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How to Live with a Roommate & Create Harmony at Home

Whether you’ve known them for years or have recently met, it takes care and consideration to live with a roommate. While it’s important to remember that your roommate doesn’t have to be or become your best friend, you have chosen to share a space together that everyone will call home. To create a comfortable and respectful environment in which to live with one roommate or more, keep reading to learn about some helpful strategies for doing so!

5 Tips on How to Live with a Roommate

Apartment Therapy highlights that a roommate interview process is helpful to do (if possible) before choosing a roommate or starting to live together. It may also be beneficial to revisit or expand on your preferences and routines during the early days and weeks of being roommates. Although no amount of preparation or familiarity with a roommate guarantees smooth sailing in living together, the following suggestions may better enable you to navigate your arrangement successfully:

1. Prioritize communication. Mental Health America emphasizes the value of communication when you live with a roommate, both in general and when problems occur. Taking the time to get to know each other as people as well as roommates helps establish a foundation of respect and understanding. Discussing each person’s communication styles or preferences also helps support open lines of communication. In short, the ability to communicate is essential when sharing an apartment together and for each person’s well-being. One idea is to regularly set aside time to connect in person to address any business, concerns or requests.
2. Discuss budget considerations. Talking about money is often one of the most difficult topics of conversation, even for people who plan to share the rest of their lives together. In living with a roommate, there’s more to think about than just the rent for that apartment near Cincinnati or in any other location. From security deposits and pets to thermostat settings and groceries, expenses and clarity about personal and shared costs need to be discussed from the outset. Each person may earn and manage money differently, so it’s important not to assume anything when it comes to its use. Even if you have a more detailed understanding of each other’s financial circumstances, one roommate may not want to split the cost of a cleaning service, even if that individual’s budget allows for it. Discussions about finances may also help in determining responsibilities at home as well as boundaries for living together.
3. Establish responsibilities. Living with someone can be hard, whether you have just met them or have known them for years. Each person naturally brings expectations about how things should be done into the space. Sometimes, what may seem a standard practice to one person may not be the approach of another. For example, some people do dishes immediately upon finishing a meal, while others may do them at the end of the day or when the sink is full. Establishing shared or individual responsibilities or a set of expectations, especially when it comes to communal rooms like kitchens or bathrooms, helps reduce the potential for conflict.
4. Clarify boundaries. In any living situation, people may get on each other’s nerves or do something that the other person doesn’t like. To live with a roommate as comfortably and respectfully as possible, opportunities for ongoing communication about each other’s needs are key. Clarifying important boundaries from the start is equally essential. To do so, try to think of situations in advance and share your preferences with each other. From hosting parties and overnight guests to listening to music and sharing food, it’s important to be clear about your most important wants and needs. One option for ensuring clear expectations and boundaries is to establish a roommate agreement, as discussed at Apartment List.
5. Plan to address problems. Problems will likely arise in living together. The above suggestions can help reduce the likelihood of major issues or better enable you to navigate problems, big or small, when they do occur. Additionally, Verywell Mind offers some recommendations for self-reflection during hard times, as well as communication and conflict resolution practices to try, if needed.

Finding the right apartment can make it easier to live with a roommate. From the available amenities to an apartment’s floor plan, these features and others may also be the difference between a successful roommate experience and a more challenging one. For roommates looking for Cincinnati apartments for rent or other residences in the area, contact our leasing experts today!