January 07, 2005

The Seduction Room Ladies, you've been dating a great guy. He's everything you've ever dreamed of. You're thinking he may be "the one." You decide that tonight's the night you will make mad passionate love with him. He opens the door to his bedroom and this is what you see. How do you react?
  • Given what most of my girlfriends are like, they'd think "It's only a bit worse than my place."
  • How does he keep it so clean??
  • I've lived with a couple of people like that and it can become incredibly annoying and depressing. I'm not a neat freak, but a certain level of cleanliness is to be expected and also not leaving everything to be done by someone else. My brother once composed several songs to what we decided would be an operetta about Greg and the Magic Fridge where nothing ever went off, no matter how long you left it in there for.
  • "Ugh. You never told me you were a Mac user. I don't think we should see each other anymore." Seriously though, I'd probably assume that he does not feel the same about tonight being the night.
  • I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't actually physically open the door, and he usually entered the room through the ceiling space or a window.
  • there's a definite difference between clutter and filter: when you can't tell the difference, it's probably filth.And other people's filth is always more disconcerting as one doesn't know if it's filled with pockets fun or feces This is why i think queer eye should be subtitled straightening up
  • clutter and filth pockets of getting use to not using two fingers out of ten is more annoying to me, believe me and i even fixed in preview, phffftt
  • Have you ever noticed though, that when you take the time to straighten up your living quarters before heading out for a night on the town that you almost always return alone? Alternatively, the nights you usually have unexpected company coincide with the nights said fuckpad resemble a third world slum. This proves the theorem that cleanliness is next to godliness and the two deteriorate on an even scale.
  • "Stuff it, Emo Boy."
  • Ooh, that looks like my girlfriends room... :-D
  • "Cool banjo, though."
  • Hmm, this kind of ties into the Murphy's Law thread.
  • I wouldn't say "I don't care if you are a Mac user, I only get my bonobo on with guys who know how to clean up!", but I'd be thinking it. On the other hand, based on my dating record, I'd have known he was a slob and he'd have known my cleanliness standards before we got to the point of passionate monkey-love. I sympathize with the roommate issues described in the article. I'm a cat-mommy of three, and love my babies, but I had a roommate in college who thought I was too fastidious because I objected not to her closed-door filth, which was bad enough, but to her unbathed and flea-ridden cat. When I didn't get any cleaning action after repeated suggestions and then after flea bites, I bathed the poor cat and bombed the place on my own. Soon after, the roommate and I parted ways.
  • "Have you ever noticed though, that when you take the time to straighten up your living quarters before heading out for a night on the town that you almost always return alone?" no, i haven't. :P
  • I'd fuck the banjo.
  • I dated a guy briefly who had OCD and kept everything. He had a small apartment and had carved out paths from the front door through the kitchen and to his bathroom, through stacks of paper, books, boxes, magazines and clothes. Briefly, yes. Blessedly briefly.
  • And yes, Bondurant, I notice that all the time.
  • Nal, that was the first thought that popped into my head.
  • Have you ever noticed though, that when you take the time to straighten up your living quarters before heading out for a night on the town that you almost always return alone? I recently had a girl I was seeing drop by unexpectedly, just so she could catch me with my room all messy and my bed unmade. Busted! She just laughed and laughed...
  • The article seems to be more about bad roommates, unless I drifted off into my own little world a bit too early. Uh... unless it was more a conversation-starter. Well, first off, if I'm thinking tripe like "he's The One," then please shoot me. That accomplished, it really doesn't constitute a deal-breaker unless there's, you know, disease-bearing stuff going on. Clutter, not so much. Uhhh, it'd be hypocrisy. I have papers. And books. And random sewing supplies. That said, it's not so much "You rate HERE on the Potential Lay Scale" as it is a component of whatever image they want to put across. Like hygiene, or the tacky pick-up lines that sailed hypothetical-me to your doorstep. It's part of the whole facade, so it plays into the facade the same way.
  • "I'd fuck the banjo." bwaahhahaaaahahaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!
  • still...laughing... thanks Nostril
  • Are you asking if that kind of mess would stop a woman from fucking him? That's pretty far from deciding someone's "the one." If he's just "the one" I want to fuck, a messy room wouldn't (never has) put me off. But I may well turn around, and haul him into a cab back to my place.
  • It doesn't look like there's room for sex in that.
  • 27 years old? Dude needs to be slapped so hard his parents feel it.
  • "The Buddhists are burning bodies."
  • What arse_hat said. Even if he does play the banjo.
  • What would I do? Turn around and leave. Dude, I have woken up and stepped out of bed onto the chimichanga from three weeks ago. Never again.
  • Thank you. I now have proof for my roomate that I am NOT the messiest person ever.
  • It could be worse. The mess could be hacked-up and decomposing corpses of previous girlfriends.
  • He's not a messy roommate if the mess never leaves his room. My room is messy, but the biggest mess I make outside of my room is that I leave the lid up on the toilet. And since my roommate's male, it's not a problem. I'm the one who vacuums, sweeps, mops, cleans the toilet, tub, sink and mirrors. I wash my dishes immediately after use, and I supply all the cleaning supplies. How I keep my own personal bedroom has NO bearing on how good a roommate I am. There's two kinds of roomates: The kind that keeps their mess hidden in their bedroom, and those that mess the whole apartment (it's their method of keeping their room tidy, I suspect).
  • What goofyfoot said.
  • just tidy up, you speccy twat.
  • regardless that is a pretty sweet baby blue cyclone laying on the floor...
  • Dude. Dyson.
  • it looks aqua to me.
