Sometimes, it’s funny you find it difficult living with your own family and all you could think of during those times is to stay away from them and probably live alone or with new roommates without thinking of the new hurdles you will be faced with. It’s pretty certain you are going to leave your family someday for some reason and start a fresh life elsewhere; either to go to one of your best colleges or start a dream work.
Well, for anyone undergoing an in-between stage, living with roommates is inevitable! Literally speaking, you must know that for every new level there is a new devil. In some ways, these new roommates are the devils I’m talking about; they are people of different backgrounds and personalities, but, does living with them have to be a terrible experience? Truly, everyone has their own bizarre habits, tight schedules, and personal tastes. With the appropriate tools, rules, and resolution techniques you can live in harmony with anyone irrespective of their standards and habits.
Finding Roommates
Finding compatible roommates is very crucial since you are probably going to live with these people for at least a month and living with the wrong ones could make your stay hellish. Although there are various means of finding a roommate, combining all the strategies then narrowing down your list is the best.
- You may share a post on Social media such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, or Facebook or talk to someone directly.
- You may also use roommate finder Apps or websites
Ensure to ask as many relevant questions as you can and be very straightforward regarding the kind of person you want. In fact, you could create a questionnaire while conducting your survey.
Establishing Rules
Now that you’ve been able to find whoever you deem fit as the right roommate(s) based on your assessment, it is very pertinent to make things clear to yourselves right from the start to avoid any future misunderstandings. None of you should have an assumption that the other person(s) will figure things out. Setting up feasible rules that moderate your activities will help combat a lot of things that could easily lead to fights.
You should agree on how you use shared spaces including the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Moreover, you should agree on when and when not to accommodate visitors, when to have quiet hours, etc. Just ensure this aspect is as detailed as possible. Include everything important to you all and set standards for it.
However, when there are defaulters among you, it’s cool not to fight them, instead, politely remind them of the rules since not everyone will be used to it at first.
Dividing Tasks
Just as the division of labor is crucial for the orderliness and success of any organization, its concept could be applied to keeping things in order in a co-living space. In this manner, everyone takes responsibility for a particular thing(s) in the house.
You should allocate household chores among yourselves using a simple tool or do it manually by formulating a chore chart that put everyone and the available number of tasks into consideration.
Moreover, it could be infuriating if only one person keeps buying household essentials, paying bills, and replacing things that get spoilt at any point in time. You guys should decide on who buys what. In fact, you can rotate this among yourselves on a daily or monthly basis depending on how frequently you consume or use these communal items.
Socializing
If you’re an introvert, not everyone is an introvert. Likewise, if you’re an extrovert, not everyone is an extrovert. From the get-go, you guys should be familiar with the personalities of one another. However, as an introvert, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a cordial relationship with your roommates as there is a clear difference between being cordial and cold.
Socializing should be a lot easier for the extroverts among you. This set of people have the charisma to attract people who might want to pay them a visit someday. If any of your friends will pay you a visit, let it be in line with what you and your roommates have agreed on.
Among yourselves, however, you can have group activities together. You could have dinner together, play games together, etc. Doing these things together will strengthen the relationship between you and you all will enjoy the benefits of living with roommates.
Cutting Down The Stress
SharedEasy is a co-living company with a strong focus on community. Our apartments in NYC are fully furnished. You don’t need to bother about dividing utilities as the rent already covers it. It also covers some of the household essentials, and weekly cleaning of communal spaces is done by our professionals. Our lease terms are super flexible and fewer documents are required. The minimum stay with us is 1 month and as long as you want. However, we run a criminal check on all our clients to ensure safety.
You may read the interview with one of our clients here to have a feel of what you are being offered!
