Tips for Sharing Your College Apartment with Roommates

Choosing your first college apartment is a very exciting time. This is the space that you can call your own. You get to pick it out yourself and decorate your room. It’s also one of the first steps to breaking out on your own. However, problems with roommates can quickly turn your glee into despair. With these tips, you can avoid some of the biggest roommate issues.

Roommate Tips

Choose Your Roommates Wisely

Just because someone is your best friend, does not mean that you will get along well as roommates. Perhaps you love partying with someone, but you do not want strangers traipsing through your house at all hours or have a lot of people around the night before an exam that is worth approximately half of your semester grade. Choose roommates that keep similar hours to you. Also, do not choose roommates before the end of your first semester freshman year. Although several people who meet freshman year stay friends for the rest of their lives, many freshman friends also part ways by the end of the first year. It’s no fun living with someone who you no longer like.

Read Your Lease Agreement Before Signing

You should always read contracts before you sign them, but when you’re living with roommates, it’s extremely important to know the terms of your lease agreement. If your roommate breaks the rules and gets evicted, most of the time, you’re out of a home as well. The lease will also outline how rent is accounted for. Some rental companies will have the lease with individual roommates for even portions of the rent, while many have everyone on the lease responsible for the whole rent. That means that if your roommate does not pay their portion, you’re responsible as well.

Create a Chore Chart

Most roommate fights are about people feeling like they are stuck with all of the work or responsibility. When people feel that way, they become resentful of the others that they are living with. A simple way to avoid this problem is to stick to a chore chart or other cleaning routine. Do you expect everyone to take turns emptying the dishwasher? How often should the bathroom and other communal living areas be cleaned? How do you divide up the work in a fair way?

Organize Pantry Space for Each Person

Most of the time, roommates choose to keep their food separate and share with each other when they give clear permission. In order to keep food organized, make sure everyone has their own pantry space or refrigerator space to avoid confusion. A good solution is to get baskets for each roommate or give each person their own shelf. For refrigerator staples, such as milk and eggs, you could have everyone chip in to share if you’re living in a place with lots of roommates, as these items can take up a lot of refrigerator space.

Be Clear About Your Expectations Before Moving In

Communication is probably the biggest key to getting along with your roommates, so be clear about what your expectations are. Do you expect to share anything that is left in common spaces such as video games or dvds? If not, you might want to find a better place for them, such as your room. Many female roommates are comfortable sharing their clothes while others are not. What are the rules for roommates entering each other’s rooms or looking through each other’s stuff? Do not make assumptions that everyone is on the same page.

Make sure that you have a meeting with all of your roommates before moving in and discuss everyone’s expectations. If you have a problem with something, speak up now and do not let your resentment bubble under the surface. Problems can be fixed a lot easier early on before emotions become too big to handle.

Do you have any additional tips on being a good roommate? Let us know about them in the comment section below.