  • Bondurant - yes ... I call it the 'dirty underpant' rule of pulling ... And it's bizarre that he's a Mac user - you'd have thought that someone who'd made the choice to use an Apple Mac would care about the environment they live in ...
  • Let's face it folks, a room like this reflects a fairly unhealthy individual. If you can adjust to living in that kind of environment I would venture to guess that the mental organization isn't that hot either. It is also a reflection on how he/she feels about others. Anyone could look at that and say "this must be unpleasant for the others that live here.".. If they can't, they have a problem, if they can and don't do anything about it, they have a problem.. Get a front end loader and get rid of him AND his trash (but rescue the Mac, it doesn't deserve to live there!).
  • PY: didn't tell you he was a mac user? you mean the frappuccino glasses and the ironic t-shirt weren't a tip-off? ethylene: why give yourself carpal tunnel just to type faster? two fingers is the bomb, baby. so yeah. this room. looks just like my roommate's from the early college days. in the dorms, he wondered why i didn't want to keep the door open. in an apartment, his room was like that except for a jumble of boxes that he never really unpacked, just used as a temporary dresser. (and he kept his mac classic out in the living room where we could all use it). his girlfriend cleaned him up eventually; for a while though they lived together with separate beds, hers with sheets and blankets and his with a plain mattress and the same filthy bedspread he'd had for ages. i didn't blame her for not wanting to sleep in that bed; he was unapologetically filthy, but his personality was enough to make up for it. i think what this guy needs is some furniture. nothing sadder than coming home to a mattress sitting on the floor. it doesn't do much to inspire you to take pride in your belongings. that doesn't translate well into wanting to keep things looking nice. and once again i'm thankful that mrs. frogs has a neurotic need for clean. clutter she can stand (for a while) but filth is a no-go.
  • Why do you Americans call them "roommates"? You're not sharing a room with them are you? Most people think they are an average standard of cleanliness. Housemates are are always "anal" or "messy".
  • Looking at this guy's room reminded me of a housemate who lived here a year ago; ground-in fruit loops on the carpet, crap all over the place, piled high and spilling over. Also smoked in his room despite me telling him specifically only outside. Recently I've re-instituted my own 'wheel o clean' for the housemates amidst some amount of grumbling. It's looking nicer now, quite neat in fact, but I'm concerned about it backsliding. A couple of people who live here have no concept whatever of personal responsibility for cleanliness or sanitation. Example: One housemate's assignment this week was to clean the garbage can and recycle bins after they've emptyed them. He grabbed a *dish sponge* and wiped around the outside of the grungy kitchen trash can. Didn't even bother cleaning inside, either. I've talked to the owner about getting rid of people like this, his response: as long as they pay the rent it's okay... So I face the possibility of looseing good housemates for the sake of poor. I would move, but the rent is cheap, and it's not *horribly* messy, plus the majority here seem to have caught on that neat is not a bad thing.
  • Cannibals often compare the taste of humans to that of pigs!
  • EW...typical! That boy would be out of my apt. in a month. well, I have one roommate, female. and fucking messy... what to do? as agreed, the entire apt. is to remain clean, at all times, in all rooms...so when I start cleaning, I clean...and anything of hers that gets in my way, and is not in the designated 4' x 3' "space for mess" right by her bed goes either to the trash or to hampers. We've gotten into countless fights, and don't speak to each other for days...but somehow we still manage to be happy together (i suppose is better to just deal with someone you know, than with some new fucker that I'll have to break down again)...
  • Boom chicka bow wow... It's kinda like that episode of Friends where Ross hooks up with the really hot girl that lived in a total sty. And yeah, what goofyfoot said, bring 'em back to your place.
  • Why do you Americans call them "roommates"? You're not sharing a room with them are you? We tend not to say "flat," and "apartmentmate" is long, awkward, and sounds like a cleaning gadget. If you're not living in a house (thus "housemate") it's less awkward than the alternatives.
  • And also because, "The useless bastards that live with me, don't clean up after themselves, never let me sleep and are usually late with the rent" is a bit of a mouthfull.
  • Call 'em placemates. or homemates.
  • I found it odd that they were sharing the house to save rent but were then turning around and hiring a cleaning service. If saving money is an issue then wouldn't you want to suck it up and do the cleaning yourself?
  • I used to call mine "Keep Your Shit OUT of My Recliner."
  • my sweetie was this bad. seriously. now i just do the cleaning. no big deal.
  • If saving money is an issue then wouldn't you want to suck it up and do the cleaning yourself? methinks a cleaning service is much cheaper than a mortgage, especially if it's just an apartment and not a whole house. So the cost/benefit analysis here would be more "time spent cleaning up" vs "money spent paying someone to do it for you". If I and my housemates were all busy professionals, working long hours and weekends, we would probably hire someone to clean up for us, at least for the shared areas.
  • Why do you Americans call them "roommates"? well, in my case, originally yes: the friend i spoke of is my oldest friend, and moved in with my family for our senior year of high school from several states away. shared a room with him then, shared a room with him freshman year of college. in the (filthy) apartment we shared several rooms, but had separate bedrooms. so, roommate.
  • Honestly, it would depend on the smell. If it's just mess I can deal with it, filth is another thing. The lack of sheets on the bed would definitely mean not staying the night though.
  • "If you don't stop picking that thing, it'll never heal."
  • "Roommate" is American venacular, salmacis. "Housemate," to me (San Franciscan) is one with whom you share a house that posits a cooperative ethos. "Flatmate" exists as a term, but it's not usual. We do use the term "flat," but it's to refer to a full floor of a (usually three-story) Victorian built originally for a family, and without any physical conversion now houses unrelated thrifty or underpaid adults. Your goofyfoot, coming atcha LIVE with more information that you asked for!