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Whether you want to live with a roommate to save money or to have more social interactions when you return home, the Moving Help® Marketplace will provide you with 10 tips on how to live with a roommate.
Out of all our tips, we believe communication is the most important tip. You and your roommates’ abilities to communicate with each other will help determine having a cohesive or a disjointed living situation. Our tips will be critical to having a good relationship with your roommate.
Here are 10 tips on how to live with a roommate:
- Communication
- How to find a good roommate
- Roommate chore chart
- Set rules and boundaries
- Money and bills
- Give each other personal space
- Compromise and find common ground
- Sort out problems
- Respect their property
- Communication (Part 2)
1. Communicating With Your Roommate
Initial communication is important whether it’s a potential roommate or your future roommate. A first meeting — in person or over the phone — will help you determine their personality and whether they’d be a good fit for you or not.
Some initial communication topics to discuss are:
- Expectations
- Preferences
- How long you want a roommate
- Home cleanliness
2. How to Search for Roommates
You can start by asking friends or family about whether they know anyone who’s looking for a roommate. You also can search for potential roommates online. Some websites can even let you search by looking for a roommate or looking to fill a spare room. Some options include:
- Roomies
- SpareRoom
- Roomster
- Facebook groups
Some good and bad characteristics of potential roommates include:
- Finances
- Messiness
- Disruptive habits
- Personality
- Communication
- Responsible
- Trustworthiness
As always, go with your gut instincts. If something is telling you to run away screaming or to stay here comfortably, you should listen to it.
3. Roommate Chore Chart
Before we even get to rules and boundaries (our next point), it’s a must to discuss a chore chart for roommates. It’s easier to clean — or not clean — a living space when you live by yourself. It’s different with a roommate.
Chore Chart for Roommates
You and your roommate will want to discuss a chore calendar. This is why Moving Help created a Roommate Chore Chart, which you can adjust depending on how many roommates live with you.
As our example shows, each roommate has a different list of chores to complete each week. Everyone will be responsible for their own task. We also have a chore bank where we list other ideas you could include in your roommate chore chart.
You can download our roommate chore chart and fill in the chore for each week with your roommates. You also can write down each roommate’s name under “Roommate 1,” “Roommate 2,” etc.
You should place the chore chart visible somewhere for all roommates to see and know who is supposed to complete each task each week. You could even laminate the printout, so you can use a marker and eraser to use the same page more than once.
Creating an Effective Roommate Chore Chart Schedule
When it comes to cleaning, you might quickly realize you love to complete one particular chore over another chore.
Maybe your roommate is better at cleaning the oven than you, but you’re better at mopping the floors than your roommate. When you keep an open dialogue of communication, you can learn that switching chores around could benefit everyone.
Another effective tip when it comes to cleaning and chores is:
- Be flexible: Life happens, and sometimes things are out of our control. If you or your roommates miss their chores for the week, it’s OK to check in on them. A bad week can happen, so make sure you show compassion and empathy before berating your roommate for not completing their weekly chores.
4. Set Rules and Boundaries
When you finally find your roommate and move-in together or when you both are living together at the same time, you should go over rules and boundaries. By establishing rules and boundaries at the beginning of your roommate relationship, you and your roommate won’t be surprised later down the road.
Some rules and boundaries questions to consider are:
- What is your work schedule?
- What is your sleeping schedule?
- What is your party habit?
- How often will you have company over?
- How often do you cook?
- What are your rules with pets?
- How often do you complete your laundry?
- How often do you clean your home?
Work Schedules
You should learn what your roommate’s work schedule is for the week, and they should know your work schedule. This will help determine when the other person is sleeping, when quiet time is needed, or when your roommate is working from home.
If you share a bathroom, you’ll need to make sure each roommate has plenty of time using the bathroom if you share the same work schedule.
Cooking Schedules and Kitchen Items
Some people like to cook every night. Many people like to cook a few nights a week. Some people love to meal prep.
You’ll want to learn when you and your roommate like to cook, so no one is inadvertently hogging the kitchen space.
Additionally, you should learn whether you’re buying your own groceries, sharing the entire grocery bill, or sharing the grocery bill for common items like olive oil, seasonings, and bread.
Rules About Pets
Everyone should obviously be responsible for taking care of their pets. If a roommate’s dog is barking all the time, you might want to consider having a conversation with them, however. You should be aware of how the dog behaves and what to do in case of an emergency, especially when your roommate isn’t home.
