Living together is not easy. People come with their quirks and ways of doing things that sometimes might seem questionable to the other person. That’s especially true for couples. One poll estimates that people think their partner has an average of five annoying habits.
In this online thread, people had to pick just one. They told their stories to one netizen’s prompt, “What was the most shocking habit you discovered when you moved in with a partner?” I’ll admit, some of them are quite quirky and heartwarming. Other partners, however, deserve jail time for their nasty tendencies.
#1
I didn’t move in with him I just stayed there a lot and cleaned up his mess a lot of times but he had pee bottles under the bed and I don’t know why I didn’t leave the moment I discovered it either.
Ladies, please please make pee bottles under the bed a deal breaker. ?.
Image credits: anon
#2
My husband folds towels while they are still wet and puts them away. It’s absolutely disgusting
Editing to add that he stopped doing it after I asked him, so we were able to progress with our relationship ?.
Image credits: Keyspam102
#3
He doesn’t change his bedsheets… ever. He thought the only reason I change mine regularly was because of periods so yeah he thought men just doesn’t have to change bedsheets ever. Now he changes it regularly but damn that was a wild thought.
Image credits: Nice-Background-3339
#4
She sprints up and down the stairs. She just hates being on the stairs, so she makes it as fast as possible. It’s insane to watch her calmly walk to the stairs then just automatically start sprinting.
Image credits: Zwolley
#5
My husband organizes something every day. BUT. It’s the most random box in the back of the closet or re-folding his clothes. At first my thought was WTF???, but now I realize it’s one way he relaxes after a long day. He’s adorable.
Image credits: quickwitless
#6
Eating cereal with water, not milk.
Image credits: Sufficient-Tale-3139
#7
She let her dog use the carpet as a toilet. Like she wouldn’t take this dog out at all, the carpet in the living room is the only place the dog would go. The floor was spongy and wet, you could expect to find poop all over, she was totally desensitized to it. She wasn’t willing to start taking the dog out, so the relationship ended very quickly after this.
Image credits: Thick_Description982
#8
He would pee in the sink instead of walking ten more feet to the bathroom. He is my ex now.
Image credits: Arthropody
#9
He liked to tear holes in the sheets with his toenails so he could tuck his feet into them.
Image credits: clarityinthevoid
#10
That he would bite his nails and drop the little pieces all over the apartment. He moved out 6 months ago and I’m STILL finding fingernail bits in weird places.
Image credits: Dear_Fall_6283
#11
My GF eats her M&Ms with a spoon.
Image credits: anon
#12
Saving the used cat litter. Literally 15 or so 33 gallon trash bags filled with dirty cat litter from the last five years he’d lived there, all broken open and with bugs living in them in the closet next to his room.
Image credits: emilyfish01
#13
My now husband would buy packs of socks and underwear, wear them, and then toss them.
Image credits: DiceyPisces
#14
He would keep the TV on for background noise. As soon as we walked into the apartment, he would zoom over to the TV and turn it on and leave it like that. We inadvertently had a silent war of him turning it on and me turning it off all day. I finally realized it was slowly driving me crazy and had to explain to him that all the constant noise was hurting my brain and it was me or the TV.
I didn’t have a problem with the TV on while he’s actually watching it (at a normal volume) but him moving around the apartment with god knows what blaring from the TV was wayyyy too overstimulating. It was almost 30 years ago when we really didn’t have the language to understand or explain sensory overload, he acted like I was just being controlling. It wasn’t until we had our baby, who couldn’t tolerate all the noise, that he finally realized it wasn’t just a ‘me’ thing. We don’t even keep a TV in the living area anymore. There’s one in the guest room and one in the master bedroom. He’s much more respectful and understanding of my (and the kids’) sensory sensitivity.
#15
My ex would wipe his teeth with the towels in the bathroom. Hand towels, bath towels, same towel guests used to dry their hands, same towels he used to dry his butt. In his mouth. And his plaque would leave crusty yellow stains on them, which made them gross to use.
Image credits: Kossyra
#16
My ex had big fingers that wouldn’t fit in his nose which he was always picking. He would use tweezers and he’d scratch the inside of his nose causing it to bleed. He would leave his boogers everywhere in the bathroom. The sink, the shower, wipe them onto the rim of the trash can. When I broke up with him and he moved out I was finding bloody boogers all over my apartment for months afterwards. It was so damn disgusting!
