My old roommate in Phoenix told me my dish system was the problem, not his habits
I used to stack dirty plates in the sink so he'd see them, and he told me flat out that a pile just looks like someone else's mess. So I switched to one bin per person on the counter, and now I just point at the bin instead of getting mad. Has anyone else had a system like that actually work long term, or did it fall apart?
So here's what I really want to know: did the bins ever turn into hiding spots? That's why my old system fell apart. People would shove stuff in the bin, close the lid, and call it done, so after a couple weeks the plates were still crusty and nobody wanted to touch them. The pointing thing works great until someone's bin hits the overflow point and then it's a standoff over who blinks first. Did you two ever set a rule about when the bin has to get emptied, or was it just vibes? Because that's the part that killed mine, the boundary was clear but the deadline wasn't. What happens when you're both out of town and the bins just sit there for a week?
Picture the bins sitting there after a week away and tell me what actually happened. That part matters more than the pointing trick. Did you come home to science experiments, or did one of you just cave and deal with it? My guess is the bin system works fine until someone has to touch cold grease and then the whole deal gets tested. Was there ever a real rule like whoever fills it last empties it, or did you just wait each other out? Because that standoff is the exact thing that kills these setups.