I'm at my wit's end right about now.
My 24 year old brother is staying in my home as a roommate. When I bought the house 5 years ago everything was fine; he helped with the housework, cut the grass, and was fair with the amount of 'house food' he'd consume.
Time changes everything. He now does NOTHING inside the house: no dishes, no vacuuming, no dusting, no anything. It's his job to cut the grass, and he only cuts one side of the yard every week (front or back). This is his justification for not doing any housework...because I don't cut the grass. Yet he doesn't do any trimming or landscaping, just cutting one half every week which takes less than two hours out of his entire month. I clean the entire house every Saturday morning which takes at least three to four hours. I also do all the trimming in the yard which takes almost an hour per week.
We usually share the food and beverages brought into the house. Lately, I've been getting the short end of the stick. He quickly gobbles up whatever he brings into the house, and then he works on mine. EVEN WHEN HE KNOWS it's my portion, in MY tupperware bowl, he still eats it, and later denies touching it or simply plays dumb like he doesn't know where the food went. Better yet, he sometimes blames me, saying I was too drunk to remember eating it, even when I wasn't drunk enough to forget sh;t. I rarely ever drink enough to black out, and when I do I know it.
Then we come to the pets. He's never bought food for the dog, the four reptiles, or the fish, and he owns half of them. He also never feeds, waters or cleans them (I know, fish don't need watering). He's never paid for a single veterinary visit. All he does is sit on his fat ass and drink beer all day.
I've discussed this many times with him, yet nothing has changed. I tried upping his rent, but he can't keep a job long enough to pay it every month. My bills go well over $1100 per month, and he pays an average of $250...sometimes slightly more, and most often slightly less.
My parents already said that they won't take him back because he trashed their house, much as he's doing to mine. Neither reasoning nor threatening has worked with him, so my only option seems to be throwing him out into the street. Would this be the right thing to do? He has absolutely nowhere else to go unless he's lucky enough to find a little dump of an apartment. I'd hate to feel guilty if something happened to him when I give him the boot, yet I can no longer live like this. I feel like I'm raising a child who refuses to grow up.
What would you do in my situation? When I tell him what needs to be done he acts like a fool and ruins the rest of my day, yet it does get half-way done. I've tried kicking him out several times but he still doesn't take things seriously.
I'm at a loss.