Is it normal for people in the hood to put food in the fridge without covering it?

so recently i just had a conflict with my friend. So my friend is southern and Caribbean and naturally my friend cooks food from those communities. We dorm at the same college and my dorm just happens to have a kitchen so we have an agreement that they can come over and cook and use my fridge for their food. Recently my friend just cooked some frog legs in the kitchen. My friend tends to be a bit messy and a bit chaotic. They tell me it’s cause of their adhd and i get having a lot of things going on but i guess it’s started to become a problem for me. The last couple times that my friend came over to use my kitchen they’ve left a mess. Sometimes it’ll be a used knife with avocado or butter on it tucked away in a corner i can’t see or napkins or wrappers everywhere. But the worst is the bones they leave. I guess they collect bones to flavor stews or as a decoration if they want cause they’re spiritual, but like i really just don’t want chicken or frog bones that were just eaten and in someone’s mouth to just be laying on my counter or on the floor. So last night i asked my friend nicely if they could just make sure to clean up after themselves. I’ve cleaned up after them the last 2-3 times and i did it out of courtesy because that’s my friend but i didn’t like the trend of there always being unnecessary mess that they could’ve easily taken care of. My friend cleaned the stove which was nice and washed the dishes they used, but the floor was a mess and full of the brine they fried, the counters had a lot of goop and grease, and large crumbs. and there were bones again next to the clean dishes. I only found out this afternoon at 3:00 pm when i came back from my first class i hadn’t gotten the chance to see my kitchen since last night. But the thing that made me lose my mind completely was the fried frog my friend left just out in the open on a paper plate in my fridge that i share with all of my roommates. Like no saran wrap or tupperware at all. I kinda blew up on my friend a bit because they seemed to be dodging me and i thought i was being nice but firm but my friend insists i crossed the line and that i didn’t try to understand them. The first time we talked it didn’t go well because he kept cutting me off and so I kept cutting him off and when I was trying to explain why I was upset it was like they kept telling me what I feel and what the truth is are two different things. I felt upset because he had no idea what i was talking about and he said “no shade why is it bad” and i explained and he just kept saying we grew up different and that he’s a hood baby and that’s what he does. We talked again a bit more sincerely recently but i just feel gaslit a bit because he keeps talking about how we grew up different and i can’t act like everyone should know to put food in a tupperware. Even though he’s done it before… And even though he’s using the fridge in my dorm. That i share with 3 other girls. He says that if i wanted him to not do that i should’ve been specific but i’ve never known anyone to just not use tupperware like that especially in someone else’s place. I also feel like i shouldn’t have to be specific or act like a mom about someone cleaning up a mess they made. I also question if the not using tupperware thing is a hood thing. But he also kept saying my part in it was the fact that i didn’t tell him to clean up his messes, and that i should tell him, and when i said i did yesterday night he was kept saying he thought he did and that he didn’t take me seriously and that’s why his version of clean and my version of clean is different, and it’s also different because i grew up “suburban and mexican” I don’t know but am i being insensitive or doing too much? But one of the things i hated most is that he said he tried his best to clean it all but he also admitted to knowing he left the floor a mess. He also said the only reason he left the frog was because he was gonna come back later last night and eat it but then decided not to, but i feel like if u decided not to, common courtesy would be to place it in a tupperware. I just feel really gaslit and like my tone is more of the problem than the actual problem, but i would appreciate any perspective. I didn’t mean to come for his character or disrespect him but i genuinely feel so upset. I don’t want to be in conflict with my roommates just because my friend doesn’t have habits i would prefer in the kitchen. I’m not a clean freak at all but at the very least i try not to do that to other people. I try to be clean when i’m at other people’s places. Is that not like something that’s taught to most people like i guess i just have a hard time believing that’s not strongly instilled into people especially if you have overbearing value driven parents. I don’t know but is this normal for people?

Posted Sep 30, 2026, 3:34 AM UTC

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