How to Handle College Roommates

Photo: Passive Aggressive Notes

Roommates. They’re a fundamental element of the university experience, though you’ve probably had a few get beneath your skin before. Existing with people can certainly make all their flaws all-too-visible, here are some techniques to deal with college roommates.

Establish guidelines. Create rules at the outset of the semester based on how you’ll deal with 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 can be, leave it alone. Don’t use their shampoo, makeup, clothes. Your relationship will be better for this.

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

Figure out your bathroom schedule. At the outset of the semester, talk through your schedule to understand when people have to be out the door every morning and base your bathroom schedule around that timeline.

Cleaning rules. Establish a cleaning schedule for your living space make certain you pull your own weight. Should 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 them later.

Pick your battles. It could drive you nuts when they leave their hair in bathtub after showering, but there might be more essential circumstances to manage.

Have one room to keep clean – always. Although the rest of your apartment may be a mess, it helps to have one community room you recognize it is possible to retreat to that will be clean, such as kitchen or living area. Plan to keeping it tidy.

Bring it up. When you allow the stuff that bothers you simmer beneath the surface without addressing it directly with them, it will eventually just become worse for you and they could have no idea what they’re doing gets under your skin. While leaving a note may very well be much more comfortable for you, just deal with it up front, rather than declaring a post-it war.

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