How to Handle College Roommates

Photo: Passive Aggressive Notes

Roommates. They’re a fundamental piece of the university experience, though you’ve probably had a couple get under your skin before. Living alongside people may make all their flaws all-too-visible, here are a few ideas on how to handle college roommates.

Establish ground rules. Think of rules at the outset of the semester based on how you’ll address smoking, taking phone calls during study time, studying late into the evening, bringing home significant others, etc.

Don’t touch their stuff. As tempting as his or her tasty looking food may be, leave it alone. Don’t use their shampoo, makeup, clothes. Your relationship will be better for doing it.

Be friendly, but don’t force friendship. Stay courteous, but don’t expect you’ll be BFFs for the remainder of your lives. Some of the best roommates are the ones you barely ever see.

Figure out your bathroom schedule. At the outset of the semester, talk through your schedule to find out when individuals have to be on their way every morning and then base a bathroom schedule around that timeline.

Cleaning rules. Establish a cleaning agenda for your living space and be sure you pull your weight. If your roommate left something in the sink that’s smelling up the apartment, the simplest solution might be to tidy it up then and address it with him or her later.

Pick your battles. It may well drive you nuts if they leave their hair in bathtub after showering, but there might be more vital circumstances to take care of.

Have one room and keep clean – always. Even though the remainder of your apartment is often a mess, it helps to have one community room you already know you can retreat to that will almost allways be clean, like the kitchen or living room. Agree to keeping it tidy.

Bring it up. If you allow the stuff that bothers you simmer below the surface without addressing it directly with them, it will just worsen for you and they may have not a clue what they’re doing gets under your skin. While leaving a note may be convenient for you, just address it up front, in place of declaring a post-it war.

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