Kitchen Etiquette Or Lack Thereof

Ok, guys. So seriously.

What is the deal with kitchen etiquette in shared houses/flats? Or is it more like politics? I really don't understand the rules. I know what my rules would be, but nobody seems to be that bothered.

In most places I've lived its been a "keep to your own stuff unless you ask before borrowing someone else's crockery/utensils/saucepans" and then "everyone eats their own food unless invited otherwise" (with the exception being a splash of borrowed milk from someone else's carton). When I lived in The Icebox (the name I gave a horrible place I used to live in Manchester), people would steal my food, and damage my kitchen things (e.g. using sharp knives to cut bacon inside my non-stick frying pan, or burning milk into the bottom of my espresso pot- I know these all sound like hideously middle class complains, but I consider cooking something of a hobby, and more than just fuelling myself up) and not only that, but they would steal my food, when I had very little money to feed myself on and then get all shitty if I used as much as a teaspoon of their sugar. 

Personally, I don't mind someone using my things without asking, so long as they wash them up afterwards without waiting for hours and hours to do it- but at the moment, I'm having something of a task lately in that whenever I go to use something from my collection of kitchen stuff, I find that, particularly with my cutlery (which I'll come on to in a minute) there's only something like one knife and a teaspoon available- and if I want a bowl, someone else is using it for defrosting or its not there at all. 

With my cutlery; a few days after I moved in I bought a new set of cutlery with red handles, so I could spot them easily and they'd be easily identifiable by everyone else. And it came in a little wire caddie thing and I thought I might as well use it, so I put it at the back of the counter top near the window. Of course, the temptation for everyone else is just to go strait for my cutlery rather than opening the draw directly beneath to get their own sodding cutlery. And then when I come to get myself something to eat my food with....there's nothing there! Am I being unreasonable to be cross that its left in the sink or in the draining rack covered in washing up foam? Yesterday, I moved the cutlery elsewhere to a low shelf behind the door in the hope that people will stay the fuck away from my cuttlefish, as I like to call them. 

I do occasionally use a saucepan that doesn't belong to me, but I always wash it up strait away after having used it, before I've even eaten. But now BOTH my bowls had gone missing. So I used someone elses, intending to wash it strait away when I'd finished- but what happened when I came to the sink? ...it was full of someone else's saucepans. And rice. AGAIN.  I think its just good form not to leave stuff in the sink if you're sharing a kitchen and not eating together- how are other people supposed to wash up their stuff?? Multiple times now, I've had to take stuff out of the sink so I can wash my things. When I arrived in the house, there wasn't even a washing up bowl or a plug in the sink so nobody used washing up liquid and just ran their dishes under the tap- so very little consideration for hygiene. I don't think I'm asking much of people to leave the kitchen in a state where I can keep my own things clean....Am I? 

....what am I to do? Please, someone tell me. The floor is yours in the comment section, I'm open to suggestions- but I am one of those people that will do almost anything to avoid confrontation, unless its something threatening me personally in some way.

....Rant over. Sorry guys, I'll cheer up more tomorrow :) 

Today, this is me with my headphones on but not listening to anything, because I'm pretending not to listen to the two women sat behind me who are engaged in deep philosophical debate: 

See you tomorrow!

-Rosa

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