Staying on Good Terms with your Roommate

Have you ever had to live with a complete stranger or one of your good friends and figured out that you are complete opposites? Well hopefully, this does not happen to you because this would create one really long year that might just drive you insane! I am going to offer you some ways to better understand you and your roommate, how you want to live, and what will work out better for you guys in the scheme of things.

First of all, in the first few weeks that you move in together make sure you just go over basic questions and see what they are like and what they prefer. Are they neat or sloppy? Do they stay up late or go to bed early? Do they prefer to talk about things or keep things to themselves? What is the best way for them to study? These are just some of the basic topics and issues that will arise in the first couple of weeks that you should talk about. Make sure you are upfront with them and if something really bothers you then address them and come up with a compromise that you can stick to.

Another way to stay on good terms with your roommate is to respect their opinion and property. This is a huge deal; make sure you are considerate of them. If they want the room to be nice and quiet when they are studying for an hour or two make sure you do that. There’s nothing worse than living with someone that hates you and you will constantly fight with. Make sure you clean up after yourself; there’s nothing worse than having old food or something like that laying on your desk making the whole room smell. Also, you want to be friendly ask them about their day and how everything went. Don’t just come in, plop down and pretend they are not even there. Set up communication with each other, maybe watch a movie or something during the week. Be there if they need to talk about an issue or problem that is affecting them. In closing, make sure you are open, flexible, and especially communicate with each other and if any problems arise you can conquer them together.