I live in a apartment complex with 3 other girls, 2 people to a room yesterday I clogged the toilet of my college apartment which caused the bathroom, part of mine and my other roommates room to flood. I can tell that when it happened my roommates were very annoying about it so we quickly called public safety and had them dry off the rug, while I tried to rinse out the towels that I put down to get the water off, while I tried to stop it from flooding. In 30 mins I had to meet my friend for a birthday dinner so I had to leave all the wet dishes behind and the other foods that my room mate brought that were ruined by the toilet water. By the time I got back from my dinner, and hanging out with my friend I got back to my room mate at 11:30 at night by the time I was very tired so I did some of the dishes then tried to go to sleep. The next day I had class at 8:00 am so I decided to do the dishes and everything after my 2nd class since my other class is at 11:20, and the first one ends at 9:55. After I told my friend about the clogged toilet she decided to help try to unclog it. That’s when my roommate was annoyed at me because my friend had put the toilet plunger in her sink and she left a cotton ball on the toilet. I was downstairs cleaning the dishes that they wanted me to clean I didn’t check to see what my friend did with the plunger. Then she got annoyed and said it was my responsibility to see where my friends put their stuff back, or if they leave things behind. I can tell my roommates are annoyed at me, and I don’t know what else I can do? I understand that clogging up the bathroom was my fault, and I fully claimed responsibility when public safety came in, and even offered my roommate to pay for the food that got ruined by the flood and I even tried cleaning everything before my 3rd class when my roommate told me to do it and I got rid of the wet towels and I got public safety to dry out the floors with the vacuum so I don’t know what else to do? Am I doing something wrong? Are they overreacting?
IMO, you should have stayed to clean up when it happened and cancelled your other plans.
Since that isn’t the decision you made, ask your roommates what you can do now to make it up to them. They are not overreacting!
I think you should have taken responsibility for making sure the shared space was cleaned up immediately first and rescheduled your birthday dinner. The whole things sounds really nasty, although I’m not understanding how toilet flood water got on food? Was the food on the floor?
Who put the cotton ball in the toilet? Who had to fish it out to keep from building up to another clog? I think if you had changed/canceled your plans to do the cleaning, they would have respected your attempts to make things right. What you did was too little too late.
@momofsenior1 I should have done that instead, I just cleaned the dishes I even put them back even though I don’t know where some of them go. Hopefully this situation simmers.
Wow, how would a clogged toilet cause a whole apartment flood?
Note to OP and to all students: Know where the water shut off valve is for your toilets!
Apologize to them for failing to realize what you should have done the night before. Apologize for letting them down as a roommate. Make sure everything is replaced and clean. If you have the money now, replace the ruined food ASAP without asking about it again.
@TQfromtheU I did ask one of my roommates if she wanted to replace the food, and she said no. I feel really for what I did.
Okay, you should have cancelled the birthday dinner and didn’t. Here is what I’d do. I’d write each of your roommates a note of apology, saying that you should have stayed home to fix the issues and made sure everything was cleaned up and put away as best you could, and that you are sorry that you didn’t. I’d get them a small gift card (maybe $5 to a local coffee shop) and enclose it. A sincere apology with no excuses can go a long ways.
@intparent good idea, I should have canceled the birthday dinner, but I will get them a gift card and I cleaned up the dishes as best I could so hopefully that was good.
@Sybylla the whole apartment didn’t flood, the bathroom, some of the hallway, some of the rooms, and some of the kitchen flooded
^^^Read @intparent post carefully. Write each roommate a note of apology (Iit should be handwritten) to give along with the gift card. Handing them a gift card without a heartfelt apology is a hollow gesture.
@happy1 we’re having a floor meeting not sure if it’s about the flood, but I’m really nervous now
You and your roommates should look around to the back of the toilet and see where the silver knob is to turn off the water. An overflow could happen to anyone, but you should be able to keep the water from getting out of the bathroom.
Captain Obvious…but unless everything was cleaned/washed/ sanitized with strong concentrations of bleach and hot water especially the towels, dishes, containers, rugs, any surfaces people touch and walk upon… the occupants are continuing to cross contaminate themselves with fecal pathogens from the overflowing toilet…
@CheddarcheeseMN everything is cleaned which is good, I’ll try to find the overflow also @beerme finishes cleaning it today
@metalfan101 Glad it is taken care of. IMHO they are not overreacting. What went seriously wrong was, not only was the apt flooded in multiple spaces, food was ruined, people’s towels were put down in the mess and the toilet overflow got on some of their dishes, it is that you went out that afternoon/night and then put off dealing with it until after two classes the next day. People are very different. What might be ok if you lived with parents or a sibling is not the same with roommates that are paying money to live there as well and may find what you did insensitive and gross. as Beerme explained there is a whole host of things that needed in depth cleaning and attention. It sounds like you easily glossed over all of that in the beginning. If your roommates are “germaphobs” they may not like using the towels or bowls etc unless they are sanitized or may throw them out and be out the money. Your duty was to be at home cleaning up the mess and not out with friends and bringing one of them back to the apartment to create other problems like the plunger in the sink of the roommate. You need to be very nice, apologetic and offer to replace anything that got damaged including the rug, towels, food. It may take time for them to get over it. Next time be more responsible to your roommates
@readthetealeaves I realized after the situation was over that I handled the situation very poorly. I’m getting more anxious since we’re having a floor meeting, I hope it’s not about the situation, and I hope it’s not about my room mates moving out. I did offer to replace anything that got damaged but my roommate said I didn’t have to do it, but just clean up everything.
@metalfan101 Don’t worry about the floor meeting. It may be about this situation and it may not. Floor meetings are to teach others that if this occurance comes up this is how to handle it and this is how not to handle. If it is about your situation and you totally get why you messed up big time admit it and be profusely apologetic. Show that you learned and grew from the experience and be humble. Your roommates may move out but they may just want you to show maturity and fix everything. People moving in with roommates that often come from different backgrounds, comfort levels and sanitary needs is a way of life teaching you to learn about others. People will be forgiving if you are doing your best
@readthetealeaves the floor meeting was about this, but we managed to fix everything, talking it out was a great way to hear their point of view and work on trying to fix it. I think we moved forward from it. It’s just that every time some cleaning person comes in, to try and get rid of some of the smell from the carpet I’m reminded how it was my fault.