@Pizzagirl @ClaremontMom see my post #43. I think an important fact is being missed here by some. Although it wasn’t stated in the OP’s original post, I’m pretty sure this discussion with roomie came about as part of a SCHEDULED orientation activity to create a roommate contract. Some posters are jumping to conclusions that one kid is OCD and one kid is a thoughtless slob. The “deep cleaning” proposal was probably one roommate’s opening proposal in the contract negotiations. Ask for more than you’ll really accept then back down. Not an uncommon negotation strategy. This thread has taken on a life of its own, as threads often do. The original two roommates have probably moved on to something more important, since classes started yesterday at the 5C’s. 
“I’ve been thinking more about the “deep cleaning” of the sink. Why would you wait all week to clean the sink if there’s a hair or a toothpaste blob in it? Wouldn’t you just wipe it out right then? Who wants to look at it for a week?”
Exactly. Well, the proud-to-be-slobs contingent might.
Don’t you normally wipe out a sink if there is a toothpaste blob? At least rinse it down?
I think OCD is being used defensively by people who want to justify their own mess. OCD is the person who needs to line up her pencils 1 inch apart, not the person who simply likes things neat.
I grew up thinking sheets got changed once a week, it helped that we were living in Africa with a boatload of servants for much of my childhood. I remember one many, many years ago Anne Landers (I think) - and this must have been before fitted sheets were ubiquitous - suggested washing only the bottom sheet once a week and making last week’s top sheet the bottom sheet. My mother’s reaction was, “You’d never have a nice clean bed.” In any event I used to change sheets a lot more often than I do now.
BTW my son always does mixed load and he does not have pink socks or gray white shirts. I’ve told him about separating loads, but he thinks it’s too much trouble.
@Corinthian - None of us know for sure where the discussion came from or how it was actually presented by the roommate (demanding vs a request or "opening bid’ as you put it). And we may never know…but it does make for an interesting topic for us.
And yes, hopefully they have moved on to bigger and better things now that classes have started. (Maybe the OP will let us know how it’s going).
BTW, I’m also a 5C mom… times 2. 
My D does not separate colors either and has never had a problem with colors running. Have been unsuccessful in getting my 16 year old S to do a wash yet. Have to hound him to bring the dirty clothes down to the laundry room.
I’m sure @Corinthian is right about there being a roommate agreement discussion or whatever. My D didn’t go into that much detail in her text to me. In any case, D and I have talked and texted a few times since then and this subject hasn’t come up, since she’s been too busy telling me about things like the chocolate bread pudding in the dining hall, whether she should buy or rent her Spanish textbook, and the fact that she went to the farmer’s market with friends and saw little potted succulents and was thinking about buying one and naming it Frankie “or Rita if it’s a girl.”
As for her roommate, I suppose she may turn out to be an OCD freak who will have a nervous breakdown in a few weeks because she can’t take the fact that she has to use the same showers as everyone else. (In case it’s not clear, this is me being facetious.) Or she may turn out to be just someone who likes to have things clean and tidy. I promise that if my D texts me “by the way, Roomie was discovered late at night scrubbing the hallway floor with a toothbrush,” I will let you all know.
@ClaremontMom and @Corinthian, what schools are/did your kids attend?
@dustypig - My D is a junior at Scripps and my S just started at Harvey Mudd.
As I am related to someone with OCD, I would suggest that we preserve the very real distinction between fussiness and perhaps bossiness in the original scenario, and a diagnosed anxiety disorder which can be oppressive and overwhelming for the person living with it. OCD is not a character flaw or personality trait, it is an anxiety disorder which can make ordinary activities a struggle.
@dustypig my D is a freshman at Pomona.
@Midwestmomofboys, yes, if it wasn’t clear I wasn’t being serious with my OCD comment. I know that OCD is not necessarily about obsessive cleanliness and that in fact people with OCD run the gamut from neat to messy, just like everyone else in the world.
One thing which gets me about this discussion is how some responses seem to assume all the best from the roommate despite the fact several of the “requests” do clearly indicate someone who sticks her nose in areas where it’s none of her business and are communicated in a tone which would be taken as demanding and thus, offputting to many college first year students.
I’m wondering if a part of this is due to many losing touch with what college life as a first-year is like and more importantly, forgetting how there are bossy asshats making demands they have little/no right to be making in tones which would be considered unacceptable when communicating between social equals. That combines with many 16-19 year old inclinations to be independent and free from parental type demands and you could easily have trouble brewing from a bossy demanding toned communication style. One mind you which doesn’t tend to go over well with most people EVEN if it’s in an arguably appropriate time and place such as a supervisor/superior officer telling an underperforming subordinate he/she needs to step up his/her performance or face the consequences.
