Are you considering sharing your living space with a roommate? Whether you're a college student, a young professional, or simply someone looking to cut down on living expenses, renting with a roommate could be the solution you’re looking for. While it can be a journey filled with its fair share of challenges and surprises, it’s also an opportunity to decrease your financial burden and broaden your social circles!

Welcome to the wonderful world of cohabitation, where mismatched socks, shared chores, and late-night debates about pizza toppings are all part of the package deal. Whether you're about to embark on this journey or you're already in the thick of it, let's dive in and make renting with a roommate a rewarding and memorable experience.
 

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Ask the Right Questions

Before you make the jump from acquaintances to roommates, getting a good feel for the person and their lifestyle is essential to ensure that you can not only live together but can do so without being at each other's throats. Learning more about your potential roommates can help you understand where they’re coming from and how they lived prior to meeting you. Asking questions about schedules, pet peeves, and jobs can prevent issues before they even start. So get chatting!

 
Create a Roommate Agreement

No, not the kind you’re thinking of that Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory created – something a little more realistic. How will you share the responsibilities? How will you handle guests? How will you stay on track with expenses? Creating these guidelines will help with future hiccups and avoid misunderstandings.

In this roommate agreement, you should include a failsafe way to communicate, solve disputes, divvy up financial responsibilities, and respect each other's boundaries. Consider also including a policy around having guests in the space; how will you inform each other of impending guests? Outline these expectations within the agreement and stick to them!

Sitting down and writing it out together can ensure that you both not only agree but can follow through on these promises. Confirming that you have both signed the agreement can increase your chances of being successful in renting your shared space. Re-visiting the agreement annually is also essential to keeping the agreement real and reasonable!
 

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Communication is Huge, but Compromising is Key!

You’re both adults, not mind readers! Understanding this simple fact can help you find common ground and build failsafe solutions to communicating in a respectful and compassionate way. Being able to communicate when you feel frustrated, angry, or unhappy in a productive way can make all the difference. Just like you, your roommate is not a mind reader—they cannot help with what they do not know.

While communication is big, knowing when to compromise is a skill to be mastered. Compromising with roommates doesn't just mean buying the type of milk they prefer, or using a different brand of soap—it also means remaining flexible and being willing to adjust your expectations. Compromise is essential for maintaining peace and harmony within your space, accepting that sometimes, people just do things differently than you. Finding that middle ground can build stronger, easier, and long-lasting relationships.

 
Divide and Conquer on Household Chores

Like with most things, chores are easier when done as a team! Chores are not always the most exciting, but they are very necessary for keeping a clean and safe home. Very few people get excited at the prospect of doing the dishes on a daily basis, but they need to get done.

Having some clear guidelines for keeping your shared space clean will aid in the inevitable argument over who took out the trash last – try having a whiteboard on the fridge for these items. (You can find some inexpensive ones at your local dollar store!).

Consider this: If you are someone who doesn’t mind cleaning the kitchen but hates the idea of cleaning the bathroom, try to assign roles to each other to get these jobs done!
 

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Break Bread Together

While you do not have to be the best of friends in order to be roommates, sharing a meal or having weekly time to hang out and relax could be the best way to stay on common ground. Try things like having breakfast or dinner together, weekly game nights, or watching that cool new action movie that just came out on that streaming platform. Establishing some sort of friendly relationship outside of just talking about when rent is due or whose turn is it to empty the dishwasher could make all the difference! So, break bread together! Share a meal, tell some stories, gossip about work—create some space for you both to just exist in each other’s company.

 
Just remember: This is their home, too! It's not just up to you to make the rules. You all split the rent, which means you all split the responsibilities of living in a shared space. The more respectful you are of each other, the more enjoyable your living situation will be.

If you like topics like this, check out Storage Hacks for Apartment Living: Space-Saving Tips on a Budget.