The good, the bad, the ugly
Unfortunately, the horror stories you’ve heard can become very real very quickly. Dishes are piled high, your leftover Pad Thai has somehow flown the coop, and there’s a mountain of things where your common room table used to be – I’m talking, of course, about the dreaded bad roommate.
Unless you’ve arranged beforehand to live with somebody you know, choosing roommates can often be summed up to luck of the draw. If your luck runs dry and you’re stuck with someone irresponsible, messy, unpleasant, or a little bit of all those things, it can become a serious problem when it comes time to focus on yourself and your education.
It’s important to set boundaries, cleaning duties and other factors with the people you live with from the onset of your living arrangement. Here are some problem-solving approaches as well as some practical rules-of-thumb to mutually set for the space you’ll be studying in, eating in and, most importantly, living in.
On-Campus
1. Establish nights for fun and nights for work
On a lively Saturday night when your whole floor is partying but you, it’s a total drag. Being taunted by the shrieks of reckless abandon while you bury your face in physics formulas is agonizing enough, and you shouldn’t have your own personal space intruded upon when your roommate plans to cut loose. To avoid this, you should let your roommate know when you have an upcoming test or assignment. It saves you the headache of dealing with people in your space, and saves any potential drama of having to boot people from your room.
2. Be blunt and up-front
Chances are, if you’re living on campus it’ll be hard to avoid a housemate you have tensions with. Whether you’re packed together like sardines in South Residence, or enjoying a reasonably sized East Residence room to yourself, you’re going to have to see each other on a daily basis, and when there’s a lingering tension over an issue, it can erode the sanctity of your space. Air your concerns about something and talk about it civilly, lest the problem snowball into something larger and you’re stuck not speaking to each other.
3. Speak to housing services (the earlier the better)
If you have a gut feeling that it just won’t work out with you and your assigned roommate, you should speak to housing services the instant you get that gut feeling. The room switches fill up very quickly, and priority is given exclusively on a first-come, first-serve basis. So if it’s day one and your roommate is giving you a bad vibe, act on it. I’ve been in this situation once and I really kicked myself for not arranging a switch sooner. Even if they can’t get you a switch immediately, in time you should be able to find something.
Off-Campus
1. Set established schedules for cleaning
It’s sometimes difficult to stick with, but when you divide cleaning duties between you and your roommates, it allows you to tackle the mess head-on before it gets too overwhelming. Spring cleaning shouldn’t have to happen in the middle of fall finals.
2. Write your name on cupboards, shelves, food products, etc.
Separating your food sets boundaries between what is yours and your roommates’, so you know exactly what you can and cannot freely use. Divide your fridge using cardboard strips, stick some tape on your cupboard doors, things like that to ensure that your things are your own.
3. Keep record of who bought what supplies
Toilet paper; it is there one day, then it is gone. Nobody wants to be the one buying it all the time, so it makes sense to set a rotation of who buys it and what week they buy it. So then, everybody knows whose responsibility it is. The same goes for dish soap and other shared household products.