Another thing to consider is not everyone has a need or desires to spend their non-class time maintaining a room to a heightened or worse…excessive standard of tidiness unless they opted for that implicit choice by attending institutions which expect that as part of the experience like the Federal Service Academies or Military themed colleges like VMI.
Also, there is such a thing as living with someone who’s excessively fussy about being neat or many other things most would consider good such as being quiet.
One acquaintance has several mutual friends who refused to room with her because she has a need for everyone/thing to being pin-drop quiet after 7pm due to a medical condition. While they are sympathetic, meeting those needs would be unrealistic considering many have jobs which require them to work past that time and being young 20-30 somethings who don’t feel like walking on eggshells around someone like her in what is also THEIR HOME, told her she’s better off finding alternative living arrangements. She ended up having to move back with parents because her budget wouldn’t allow for anything other than multiple roommate situations…an issue when everyone she’s asked declined to room with her upon hearing about her need for absolute quiet after 7 pm.
It seems to me that many of us are focusing on specific details of the list in order to support views that the requests are reasonable (what’s the big deal about pulling up the comforter?) or unreasonable (washing the windows every week, as opposed to never?). We don’t know if the roommate was suggesting a quick wipe of the sink, or whether she means that every week everything must be removed from the medicine cabinet so that it can be fully cleaned with an antiseptic. (My initial reaction, I confess, was: Who cleans the medicine cabinet, like ever?)
“As for her roommate, I suppose she may turn out to be an OCD freak who will have a nervous breakdown in a few weeks because she can’t take the fact that she has to use the same showers as everyone else. (In case it’s not clear, this is me being facetious.) Or she may turn out to be just someone who likes to have things clean and tidy. I promise that if my D texts me “by the way, Roomie was discovered late at night scrubbing the hallway floor with a toothbrush,” I will let you all know.”
Dustypig, thank you for your good-natured attitude! Glad to hear you haven’t heard any more about it - maybe both sides met in the middle and all is well.
@mathmom, my Mudder has been living with all blue bras for a couple of years after an unfortunate incident with a new pair of jeans in the laundry freshman year. She is the kid who usually has to learn the hard way, but this lesson did sink in. She now sorts, and will call or text for advice when she has something new to wash.
@dustypig, I know a freshman Scrippsie this year, keep wondering if she is the roommate.
Thank you @Midwestmomofboys. I’ve been reading this thread since yesterday and I’ve been so bugged by the OCD references. As the Mom of a child with diagnosed OCD, the comment “OCD Freak” is actually offensive. I’ve tried not to be too sensitive about it, but I would suggest that everyone be careful with the words they choose. OCD is an anxiety disorder. If you could just imagine for a minute that the NEED to line up pencils or use the “right” color of highlighter will keep you awake at night or keep you from enjoying an event because you just can’t let it go, you’d understand where a person with OCD comes from.
Back to the OP: This roommate may or may not be OCD - I don’t know. Her requests seem extreme to demand of a roommate. I dare say that a student with uncontrolled OCD would choose to: live in a single, clean it herself or live at home. This is why I like the student housing questionnaires - if students are honest on them. Good luck!
@dustypig, I had a friend in college who once did clean the walls of her room with a tooth brush.
But in her case it was a case of extreme exam-time procrastination. Even worse was the other friend who sat there and watched her do it! :))
@phoenixmomof2 Thank you. I realize “OCD” has become a shorthand for overly attentive cleanliness etc. But for those of us who watch someone we love in anguish over the inability to do something – get dressed, walk through a door, stop practicing an instrument, because of an irrational fear of horrible consequences – all because of brain chemistry – it is painful to hear “OCD” used to express an annoying attention to cleanliness. Our OCD loved ones can have good days and bad ones, there are techniques which can make the struggles less, but it is simply how their brain is wired. People with OCD are often remarkably good at hiding it from the world at large, but those of use close to them can see the struggle.
@phoenixmomof2, I apologize if saying “OCD freak” upset you. You are right that we should be more careful about the words we choose. If it makes sense, I was trying to mock the idea that D’s roommate’s list of chores meant that she had OCD, as some were suggesting.
@Pizzagirl, thanks for the kind words – I appreciate it.
@intparent, it’s always possible! There’s a 1 in 280-something chance, after all. Message me if you’re curious! If she’s not the roommate she might be someone else my D knows!
dustypig, what is WRONG with you!? We are waiting to hear why and how one deep cleans a desk or a medicine cabinet! Have you no feelings for us? Call your D right now and ask!
While I say that in jest, all the rest being a bit much, but doable, are requests that I could negotiate and live with, even as a less-than neat person. The deep cleaning of things like windows and desks, strikes me as way over the top and hopefully was just a misunderstanding after a kid who doesn’t actually know what “deep clean” means requested it.