Ways to live drama-free with your roommate for a peaceful shared home
Moving in with a roommate can be a bit of a culture shock. Suddenly it isn?t just your space, your preferences, and your needs that to be considered?at least not if you want to avoid a full scale war with a lot of collateral damage.
Fortunately, there are some simple rules that can help you avoid stress, drama, and late-night move-outs. Easy solutions, like monogrammed household items (like towels), color coded refrigerator containers and bookplates, can make a world of difference in the happiness of your shared home.
Here some ways to ensure that you live drama-free with your roommate.
Communication
One of the simplest, yet most overlooked, ways to keep the peace is to communicate.
Make sure that you and your roommate discuss your needs and expectations. For example, do you expect your dorm or apartment to be a huge communal share-fest, where what is mine is also yours? Or do you require that people respect your privacy and ?alone time?? Make sure to talk about what you need from the living arrangement before move in and unpack.
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Money, Moolah, Cash, Dinero
Money is one of the things that couples fight about most. And, when you think about it, roommates are in a relationship. So make sure you both agree how to allocate any expenses, and make sure that your current income is more than adequate to cover your share of the bills.
Opposites Don?t Always Attract
While a lot of romance novels seem to imply that opposites attract, that is not always the case with roommates?or at least with roommates that hope to stay friends.
For example, if you are a self-proclaimed ?neat freak,? you might not want to move in with someone who stashes their junk food wrappers under their bed. Likewise, if you are more of a quiet recluse, you might not appreciate living with Miss Life-of-the-Party who comes home at all hours and brings the festivities with her.
Label Love
There is a quote from ?When Harry Met Sally? that all good roommates should commit to memory: ??do me a favor. For your own good, put your name in your books right now, before they get mixed up and you don’t know whose is whose. Because one day, believe it or not, you’ll go fifteen rounds over who’s going to get this coffee table?this stupid, wagon wheel, Roy Rogers? garage sale coffee table!?
Like a lot of relationships, roommates will come and go, and it is best to label things before they get lost in the fray. Consider investing in some monogrammed items, as well, to further avoid confusion (and to avoid looking like you furnished your living space with items left at the curb on trash day?or at a garage sale).
Finally, if you are fortunate enough to find a roommate with a similar level of required cleanliness, with a steady job, a compatible personality, and who already has written his name in all of his books (assuming, of course, that your book preferences compliments one another), make sure to hang onto him!