<p>My roommate really smells. Like, her furniture/clothes/bedsheets smell just old and used and-- moldly. Literally you go into our room and you can just tell the "stinky" side and the "good" smelling side.</p>
<p>I came with Lysol wipes, disinfectant spray, Febreze, Febreze air fresheners, a fan and a penchant for leaving windows open so fresh air can come in the room. She came with nothing related to keeping a small, fifty-year old dorm room clean and smelling decent. And a another bad part? She keeps the windows CLOSED. She doesn't like having fresh air in the room, and she doesn't even like it if I use my fan.</p>
<p>When your clothes, bedsheets and cloth-covered furniture smell like a** and mold, you NEED fresh air.</p>
<p>Am I being too weird and anal retentive about keeping clean and having things smell decent?</p>
<p>I HATE smelly people. God, sometimes I want to go up to them and be like "Hey, I have a Secret, and you need some."</p>
<p>Complain to housing that the smell is affecting your health and that the rommate has a psycho problem with opening the window and using the fan. Pretend that you NEED the fan because you have a medical condition that requires you to keep cool at all times. Exaggerate your ass off and pray that they change it.</p>
<p>If none of this works, close your eyes, plug your nose and pray for daylight.</p>
<p>haha. if you don't actually like your roomate (hygeine problem aside) then i agree with the above post. if you feel bad about doing that, then tell them straight up they STANK...in a nice way. if your to afraid to hurt their feeling, well then you're screwed.</p>
<p>Tell your roomie that the lack of air circulation is adversely affecting your health. If she totally blows you off, go to your RA. As a roomie, she should have at least MINIMAL concern for your comfort</p>
<p>i agree with czechiout. even though coqui's idea was good, no one would'nt be hurt by someone basically telling them they stink, and chances are your roomie wont like you as much for the rest of the year. if she continues to be stinky and not allow circulation in the room, spray her stuff with febreeze when she's not present, and get in touch with your RA to have your roomie switched.</p>
<p>...plus you wouldn't want to start off college on the wrong foot. chances are your roomie has friends, who you would isolate, if you were straight with her. sometimes a little white lie is better than brutal honesty. sure, she should find out eventually that she stinks- but nobody has told her thus far, you don't have to be the one to do it.</p>
<p>or you could use reverse psychology, or fight fire with fire, or however the saying goes. start being really annoying or do something that totally ticks her off. keep the windows open, buy a state of the art high powered fan. something that will blow her away...no pun intended. make her want to switch because of you, that way no ones feeling get hurt and you get what you want. when she complains just say "well i can't live any other way so i guess the only solution is to switch roomates..unfortunately."</p>
<p>I'll think about what to do. I liked what I read from what you guys wrote, so I'll probably decide from that.</p>
<p>Just an update: my roommate is a nice person. She's not mean, but maybe just not as considerate or CLEAN as I'd like. </p>
<p>For instance, she doesn't wear shoes to the bathroom-- like, she uses the showers without flip-flops/shower shoes. And as you know, we share the same dorm room floor. That's just gross. Plus, she's used the same towel like eight times and it's starting to smell. She doesn't hang it up to dry. She just slings it on her desk chair (which is old, moldy, smelly and dirty-looking). Doubly gross.</p>
<p>If anyone has anymore advice or if you had a smelly roommate, please share.</p>
<p>SWG, if you are using shower shoes, then you have nothing to worry about. You wear them to protect your feet, not the floor. I don't use shower shoes because we have shared private bathrooms and a housekeeper employed M-F.</p>
<p>Coqui, I hope you are not as passive-aggressive as your suggestions made you sound. A frank, non-confrontational discussion is really the best way to go.</p>
<p>She probably doesn't notice the odor. Just inform her that you like to keep your space fresh, and that you need some air in the room to keep it from feeling stale. If she disregards your feelings, then maybe take the situation to an RA. Don't be judgemental, and keep in mind that she has reasons for her feelings (maybe she doesn't like the noise from having the windows open).</p>
<p>If you want to be more subtle about her belongings, maybe you could invite her to hang out while you guys do laudry together. There was a problem with my dryer at home, which caused everything to come out smelling musty. Because of that, I saved up a lot of laundry to do here at school, but I'm just saying that she's not necessarily unhygienic.</p>
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SWG, if you are using shower shoes, then you have nothing to worry about. You wear them to protect your feet, not the floor. I don't use shower shoes because we have shared private bathrooms and a housekeeper employed M-F.
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<p>i think he/she meant that it was gross that she doesn't protect her feet.</p>
<p>haha. no i'm not. i was just joking. but it is an option.</p>
<p>and i think SWG thought it was gross that she didn't wear shower shoes because then she walks around with those same dirty feet into the drom room floor that they share.</p>
<p>I guess I'm a bit spoiled. The grossest thing in our bathrooms is the bath mat (it gets soaked because people don't know how to use a shower curtain). Our bathrooms are really clean (they are, admittedly, the nicest on campus), so it doesn't seem like a big deal to shower sans thongs.</p>
<p>In general she doeant sound all that dirty.</p>
<p>Different people smell different things. Lets take a Indian household, who has in no way been americanized. Now to many people Indian people and their house smell, its not the people its the food and spices they use. Now to them they dont smell anything because they are so used to it. Its not because they are dirty, they could take 6 showers a day, its just what it, Indian food is very strong and no detergent or soap will get that smell off.</p>
<p>Maybe your roommate thinks your a clean freak. best thing is just to talk to her, maybe she is not aware of how dirty the bathroom floors are. maybe you could help her out.</p>
<p>Hey, I am gonna do some laundry, if we do our towels together we can save some $$, and we can throw in our sheets....and then double wash them in hot</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>Hey, I hate doing laundry alone, wanna grab sone stuff and keep me company...if you approach it that way, maybe, just maybe she will go along</p>
<p>Or, say hey, I only have half a load, want me to throw in anything, I hate wasting the water...then you can wash the stuff seperately, the first time</p>
<p>It may mean a bit of extra work, but it is worth it</p>
<p>as for the shoes, no mater how clean a shower is, foot fungus is still alive</p>
<p>As well, say your doctor see that dust is not good for your lungs, and he recommends fresh air, and as soon as you get in the room, open the door, claim some claustrophobia, whatever it takes</p>
<p>spray her stuff with febreeze while she is not in the room.
if she, her actual physical body, reeks as well, spray her while she's asleep.
my best friend and i did this last year at college because my roommate was a nasty foul-smelling lump of lard that never showered or did laundry.</p>