A brave documentarian has gone viral on TikTok for her willingness to venture into the dingiest of ‘boy rooms’, that even a deep clean couldn’t save.
Houseproud individuals needn’t read any further, unless they wish to risk being exposed to previously untold horrors they will wish they could unsee. Intrepid explorer Rachel Coster has taken over lifestyle TikTok, thanks to her unrelenting commitment to documenting the bleakest, moldiest and uninspiring male spaces in the country – in search of defining what it means to have a ‘boy room’. Hint: an affront to all of the human senses and often a violation of health and safety legislation it may be; Clean Girl Aesthetic it is not.
TikTok is fascinated and disgusted by ‘boy rooms’
Having only posted eight mini-documentaries at the time of writing, the Boy Rooms TikTok page has had a meteoric rise to internet stardom, as Coster and her crew showcase the often-bizarre and occasionally endearing masculine living spaces that are littered across New York.
The apparent goal of the account is to define what it is that makes a room a ‘Boy Room’. Rather than simply being a bedroom owned by a man, there is a certain undefinable quality present in certain bedrooms that could only be mustered by the convoluted mind of a lazy college student, or a nocturnal art school grad turned trendy coffee shop barista.
Whether the videos are entirely real, or perhaps the result of a smidge of exaggeration on the male participants’ part, is left up to the viewer’s interpretation. But the sight of the unfalteringly confident Coster bounding up to the front door of a supposedly unsuspecting male in his mid-20s, while typically draped in an oversized blazer, then asking for a tour of the bedroom which is invariably littered with piles of clothes and often lacking in a bed frame – does make for good daytime tv-esque entertainment.
TikTok users, mainly women, have been left in disbelief by the likes of Jerome, 32, in Chinatown, who kept his underwear in a large Tupperware box – or Dan, 25, who lives in one of the most stunning West Village apartments you’re likely to ever see, but has resorted to using a dusty old upturned suitcase in place of a bedside table.
How to tell if you’re in a ‘Boy Room’
There has been a fair deal of variation across the rooms we’ve seen so far, but viewers have been able to spot a number of mirky details that feel as though they are present in most, if not all, Boy Rooms.
An absence of a washing-up basket is a certainty, for one. Just about every room documented thus far has had heaps of dirty laundry strewn across the floor, suggesting that regular clothes washes are not a huge priority for indie boys in Williamsburg or podcast hosts in Bushwick.
Dusting is clearly not high up on the agenda of your average New York male in 2024, either. If you find yourself sneezing a bit more than usual while perched on the edge of your Hinge date’s floor mattress – you could be in a Boy Room.
As a rule of thumb, if you’re at risk of entering the living quarters of a man in his early 20s to mid-30s who self-describes as a ‘creative’ or dons the terrifying and increasingly popular little mustache, messy mullet and Birkenstock triple-threat combination – you may want to bring some cleaning products with you.
Middle Part’s dimly lit abode steals the show
As a parting gift to anyone new to the Boy Rooms channel, it would be rude not to point you in the direction of ‘Middle Part’ – undoubtedly the grimmest, yet weirdly likable 32-year-old whose bedroom could well help facilitate the growth of the next pandemic-inducing disease.
Complete with 15-year-old cans of spam, graffiti of his own nickname (Middle Part refuses to reveal his government name) and absolutely no sign of any natural light or ventilation, the 32-year-old’s Williamsburg hovel feels as though somebody asked AI to generate the definitive degenerate male living space.
Reacting to the horrors on display in the mysterious millennial bedroom, Twitter user Mike Townsend remarked: “Man I unironically love this guy. This is an objectively disgusting way to live of course. But he has found his paradise. I have to put hours of work in every day to feel the same serenity this dude has by simply existing and being himself. Rock on brother.”
If you’re not overly phased by the occasional use of fragrant language, or disturbing imagery depicting Nicolas Cage with breasts, you can check out Middle Part’s Boy Room here.
