“Don’t Mess with my Jigsaw” Says Messy Man

The first jigsaw puzzle is believed to have been produced in 1766 by the John Spilsbury who was a British cartographer and engraver. Early puzzles, like the first one, tended to be cut outs of maps useful for teaching geography. Solving them has been a massively popular pastime amongst enthusiasts for centuries now. People take this past time very seriously.

So what is jigsaw puzzle etiquette? In case you didn’t know, there certainly are a number of etiquette don’t explained in this post here.

But what is the etiquette around cleaning up jigsaw puzzles? I don’t think this has ever been answered. One man, u/Dannyt took to Reddit with his story about his housemate Jeff who seems to have left his unfinished jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen bench for just a little bit too long …

u/Dannyt
AITA for Messing Up My Room Mate's Jigsaw Puzzle Because He Left It Too Long To Finish? 
I (27M) share an apartment with my room-mate Jeff (27M). It's small - the shared area is a small kitchen with a bench which opens up to a lounge room that has a couch and TV. We each have our own (small) bedrooms plus there's a shared bathroom and laundry.

I like Jeff most of the time, even though he's a bit of a slob. He's chilled, we play video games together and share a few joints in the evenings even if we don't really socialise outside the apartment. 

His GF is a b** though. She's covered in tatts and piercings,  craps on about astrology all the time, usually stays every weekend without contributing anything to the household, never really speaks to me, and the two of them just make me feel like a third wheel when they're together. 

OK, so you have to deal with your roommate’s SO in a shared household. That’s a given. You don’t have to like her but it’s usually important to set the boundaries. There are many horror stories of BFs and GFs moving in and not paying rent etc but this isn’t one of those.

So let’s get back to jigsaw puzzles. Jeff and his SO have been up til late working on a jigsaw which seems to have some spiritual hold on them both. Or so they say. They set up on the kitchen bench but then go to bed when they’ve only done about half. OP goes to bed and wakes up to 3/4 of his bench taken up by the puzzle. He explains …

So last week they bring over this brand new huge jigsaw puzzle. Maybe it was a gift? Anyway, I came home from work on a Saturday night  about 9pm and the two them are engrossed in this puzzle of the Eiffel Tower or something. 

They've done maybe a quarter of it and b*** talks to me the first time ever (exaggeration) and tells me how the two of them bond with puzzles or some hippy shit.

Whatever. I'm going to bed to watch Netflix on my iPad. 

Next morning I get up before either of them.  I can see they've finished about half of the puzzle and it's occupying about 3/4 of the bench. 

That's our only bench  and where I eat etc. I  pour my cereal into my bowl and eat it in front of the TV on the couch and leave for the day. I don't particularly want to be around them and I have friends!

So, how long should people be given to complete their Jigsaw? Is there a standard time? Does it depend on the personal living conditions? The OP certainly thought it did because when he returned at 5pm he figured that that time had expired. Besides he need the space to make his own dinner.

But as he explains in his post, he needed the space to make his own dinner.

When I return about 5pm my room mate isn't there. But his jigsaw puzzle is. It hasn't progressed since the morning, so I scrape it over to the side, put some of it in the box and start preparing my own dinner, using the space for a chopping board.

Then, lo and behold, my room mate and b*** arrive and start calling me an AH for messing up their jigsaw. They said they had spent hours on the jigsaw, had been talking all day about it and had come home especially to finish it. They said I had f****d their evening. 

Jeff actually called me an AH.

The OP pleaded on Reddit as he got mauled for failing to adhere to Jigsaw etiquette.

How long am I supposed to give them? We only have one bench in the whole apartment and I think it's selfish to monopolise that. Jeff replied that  I only had to wait a few hours because his GF goes home every Sunday night anyway.

Am I really the AH here?

Readers of the post seemed clear about Jigsaw etiquette almost universally saying he need to give them more time. One reader even claimed “you don’t mess with someone’s jigsaw” and said it was like messing with someone else’s GF. Yuck!

u/ breakfastburrito875 
YTA. Everyone knows the five day rule, don't they? Or they should. All OP had to do was ask "how long will this be on the bench?"

u/regurgitateandroid22 F
FS YTA don't mess with someone's jigsaw like you don't mess with your mate's girl. That is until you've had a discussion about it (the jigsaw, not the girl).

u/sweetcaroline872
YTA If someone messed with my jigsaw after I'd put in that much effort I'd be pissed too.

But others couldn’t see the problem and thought the whole argument was just a tad immature.

u/gorgeouslady911
NTA first world problem example. Grow up.

What do you think?