Sharing your living space with another person isn't always easy. Differences in personality, cleanliness and routines can really disrupt the comfort of your day-to-day life. But by following these tips, you and your roommate can establish some sort of balance and you can finally stop contemplating whether or not you need to find a new place to live.
- Establish ground rules
No matter if you're best friends or even total strangers, you want to lay some ground rules right off the bat. Whether it's about chores, bills or boundaries, this way you can make sure they know that those cookies weren't meant to be shared.
- Communicate
As cliché as it may sound, communication really is key. If something is bothering you, it's far better to speak up and voice your concern rather than continuously lose sleep because your roommate feels like the middle of the night is the best time to practice playing guitar.
- Compromise
Realistically, you and your roommate won't agree on everything, but you shouldn't let that ruin your living situation. You may not be a "cat person" but as long as it stays out of your room, it's not the end of the world.
- Learn each other's schedule
You may not need to know where they are at every moment of the day, but having an idea of what their schedule looks like will cut down on arguments on who gets to shower first.
- Respect each other's space
Despite sharing the lease, it's important that you and your roommate each have your own space. Try to avoid being in their bedroom and that way you won't be considered a suspect when they misplaces their stuff.
- Ditch the snooze button
Let's face it, the snooze button is perfect for when you really just need those 10 more minutes of sleep and many of us are guilty of pressing it more than once when waking up. But unless your roommate follows #5, you're going to encounter many passive aggressive gestures because of it. Maybe you're better off just getting up on the first alarm.
- Random acts of kindness
Doing kind little deeds every once and while will go a long way in establishing a good relationship with your roommate. Maybe if they noticed you cleaned the kitchen they'll return the favor and offer you a slice of that pizza they ordered.
- Spend time together
You don't need to be best friends with your roommate, but in order to maintain a good relationship, it's important to spend some time with them. Whether you go out to lunch, for drinks or even do something as casual as watching TV, these types of interactions will hopefully eliminate those awkward silences and who knows, you might even make a good friend out of it.