How to Handle College Roommates

Photo: Passive Aggressive Notes

Roommates. They’re an important part of the university experience, though you’ve probably had a couple get under your skin before. Existing with people can make all their flaws all-too-visible, so here are a handful of ideas on how to cope with college roommates.

Establish ground rules. Develop rules at the beginning of the semester for the way you’ll handle smoking, taking 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 improve for doing it.

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

Determine your bathroom schedule. At the outset of the semester, talk through your schedule to understand when people need to be on their way every morning then base your bathroom schedule around that timeline.

Cleaning rules. Set up a cleaning agenda for your living space and make certain you pull your own weight. When your roommate left something in the sink that’s smelling up the apartment, the easiest solution might be to tidy it up then and address it with them later.

Pick your battles. It may well drive you nuts after they leave their hair in bathtub after showering, but there could be more vital things to handle.

Have one room to keep clean – always. Even though the remainder of your apartment may be a mess, it helps to have one community room you know you’ll be able to retreat to that will almost allways be clean, such as kitchen or living area. Agree to keeping it tidy.

Bring it up. When you let the problems that bothers you simmer underneath the surface without addressing it directly with them, it’s going to just worsen for you and they could have no clue what they’re doing gets under your skin. While leaving a note may perhaps be much more comfortable for you, just take care of it up front, as opposed to declaring a post-it war.

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