By CARRIE LUNDGREN
With the semester coming to a close, some BYU students are prepared to escape their messy roommates for four months.
“I think the number one problem with roommates is (them) not doing their dirty dishes,” said Laura Isaacson, 20, a senior from Centerville, Davis County, majoring in psychology. “You don’t do them for a couple of days, hoping that they will notice, but eventually you just break down and do them because one else will.”
Dirty dishes are not the only thing that is cluttering BYU students’ apartments. Ammon Kailiponi, 22, a sophomore form Maui, Hawaii, majoring in computer science, believes that roommates who do not pick up after themselves can cause just as many problems with apartment cleanliness.
However, untidy roommates are not the only problem. At times, roommates’ liberty to borrow can cause some strife, said Angeli Mitchell, 20, a junior from Meridian, Idaho, majoring in psychology.
“You leave something out because there is no room in storage so everyone thinks it is now communal property. It doesn’t matter what it is, they use it,” Mitchell said.
Ben Beckstead, 22, a junior from Los Alamos, New Mex., majoring in chemical engineering, also battles the freedom to borrow with one of his roommates.
“While I’m sleeping, one of my roommates steals my clothes. I don’t even notice until I see him on campus wearing them,” Beckstead said.
Even toilet paper is mysteriously being borrowed from Scott McCombs’ bathroom.
“We live in an apartment with two bathrooms and one roommate keeps stealing my toilet paper,” McCombs said. “I hide it, but he keeps finding it.”
Although presumptuous roommates can be aggravating, there is a cure, said Zach Withers, 22, a junior from Simsbury, Conn., majoring in philosophy and economics.
Withers believes that roommates should feel comfortable sharing because he would do the same “if he has and his roommates have not.”
“He who takes, is willing to share,” Wilson said.
In addition to cleanliness and courtesy problems, roommates’ relationships can cause frustrations, said Barbie Potter, 20, a sophomore from Salt Lake City, majoring in marriage, family and human development.
“Having your roommates date your guy friends and getting involved in helping their relationships can be annoying,” Potter said.
With all of these grumbles and rumbles from neat roommates, they should remember that the other roommates have just as many complaints, said Beth Ann Snell, 21, a senior from Brookville, Penn., majoring in political science.
“I have this roommate who always says ‘I’m the only one who pulls my own weight around here’ — that bugs me,” Snell said.
Nevertheless, Snell and other unkept roommates do not need to despair. They can win the battle against their cleanliness conscious roommates, said Toelupe Toelupe, 21, a sophomore from Laie, Hawaii, majoring in social work.
“I had a mission companion who would mark on his milk carton where the milk was at. I would still drink it and then just fill it up with water,” Toelupe said.
