethan or cankles display name tbh