#17
He literally undresses as he walks around the house. Like I will find socks in the living room pants in the dining room T-shirt in the kitchen. My husband also grew up with a stay-at-home mom who did everything for him and his siblings, laundry cleaning cooking etc. Literally the one thing she did not do was put their neatly folded clothes away in their dressers and closets. Some of our biggest squabbles have been over the fact that yes he is getting better at picking up after himself, but he does it in the most infuriating way. Dirty clothes end up right next to the laundry hamper, dishes and garbage end up on the kitchen counter, instead of in the sink and garbage can.
As far as shocking habits go, I will take this one happily.
#18
When he pops a pimple, he puts the contents on the frame of the mirror to “see it” and then forgets to clean it off. I didn’t understand what the white specks were at first.
This has since stopped after it sent me into a rage?
Edit: The comments have made me giggle, but to be clear it was just little white specks not huge boil like zit contents, still really gross though. I read him the comments tho so he knows the world thinks he is nasty haha.
Thankfully he is otherwise very normal and treats me like a queen.
Image credits: Okbutwhythough16
#19
He won’t clear the couch, he just sits down. Fresh folded washing? Sit on it. Handbag? Sit on it. Paper? Sit on it. Was so tempted to leave a saucy plate on the couch and see what happened. Habit finally ended when he sat on a laptop.
Image credits: harpy4ire
#20
In the early ‘80’s. Moved in with an Iranian chick who had recently escaped from the islamic revolution. After our first weekend together, while she was in the shower, I started cleaning up the mess I helped make. I was washing the dishes when she walked in. She completely freaked out. “.. stop ..stop..what are you doing…”. And she kept looking out the window…turns out it was some kinda deadly sin for a man to do her house work…making the woman some kind of dishonorable so & so. And the worst part was she was in a complete panic that someone walking past might see me washing dishes. We just had sex all weekend . . . But me doing to dishes was a some kinda sin ???? Weird s**t for a guy from Los Angeles.
Just to clarify. This wasn’t meant to be a comment about religion. Any religion. Just some wierd s**t i experienced.
#21
My long-distance partner would turn off the freezer on his fridge to save on electricity bills even when we had frozen hashbrowns and vegetables in it. He would only turn it up when we bought ice cream or popsicles.
Image credits: queenkitty96
#22
He and his roommates NEVER took out the trash. Like ever. Huge pile of full trash bags in the kitchen, almost reaching the ceiling, with trash in all the cabinets too. Every great once in a while, they would rent a U-Haul to take it to the dump. So confusing to me, but I didn’t know how to help them break the cycle. Nice guys, but sheesh.
Image credits: callm3caroline
#23
My girl loves peanut butter so much, she has a tub of it next to the bed. And on the coffee table. And in her office. None of these tubs have lids, they are always open with a spoon in it.
I’m concerned that the peanut butter might spoil/ go bad, but she says she eats a whole container every 2 weeks? I still love her like crazy though.
Image credits: Just_aJuiceBoxx
#24
Every. Single. Thing. Involved her parents.
I found out years and years later that every argument, discussion, comment, etc. was fed to her parents. Everytime I’d make a decision, she’d consult with them and provide their unsolicited input. Things like my career moves.
My personal favorite was when things ended how it came out that it was “financial abuse” for her to contribute half her income to household bills the first few years. My contribution was easily 80%+. That was early in the relationship. Within 6 years I paid for everything. It was such a sore subject for them I heard about it at least a half dozen times during the initial part of the separation process.
Over time I also ran across super weird s**t like official printed documentation about how poorly I loaded the dishwasher with pictures? I could only assume this was for some bizarre custody fight she expected.
There’s a lot more. Some of which I’m still mentally unpacking.
#25
A severe addiction to scrolling Facebook. So bad he would scroll while driving, the instant he would open his eyes he would grab his phone & open the app… All day long. It baffled me.
#26
My ex would pick his nose.. finger all the way in to the knuckle and then dredge it out, examine it and flick it into the air.. so not only would I have an untamed boog somewhere in my house, I had to hunt for it each time to clean up after him. There were days I couldn’t find it and had to just walk around knowing it’s there somewhere.
