Living with roommates can be a fun and valuable experience for students hoping to split the costs of their apartment’s monthly installments. That said, cohabitation is a bit easier in theory than in practice — especially if you’re living with a college roommate whom you’ve never met before. Different living preferences, cleaning habits, and personality traits can cause roommates to clash over the most trivial of conflicts. This is unfortunate because roommates have the potential to become the closest of friends during their time living together.
Luckily, there are a few simple ways to ensure you and your roomies maintain a healthy, harmonious relationship during your time cohabitating. Check out the following tips for getting along with your apartment roommates, presented by The Station State College.
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Set Ground Rules
Before the buddy-buddy stuff gets underway, roommates must sit down together and establish some ground rules about cohabitating. This is a chance for roommates to discuss what they expect of another during their time living together. While meeting, decide how shared responsibilities such as taking out the trash, stocking up on groceries, washing dishes, and cleaning living areas, will be handled. If you want, feel free to draft a roommate agreement. Many roommates draft agreements that outline specific rules, guidelines, and practices that represent the preferences of everyone living in the apartment. Setting ground rules early on and ensuring everyone feels heard and comfortable at the beginning of your time together is key to establishing a congenial roommate relationship.
Communicate, Compromise, Cooperate
The cornerstone of any successful, functioning relationship is an open line of communication, a willingness to compromise, and a shared enthusiasm for cooperation. Does it bother you when a roommate leaves dirty dishes in the sink? Ask them politely to wash their plates when they finish eating. Sharing your opinions and preferences will help roommates adjust accordingly and prevent conflict. On the flip side, if a roommate comes to you about something you’ve done that bothers them, genuinely listen to their concerns and adapt to keep them comfortable in your shared home. Respect is a two-way street, and compromising when necessary will ensure things remain civil and friendly for everyone involved.
Keep Living Areas Tidy
One of the most common points of contention between roommates is cleanliness. After all, nobody wants to come home after a long day and find their communal space littered with trash, leftovers, or their roommate’s belongings. Respect the areas you share with your roommates and clean up any messes, waste, dishes, or debris you produce in common areas around the apartment, such as in the living room and kitchen. Running late and don’t have time to clean up a mess you made? Inform your roommates you plan on cleaning it up the moment you return. Whatever you do, don’t let leaving messes around become the norm. The last thing you want is to become the infamous sloppy roommate.
Participate In Roomie Bonding Time
Initially, you may not be that comfortable around your college roommates. That’s fine! It takes time to get to know people, even when you live with them. However, don’t let that initial awkwardness linger for long. Get a head start on befriending your roommates and breaking down those awkward barriers by participating in roommate bonding activities ASAP. Grab your roomies and watch a movie together, play some games with one another, decorate your apartment, or sit down over a meal and chat. Before long, you’ll have transitioned from strangers to roommates to best friends, and that change will make living together all the more enjoyable.