Living with other people is hard. If you come from a large family, it may prepare you to share your living space – to a certain degree. Living with a roommate is different all the same – there is no higher authority represented by parents and you are all far from being mature and probably enjoying complete independence for the first time. You are likely to be used to completely different patterns of life – and if you don’t try really hard you are going to annoy the hell out of each other. Here are 7 things you should either avoid doing altogether or carefully regulate at the very least.
1. Making a Mess and Pretending It Is Alright
Skyscraper stacks of dirty dishes have taken over the sink, clothes are lying around and dustbin contents have been long enough in the room to start evolving into something alive. You seriously start contemplating over planting potatoes right there on the floor – yet the one who is mostly responsible for all this will behave as if everything was normal and wait for others to clean it up. To avoid conflict, create a clear-cut and easily enforceable timetable of cleaning from the get-go.
2. Inviting People Over without Asking Your Roommate
He/she lives there as well and has an equal say in the matter. If your roommate has an important test to revise for or plans to invite somebody over as well, he/she is going to be super annoyed with you and will try to pay you back later.
3. Turning the Volume too High
It doesn’t matter if it is a TV, PC or headphones – trying to do something, especially something involving concentration, when there are loud noises in the background is an art not everybody can master.
4. Thermostat Battles
We all have our own comfort temperatures. If you are unlucky enough to get a roommate who is shivering with cold when you feel just right, and constantly turns the heat up, don’t go about correcting it back. Find a compromise – it may keep you both barely comfortable, but at least you won’t be fighting over it.
5. Breaking Things and Leaving Them for Others to Fix
If you’ve broken something that your roommate uses as well, don’t pretend it was this way. Don’t hide behind “It is our common responsibility” justification – if you’ve broken something, it is your job to fix it.
6. Touching Your Roommate’s Stuff
Never ever borrow things without your roommates’ permission or eat their food if they don’t offer it to you. For different people the degree of offence it may cause can vary greatly, but nobody likes when it happens.
7. Being Maniacally Possessive about Your Stuff
Give your roommate the benefit of the doubt. Unless you know for sure they steal your food, don’t behave as if they were doing it all the time: labelling things, dividing fridge space up with duct tape and so on only make things worse.
As we’ve said, living with other people is hard – but hopefully if you avoid doing these 7 things, both you and your roommate will be able to avoid strangling each other.