#27
Until we agreed on a sane solution, she would remove her daily contacts and just… throw them on the floor wherever she was. They dry up quickly and become crunchy, sharp little eye germ blights. Absolutely unthinkable to me.
#28
She wanted me to fix her gaming chair one time because the lever to raise and lower it stopped working. So I grabbed it and flipped it upside down but my hand was grabbing something rough and crunchy. I almost puked when I realized what I was looking at and touching was months worth of her dried boogers she wiped on the bottom of the chair.
#29
We would buy veggies etc, and if it had the slightest bit of discoloration (not exaggerating) he’d throw it away.
Also he would peel like 8 million layers off an onion before cutting it, essentially wasting most of the onion..
#30
She was a baker. Would make all kinds of delicious treats, usually using multiple mixing bowls, utensils, and small appliances.
Would not even rinse them until days later when the batter is dried on like cement or had started to mold in the blender or on the hand mixer or whatever.
I swear when I explained if you rinsed them right after to get the majority of stuff out, it made clean up 10x easier.
She literally did not believe her until I baked something and showed her how easily the still wet batter got rinsed out of the bowl.
She would spend literal hours scrubbing cemented on batter before then.
#31
He was a self medicating his mental disorder. His mom had terminal cancer, and so he always had valid excuses for being depressed or having to cancel dates at the last minute.
Living with him was an eye opener.
#32
He always lets the lid open from the wet toilet paper whipes thingy. So annoying because dried wet whipes are not fun to use ?.
#33
I knew my boyfriend was messy, but I put it down to the fact he was living on his own. When I moved in with him, we started by deep cleaning his place. He was then absolutely shocked when he realized I expected him to clean and tidy regularly. I don’t know what he was thinking, that we would just do it once when I moved in, and then every six months? Thank God he’s somehow improved!
#34
The first time I lived with a woman (outside of my mom and sister growing up) I was shocked by how much f*****g toilet paper they use.
I mean, I knew that, intellectually, women have to use toilet paper all the time and men only have to use it sometimes. But…man, that difference was staggering.
When I lived alone I’d buy a twelve pack of toilet paper and no joke it might last a year. Sometimes I would go days without using the toilet paper at home because I’d do it at work or at school.
Then my girlfriend moved in with me and it was all gone within minutes. Twelve rolls. Vaporized.
I bought another twelve pack. Gone before I got inside the apartment. Literally evaporated in the car on the way home.
Costco membership. 48 pack. That lasted two days. “Are you building a f*****g mummy or something?” I was asking.
My toilet paper budget has a comma in it.
#35
He kept an empty 2 liter next to the bed to spit phlegm into. I thought that was pretty bad but then I read some of the other answers in this thread and yikes.
#36
He is a neat freak. Don’t get me wrong, I love a tidy house & all, but if he saw a single hair on the floor then all of the floors in the entire house needed to be swept & mopped.
While having floors that clean is a nice thought, I have waist length black hair & we have a Rottweiler who sheds like crazy, so it was completely unrealistic. He gave up after 6 months & bought a Roomba.
#37
She clips her toenails and just let’s them fly wherever and land on the floor. It’s disgusting and really wierd considering she’s an absolute freak about cleanliness in literally every other aspect of life.
Her excuse is that “Robbie(our robot vacc) will eat them”. I hate it.
#38
An ex of mine was so lazy that the 5 minute drive to Walmart was “too much.” So he would grocery shop only once a month. Stocking up on tons of stuff that inevitably goes bad before the end of the month cuz he couldn’t finish it all and packed it all in the fridge very messily. Wasting food and money and making a mess while he did so
It wasn’t the nail in the coffin but I was starting to want to end the relationship around when he accidentally knocked a bowl of old popcorn, that he had left next to the bed, onto the floor and tucked in saying he would clean it up tomorrow. I cleaned it up when he refused :/.
#39
Not a deal breaker at all (he’s very clean, I’m lucky!) But he HATES using the dishwasher. It’s like he doesn’t trust it or something. He does all the dishes by hand, even when we’re tired. When I use our dishwasher, he’s skeptical ? I love him dearly but it’s so bizarre.
#40
My ex-gf would never close the cabinet doors she opened, re-seal food packaging (like press-to-seal closures or twist ties), turn off lights after leaving rooms for extended periods, or cap the toothpaste tube.
