Roommate never leaves the couch… at all
Really struggling with my roommate; we’re both 24F and living in a 2 bedroom. We were friends prior to moving in but since moving in (it’s been about 4 months), I’ve become increasingly annoyed because she never. Leaves. The. Couch.
She’s been unemployed for about a year and blames it on mental illness which could very well be true, so I’m not trying to dog on her for that. I’m also mentally ill, but her mom funds her whole life. She doesn’t have the need for a job because of it.
What I didn’t anticipate is that due to her lack of a job and otherwise motivation, she would be in the living room at all times of the day. She gets her groceries delivered. She doesn’t go out. From morning until about midnight, she is eating in the living room, napping on the couch, or watching tv.
It’s become increasingly difficult since I switched jobs and have been dealing with a lot more stress. I feel relegated to my room or going outside of the house if I want any alone time. I used to be a huge movie watcher, like 3-4 a week and I’ve only watched about five movies since we moved in because I put my tv in the living room and she’s always watching a show. And I mean always, even if she’s not watching it.
I’ve approached her before to ask to watch a movie or do some work in the living room and she sits beside me and scrolls social media. If I’m doing work, she will turn the tv on low volume with subtitles. So it’s not as if she isn’t entirely accommodating, it’s just that I feel like the living room is hers as opposed to shared. It’s her bed, dinner table, lounge spot, etc. her stuff is all over the place. She is always there. I’m not asking to be alone for several hours every day, but once or twice a week to unwind seems reasonable and I figured she would pick up on my cues (doing work there, watching outlandish movies that she doesn’t like, etc.)
Once, I had a guy I was seeing over during the day (like noon) and texted her ahead of time to ask if she could leave for about an hour because, well, the walls are thin. She texted me back and said she would just turn the volume on the tv up loudly so she didn’t hear anything.
The reason I’m hesitant to bring this up is because the one time I have confronted her in the past for using up half of my shampoo, she freaked out and got angry at me for accusing her before breaking down and crying. I don’t know what to do. Am I unreasonable for wanting a few hours to myself maybe twice a week? How do I tell her to go about that?