Dear Roommate,
I am writing to you because of the recent concern about keeping the house clean. I believe we share the same goal of making sure the house is kept clean, but we also both understand that regular daily living means the house will not always be spotless. My goal in writing this letter is that we can establish some basic guidelines that will make our house clean and comfortable, but also to hopefully avoid any future problems.

I know that when it comes to house maintenance, you feel as if you are often busy and I may sometimes seem to be nagging you about daily chores. I think you feel this way because the last time I asked you to do the dishes, you said you were too busy and had to go to work, and when I asked you later you said you needed to do homework before going to bed. I realize that asking you twice to do this may have seemed like I was upset or bothered by the situation, and the fact that I repeated myself may have come across as nagging. I agree this may have been a fault of my tone, and I was perhaps not the most considerate I could have been. I also understand that you are busy, and I do not mean to sound like doing dishes should take priority over going to work on time, or doing homework necessary for school. There have also been several other instances where keeping the house clean may have seemed overwhelming. I understand that we do not need to keep our house spotless at all times, and in the process of daily living, certain things will be left out and unattended to for a short while.

That said, I hope you will take a few moments to better understand my take on the situation. The most important chores I feel should be taken care of would be anything involving food and trash, because if this sort of thing accumulates, it makes the house seem unpleasant. If food is left on the counters it can spoil easily, which can make it more expensive to buy groceries. If there is trash left, it can sometimes make an unpleasant smell, which can make it difficult to concentrate. Therefore, my main request is that these sorts of chores be attended to whenever they need to be done. A simple rinse of the dishes right after they are used can make them much easier to clean, because the food does not collect on the plates making them difficult to scrub.

This should just simply be a quick habit that only takes a minute or two after eating, but it can save us both a lot of time. There are other chores that should be done regularly, such as making sure laundry does not collect on the bathroom floor, but this should not be a major concern. I would also like to acknowledge that some of my behavior may have seemed like nagging, and if this is the case, I would like to apologize, because this is not my main intent. Instead, when I repeated my request for the dishes to be cleaned, I was doing so only in case you had forgotten, and not as a way to complain about my situation. My hope is that if we are able to figure out the best way to solve these sorts of problems now, they will not become worse problems in the future. These sorts of things just go along with daily living, and I do not want them to negatively impact our friendship moving forward.

Sincerely,
Your Roommate