She would also lose her keys every 20 seconds.
In her defense, she was hot.
#41
Thought he kept a tidy house. Nope. Mommy was coming in each week and cleaning up.
#42
Shes the most clean organized person I know, but she opens our snacks and leaves them out to get stale.
#43
My ex would buy washable period underwear and soak it overnight in the only sink we had. You can imagine the view/smell when you’re doing anything that uses a sink, especially in the morning, going to work. She was a jobless parasite consuming media and Twitter all day while I had to provide for both of us and would be greeted with this sight every morning during her period.
Every time I told her to use a bucket or some other suitable container I would be called a sexist and would have to grow up.
This is just one but I could fill a book with disgusting/toxic habits she had, most of them just to spite me.
#44
They didn’t know how to turn on a stove, microwave, washing machine, or dryer. Then the one time they made dinner, I was so surprised and impressed that I didn’t say anything when I found the takeout containers in the garbage. I feel stupid for not calling them out on it now but thankfully it’s not my circus or my monkey anymore.
The habit was pathological lying and weaponised incompetence which I only learned those terms after. I really thought they were the only ones to do that too.
#45
Not washing dishes.
Like dude they’re everywhere.
#46
Oo I’ve got one.This was my first live-in relationship.
His mum often gave him containers of food to take home, and he forgot to take them out of the car boot… then he remembered they were there but just kept putting off dealing with it. He was driving around with a boot load of mouldy food and maggots.
#47
Hoarding ?.
#48
He stopped brushing his teeth and showering. I didn’t realize because we worked opposite shifts and only saw each other when I was coming to bed, for a bit.
#49
He was polite, clean, smelled nice, we took turns cleaning and doing laundry and whatnot.. but he was very sweaty when he slept. I am the polar opposite, but couldn’t stand being cuddled and getting sweat on me through the top sheet. He got offended when I explained why I wouldn’t cuddle at night.
And then the eating. Dear god. A grown a*s man that wouldn’t eat anything except pizza, cereal, and fried chicken. I could make any other food I wanted to without issue, but he outright refused to eat anything other than those things. And not just any pizza or chicken, but specific brands/restaurants. It was just awful. I made banana bread one day because he said he didn’t mind bananas, and I had bought too many at once. He got home while the loaves were still warm from the oven. He turned his head and stuck his nose up like a toddler refusing to eat. I threw the loaf at his head. Shockingly, he wanted to stay together and was hinting at proposing a few weeks later. I left him.
#50
My ex used to leave her underwear on the floor. After removal she’d flip the garment around with her toes until it was “sunny side up” (her term).
Just, no.
#51
My partner would wipe his boogers on the outside of his car. And then, my car.
I noticed one day there was crusty, greenish-yellow s**t in the outside of my passenger door. Then one day, I saw him pick his nose and wipe it on the outside of my car door while we were driving together.
His excuse?
“The elements will clean it off.”
They did not, in fact, clean off the concrete-like boogers off of my car.
It’s been ten years and I think he’s finally stopped.
#52
My partner met at 20, moved in 3 years ago, he stopped working in professional kitchens 4 years ago(some health concerns, landed a great desk job).
He worked in fine dining restaurants, as a line cook.
He has little no idea how to cook. When I started staying over I noticed this man lived off one meal a day. Rotating between microwaved cheese quesadilla(literally nothing but cheese in it), canned chilly, and store brand Mac made with margarine.
He may have some good knife skills but literally he can’t cook. I was honestly amazed. Considering he worked multiple kitchen jobs at once for 7 f*****g years. ? it’s impressive how much he didn’t f*****g learn.
#53
My ex husband used to suck his thumb. I caught him doing it one night was so bizarre seeing this big man covered in tattoos sucking his thumb.
Image credits: AmbassadorWilling479
#54
Didn’t move in, but my first long term high school boyfriend used chewing tobacco and used any empty bottle as a spitoon
First time he invited me in his room I sat on his bed and felt/heard a crunch.
between his wall and bed and all over the floor/under his bed were FULL bottles of dip and saliva.
#55
My husband STILL doesn’t always put his laundry IN THE BASKET. He puts it right next to it. We have been together 9 yrs so at this point it’s now something I poke fun at. He at least helps with the laundry all the time without me asking so I’m willing to let it go.
