Shared bathroom rules with roommates?

With three people, pick peak hours (say 6–9 a.m. and 5–8 p.m.) and give each person a fixed 20–25 minute block on weekdays, ordered by who leaves earliest; during those blocks keep showers to 10–12 minutes and grooming to 5 so the next person isn't delayed. If someone's schedule changes, they swap blocks in the group chat the night before, and a small whiteboard on the door that says "in use until HH:MM" stops the door knocks.

Decide whether the bathroom is single-occupancy by default; if you're all comfortable, allow sink-only use while someone's showering with the curtain closed, otherwise it's one-at-a-time. Set quiet hours for noise makers like blow-dryers and electric shavers (for example, none before 7 a.m. or after 10 p.m.). Give everyone a labeled hook and ask that personal items live in shower caddies that go back to bedrooms so the surfaces stay clear. For shared supplies, agree that toilet paper, hand soap, cleaner, trash bags, and a drain hair catcher are communal, then either rotate who buys them weekly or put $5 each per month into a kitty that anyone can use to restock. Use a two-spare-roll rule: if you put the last spare on the holder, you replace the stash within 24 hours and note it on the whiteboard. Cleaning is a simple weekly rotation where one person does the full reset on a set day: scrub toilet, wipe sink and mirror, clean tub/shower, sweep/mop floor, empty trash, and restock; rotate A→B→C and swap weeks if you're away. Between deep cleans, everyone does a 60-second exit routine after each use: wipe the counter if wet, squeegee the walls or glass, pull hair from the drain, hang towels, and run the fan for 15 minutes. Guests follow the same rules, and if they need peak-time showers they get scheduled into a block like everyone else so nobody's surprised.

Make a two-tab sheet — weekly schedule grid and a supplies log with par levels (TP par = 4 rolls, soap par = 1 full). Assign the weekly cleaner on the grid, auto-split receipts in the log, and print the schedule for the door. I color-code by person and set a 12‑minute default; a cheap stick-on timer enforces it better than vibes.

ADHD me needs dumb-proof systems — I slap neon tape on bottles with our initials and keep a grab-and-go caddy on a hook by the door. A shower timer that yells at me after 10–12 minutes plus a shared playlist for Friday clean makes it weirdly painless. We auto-reorder TP and soap at a set threshold so no one is doom-scrolling on an empty roll again.

The real pain is paying for products you didn't use and stepping on mystery hair while someone "forgets" their 30‑minute shower wasn't a myth. Solve the money leak by having a cheap communal bin and everything else labeled or kept in caddies you carry in and out. Also, set a blackout window before departures where nobody starts a shower they can't finish.

We tried apps and cute magnets in a place with four people and it collapsed by week three, after the landlord warned us about mildew because no one squeegeed, so we stuck a whiteboard on the door with morning slots, parked a little kitchen timer on the tank, and whoever missed their time simply waited in silence. Shelves were numbered, bottles had initials, and the plunger and squeegee lived on the same hook so they weren't "mysteriously" missing when needed. Deep clean happened Sunday evenings on rotation, even if someone was tired, because skipping it turned the grout pink and that was the end of diplomacy.

Fancy chore charts die by week two. Do fixed morning blocks and a hard cap (10–15 minutes) with a physical timer; if you miss your window, you wait. Clean your own mess immediately after you're done, then one person does a proper weekly clean on rotation. One shelf per person, one communal bin, and consumables are either split monthly or the buyer gets reimbursed that day. No guests during primetime hours and no grooming projects that take over the sink.

Not gonna sugarcoat it — three adults, one bathroom, means someone's late and someone's mad. After my split I learned that "be considerate" collapses at 6 a.m. when you're dripping conditioner and the door's locked. What worked was assigning weekday morning blocks on Sunday night—literally pick slots for the week—and a visible 12‑minute timer on the mirror. You're prepped before your slot (teeth/floss/contacts done), you're out when the timer beeps, no phones in there.

Evenings are first‑come with the same 12‑minute cap unless you called a longer block in the chat before 7 p.m. Space and stuff: one shelf or basket per person, initials on everything, plus one clearly labeled communal bin for TP, hand soap, and cheap backup shampoo. Either rotate who buys the communal each week, or settle up monthly with receipts; both work but put a number on it so nobody subsidizes "the good shampoo." Cleaning is a weekly rotation for the deep clean, but there's a daily 2‑minute reset rule when you finish—wipe the counter, squeegee the glass, clear the drain if you shed.

Consequences matter: over your time or leave a mess, you owe $5 to a jar or you take the other person's next trash duty. It still won't be perfect, but written rules on the door turn "you're selfish" into "you broke rule 3," and that saves friendships.