Another part about pets to keep in mind is getting a pet while already living together. If you, your roommate, or both of you decide to get a pet while already living together, everyone should make sure to set some ground rules before any pet is acquired. Some rules to establish are:
- Who is getting the pet?
- Does your lease need to be updated?
- Who will feed and water the pet?
- Who will play with the pet?
- Who will clean up after the pet?
- Who will train the pet?
- Who will take the pet to the veterinary appointments?
- What to do and where to go in case of emergencies?
- Where will the pet stay when the owner or owners aren’t home?
- Will other roommates ever be responsible for the pet?
These questions will set a solid foundation on expectations moving forward prior to anyone getting a dog, cat, or another pet.
5. Money and Bills
A conversation about money and bills needs to happen sooner rather than later. Here are a few questions to consider asking prior to any bill due dates:
- Does everyone have their own individual bills?
- Will one person oversee all bills and make sure everyone pays their portion?
- What happens when someone can’t pay their bills?
- How will everyone split daily, weekly, or monthly bills?
- What are you comfortable spending each month? What are your roommates comfortable spending each month?
- Do you have any emergency funds?
6. Give Each Other Personal Space
While you and your roommate may end up becoming best friends, it’s also important to remember that everyone needs their personal space. Considering you’re living together, you’ll interact with each other many times.
It’s important to give yourself and your roommate some personal space.
Some tips on how to give each other personal space includes:
- Hanging out with your friends outside your apartment
- Going outside and getting some fresh air
- Going to a coffee shop or another sit-down place
- Getting dinner with family
You and your roommate will appreciate the alone time.
7. Compromise and Find Common Ground
It’s inevitable that when you live with someone, you’re going to disagree with them. (We’ll discuss sorting out problems in our next section.) It’s important to remember that compromising and finding common ground is healthy.
You should look to find strategies that best help you and your roommate find common ground and make joint decisions.
Sometimes, the compromise might favor your roommate more than you. Of course, some compromises might favor you more than your roommate.
8. Sort out Problems
You and your roommate will have fights. Even the best of roommates and the best of friends who are roommates will still have fights. They can be huge blow-up fights to small, little tiffs. The important thing to remember is to learn how to sort out your problems after the initial disagreement.
You’ll want to learn how you and your roommate respond after an initial fight.
Some common roommate conflicts include:
- A roommate isn’t cleaning their dishes.
- A roommate not keeping the common areas tidy.
- A roommate is being noisy during quiet hours.
- A roommate has too many people over and/or too often in your home.
- A roommate is eating your food without your permission.
- A roommate is hogging the laundry room.
When this occurs, here are some tips on mediation and keeping a respectful environment:
- Be respectful of each other
- No yelling or calling each other names
- Give each other space before coming back to an open and honest dialogue
- Learn to agree to disagree
- Pick your battles carefully
- Work together to learn the real problem to come up with a resolution
9. Respect Their Property
You should always respect your roommate’s property with care. You should never misuse or mishandle your roommate’s property.
Sometimes, your roommate will let you use their property. You should treat it like a privilege and not a right to use their property.
Here are some tips on handling shared items and spaces:
- Never break your roommate’s items.
- If an accident happens with a roommate’s belongings, tell your roommate right away.
- If you share food, don’t eat the entire bag of chips in one sitting.
- If you share something and you run out of it, you should notify your roommate.
- If you don’t want to share an item anymore, tell your roommate right away and why.
- Thank your roommate for letting you borrow their belongings.
10. Communication (Part 2)
If we didn’t make it clear enough, communication is the No. 1 factor to have a healthy relationship with your roommate. You and your roommate may not end up being best friends, but you’ll at least have a respectful and healthy relationship as roommates.
Here are a few more communication tips:
- Have ongoing communication and dialogue
- Have regular check-ins with your roommate
- Create honest dialogue when communicating
- Make sure to be open when communicating
These tips will make communication easier in the short term and long term with your roommate.
Learn How to Live With a Roommate Today
It doesn’t have to be a terrible experience living with a roommate. Whether you want to move in with a roommate or to have a roommate live with you, you can make the most of it.
A roommate chore chart can make sure everyone is aware of keeping the home clean. When you discuss certain topics ahead of time like:
- Money;
- Bills;
- Pets;
- Boundaries and personal space;
- Finding common ground;
- How to handle fights;
You can ensure you and your roommate know the expectations going forward.
You know who else can meet your expectations? The Moving Help Marketplace. Moving Help is an online Marketplace that’ll connect customers with local, labor-only Service Providers to assist you with all your labor moving needs while fitting your budget.
