10 Cleaning Hacks For Neat Freaks Living With Swamp Thing Roommates

We know them. We love them. But, for the sake of our collective sanity, try these tricks to keep your apartment from looking like a marsh.

1. Hide extra pots and pans.

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If two pans are left out on the stove, it's likely that your loveable gremlin will cook smelly food in both of them and leave them sitting in the sink. To avoid this fiasco, place one in a hard-to-reach cabinet. The next time It needs to cook food, It will be forced to clean one before reusing.

2. Use their sleep shirts to clean the ceiling fan.

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If you’re feeling especially (passive) aggressive, cover ceiling fan blades with their clothes. To reclaim their possessions, your roommate will have to slide items off the fan, dusting it in the process. Look on and nod approvingly.

3. Preemptively apply slow cooker liners.

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These cookers are a headache to clean. To keep down on the mess, place a liner in your slow cooker after each use so that they have no choice but to act like a human being when their turn comes around.

4. Put on music and look like you’re having fun while cleaning.

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Trick your roommate into thinking that cleaning is a blast. Dim the lights and dance around to prove your point. If your roommate is a true Dementor, go a step further. If he or she is on a diet, look into how many calories you burn washing a fork. If there is a bedbug fear at play, ask them if they’ve been getting weird bites, too.

5. Collect broken glass with bread.

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"I knocked the glass off the counter," they said. "I cleaned it all up," they said. Rather than getting shards stuck in your foot, go over the area with a slice of bread to pick up any stragglers.

6. Let plants prevent flooding.

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If your forgetful friend is prone to leaving the windows open during a rainstorm (coincidence?), arrange flowerpots without drainage trays along the windowsill. When water starts collecting on the ledge, the plants will drink it all up.

7. Blend soapy water to clean a blender.

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Ideally, do this right in front of your roommate while making comments about how rewarding it feels.

8. Get a stain-proof rug.

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I’m not lying to you. These things exist! The trick is to get one that has polypropylene fibers (which are impermeable to stains) or one that is intended for outdoor use. Odds are that if it can survive a hurricane, it can withstand your roommate’s wine Wednesdays.

9. Drop an antacid like Alka-Seltzer in the toilet.

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Let 2 tablets float overnight to remove toilet rings without scrubbing.

10. If all else fails, just copy this genius.

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Good luck!