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5 Common Roommate Problems (and How to Fix Them)
I’ve lived with some pretty bad roommates. I’ve also, at times, been a pretty bad roommate myself. (Many apologies to my freshman year dormmate, who had to move mid-way through the first semester to “focus better on her studies.”) Sharing your living space with another person is not always easy, even if you otherwise have no problem getting along. It’s why good friends often make such bad roommates, and why schools like the University of Miami are requiring on-campus residents to sign formal roommate agreements in an effort to keep the peace and mitigate common roommate problems.
Of course, roommate problems aren’t relegated to college students. About 32% of U.S. adults have an adult roommate who is not a romantic partner or child aged 18-24. Plenty of people (nearly 79 million of them, to be exact) are dealing with roommates on a regular basis, and that requires navigating the tricky, sometimes unpleasant, territory that comes along with that. To help you out, we’ve gathered some of the most common roommate problems, along with actionable advice to help keep things copacetic.
Taking without asking
Splitting up costs
The unexpected “third roommate”
Noise complaints
Nobody is perfect. Living comfortably with a roommate is always going to necessitate that you choose your battles and try to brush things off when you can. But if things ever do get to a point where you feel like you have to walk on eggshells or there’s constant arguing, it’s totally okay to chalk it up to a loss and look for a different situation. Life’s too short to deal with negativity more than you have to. Fortunately though, most common roommate problems can be solved with just a little bit of directness and communication. You’ll be surprised how much a simple conversation can fix.