Chores advice?

[faerykat]

For those of you, in particular (not that anyone else is excluded from responding!), who have lived with a significant other:

How do you get someone to do a chore when nothing is working?  On certain chores, Isaiah and I take turns.  Washing dishes is one of them.  We both hate doing dishes and can be bad about letting them pile up, so eventually,

Comments

[madtruman]

Hm, for a few sentences in I thought, "Hey, that's me." But nearly a month? No, I'm not really that bad. I'd say 5 or 6 days, tops, and that would usually be a small quantity of not-terribly-filthy stuff. Dirty dishes do start to smell, after all, and I'm an anti-odor freak. I thank the heavens our apartment comes with a garbage disposal and dishwashing machine, it makes the whole dilemma a lot easier.

I'm bad about dishes, but far worse about laundry clutter. I'm notorious for leaving separate piles of clean laundry on the bedroom floor. Naturally, it drives sartara insane. Anyway, sorry for your woes ;o)

I've done this

[witch_kat]

Find large plastic bin (like a dish basin) stick all the dirty dishes in it, put it in a space that is only his (office, desk, bedroom) then you don't have to deal with the grossness and thus don't have to be involved in when he does them.

[jennekirby]

My strategy would be to simply say, "This is disgusting, and you need to do these dishes today (or by the time I get home tomorrow, or whatever), period." Just telling someone to do something often isn't enough, especially when it gets this far along; putting the time limit on it might help. If it doesn't happen, you have to start a serious conversation about whether or not you can trust him as a roommate, and say that, yes, this is a big deal that reflects on his trustworthiness. Because, well, it is

[northofeden]

Just sit him down and have a conversation about how you feel about him not doing the dishes.

[beatlebug77]

Ewwww. I agree with the idea of putting the dirty dishes into a container of some sort and putting them on his desk, in his space, very much in the way. Clean the sink for yourself, get yourself your own set of utensils (plastic, whatever) and let him fend for himself. Tell him that you will seriously reconsider being willing to be his housemate later if he is going to be this neglectful of household chores - after all, you don't have to live with him. Whatever kind of a friend/partner he is, he's a terrible housemate and he needs to face up to that.