#56
He won’t open mail.
Any mail. He assumes everything is on autopay and ignores it/throws it unopened into a paper grocery bag to shred it “someday”.
When I moved in, we spent an entire day opening and going through about 20 grocery bags worth of mail. Yes, it was mostly junk… But we found out he had healthcare coverage he forgot about (he’d been avoiding the doctor thinking he didn’t have insurance), literally dozens of reward checks from Costco, a notice from his bank that they didn’t have insurance info for the car he had a loan with them for & they were going to start charging him for their own insurance (he had insurance, but just didn’t update them when it changed)… Tax stuff, car stuff, everything. For years.
On that day, I took over mail handling duty. He got annoyed by me opening HIS mail at first, but I pointed out that I’m not willing to store a random bank statement for years when it’s available online. I gave him a 3 day window to open his mail after that (I’d leave it on the counter). He never did. So I went back to handling it as I saw fit.
We moved recently, and came across another box full of his papers that I hadn’t encountered at the old house. I went through it and found about $600 in rewards checks from various credit cards and Costco. Some of them weren’t expired somehow despite being nearly a decade old. Lol
I will say that he’s fairly neat, cleans almost as much as I do, and generally has his life together. He’s just allergic to opening mail for some reason.
Oh, also he had a sock drawer full of unmatched socks. Whenever it got too hard to find a matching pair, he’d just go out and buy more. I went through and matched up all his socks. He had over 70 pairs.
#57
Only brushed his teeth once a day.
(Before I moved in he would brush them before he’d see me, then he stopped trying).
#58
After my fiancé is done brushing her teeth, she just…stops. No washing the tooth brush out, no rinse and spit. She was equally surprised that I didn’t do it like this!
#59
My husband poops with both seats up! Like he sits on the rim of the toilet. When I first saw that I was like…. Wtf?!
He told me with the seat down the opening is too small. And he also cleans the rim before sitting and only does it at home. But still… wtf?
#60
My husband, as it turns out, is a sociopath. We moved in together and one day, upon opening the freezer, I found a bowl of heavily seasoned, popped popcorn. I thought maybe he had an off moment and put it there by accident. Nay.
This sick f**k pops popcorn, coats is in copious amounts of butter, lime juice, garlic salt, and parm, and purposefully freezes it so that, “the butter can re-harden” before he eats it. Wtf.
#61
When my future wife and I moved in together I was shocked and confused when she lit a candle.
At my mom’s house candles were just for looking at….. you never actually lit them.
#62
1st year living with my wife we go on vacation one summer week. We just purchased our house and I wanted to save money on AC. I turned the AC completely off. When we got home. The house smelled like a tuna boat. I was running around the house gagging trying to find the smell. The smell was her maxi pads and tampons over filling the trash. Had to air out the house for 2 days and stay at a Hotel. Turned out she would do this before when she lived with her sister. Another one. She would poop with the door open and thought it was funny. I did not.
#63
Sock, shoe
Sock, shoe
I married him anyway. It still shocks me when he does it. Even 30 years later.
#64
She squeezes the toothpaste from the middle.
#65
Cut up pizza using scissors like it was the most normal thing in the world.
#66
He automated his workday morning routine. No deviations even when there’s an obvious issue. Will respond to verbal stimulus but no communication should be considered accurate because he’s still asleep for about a half hour.
So yeah, if we wake up at the same time, I’m ready to talk and plan and joke, and he is doing the routine. If I impede him, he will mess up his routine and possibly forget to change into pants.
#67
She spends money like it’s unlimited.
#68
We started as a long distance relationship, moved in together and it became clear very quickly that she was a hide-the-bottles kind of alcoholic.
#69
She talks and yells in her sleep. OFTEN.
#70
When I moved in with my then-BF, I realized that when he’d take a shower, he wouldn’t dry himself at all. He’d just put on a robe, let it absorb what it had to, and would stew in it for the next few hours until it was time to go to bed.
#71
When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she has a sugar craving. Not weird by itself, but the most common way that she satisfies this craving is by either shooting whipped cream straight into her mouth, or by coating a Fudge Round with whipped cream so much that you can’t actually see the original treat.
#72
My wife makes no effort to squeeze out any remaining toothpaste. No roll up, no squeeze from the bottom, the second it’s a little difficult she throws it away.