Getting Along with Your New Roommate
Make a roommate contract:
It may sound cheesy, but sitting down and making a roommate contract when you first start living with someone can make a huge impact. You and your roommate may have completely opposing views on everything from taking the trash out to having overnight guests, it’s important to talk about those differences before they become a problem, and work out some sort of compromise. By working problems out before they happen you’ll save yourselves a lot of headaches. You’ll also know ahead of time what is and is not ok with your roommate. Here are a few things to consider:
1.When is it ok to have guests?
2.Can guests stay overnight?
3.Can guests stay in the apartment/room without you or your roommate?
4.When is too late to be loud?
5.When is too early to be loud?
6.What are the rules on sharing the TV?
7.Will you share food or buy your own individually?
8.Who takes out the trash, or do you rotate?
9.What is the cleaning schedule?
10.Who’s in charge of mailing utility bills and your rent?
The more you talk about before hand the better your relationship will be.
Keep it clean:
No matter how messy you are, no one wants to wade around in someone else’s filth. It can also be embarrassing to have people over for dinner, to hang out, or study and have to find room for them to sit down amongst the dirty laundry, dishes, and trash or your roommate. Even if you’re a messy person, try to keep the areas that you and your roommate share as clean as possible. Things like laundry and dirty dishes are especially disgusting, and even more so when they aren’t yours. So take into account your roommates feelings on the matter before leaving those items behind. If you are messy and do need to leave items around, try finding a corner of a room where you can keep personal items centralized, so your roommate can also use the common areas without being surrounded by your things.
Communicate:
You were late this morning because your roommate had friends over drinking and playing video games until 4 am. Next time you get a chance, try and have a rational and friendly conversation with your roommate about the situation. Explain that while you respect their right to have friends over, it is particularly difficult for you when you have to get up early in the morning the next day. While it may seem obvious to you that your roommate was being loud and bothersome, they may have not been aware. Talk to them about it and see if you can work out some sort of compromise. Perhaps the festivities could move to another one of your roommate’s friend’s homes, or to another night when you don’t have to get up early and could hang out as well. By not talking to your roommate about problems you don’t give your roommate a chance to fix them.
Spend a little roommate time:
Whether you and your roommate have been best friends for years before you moved in together, or you just met its important to try and establish some sort of relationship with them. You are living with them right? Try to sit down at least once a month and spend some time with your roommate where you can be friendly, and give each other the opportunity to voice any concerns. Perhaps have a roommate dinner, or go see a movie. Spend a little time together, the friendly you and your roommate are the more likely you are to get along.
