AITA for moving my roommates’ things?

Not the A-hole

I’ve posted on here before about my living situation with my roommates so let me recap quickly. They are best friends - 27F and 25M from Ireland on a work visa in NYC. They came here with no furniture but I had plenty so I offered to furnish the common spaces and their bedrooms, right down to their bed pillows. After about three months of living with them, I began to notice they have NO regard for my things. They’ve spilt beer on my couch, broken my wine glasses, never offer to clean any common dish or bathroom towels when they do laundry, etc. I’ve asked them to do all of these things and they will do it once and never again.

Last night, as I was on my way back to the apartment after the holiday weekend, I made plans for a friend to come over and watch a movie. I texted my roommates and gave them a heads up that I was having company and they were welcome to join us. They were out at a bar so wouldn’t get home until later. When I got home, I hurried to clean up a bit before my friend arrived. My roommate’s (25M) Macbook and charger was sitting on the ottoman and they had several articles of clothing and blankets draped on the furniture. I took their belongings, folded/organized them all then put them in their respective rooms and that was that.

Fast forward about an hour into hanging out with my friend, my roommates get home and notice the things in their room. They then begin accusing me of “throwing” their belongings into their room IN FRONT of my guest they’ve just met. They both kept rephrasing “you threw my things in my room” and I kept asking them where they got the impression that I threw anything. I reminded them I had a guest over and needed to straighten up. After that, they kept dragging it out and I embarrassingly asked my friend to leave.

Once my friend left, 25M approaches me again and asks what the problem was with all of their stuff being in the common space. I told him they knew I was having a guest over and I wanted the space to be presentable for them. He, and I paraphrase, said “I pay for my share of the apartment so I should be able to leave my stuff wherever I want it.” I told him they are moving out in 3 weeks and there’s no use in arguing anymore. He rolled his eyes and that was it.

Now, at this point, I had a lot of pent up frustration from months upon months of having to clean up after them for when I had guests visit and to keep my own sanity. They’re both now being super cold with me and won’t speak to me (which isn’t a bad thing) but I’m wondering if I overstepped a boundary by doing this?

TL;DR my roommates left all of their shit in the living room when I was having a friend over so I put it in their rooms. They came home and began berating me in front of my friend, saying I “threw” their things in their rooms and they should be able to leave it out wherever they want because they pay for the space as well.

AITA?

Posted Dec 1, 2019, 2:01 PM UTC

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