Living with a roommate or roommates who once seemed great, but now create an uncomfortable or frustrating living environment is a difficult situation. Before committing to a year with someone, a potential roommate should meet certain requirements.
1. Cleanliness
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Some prefer to live in a spotless apartment or dorm, others are shocked when they even catch a glimpse of the floor. Pit these two opposites against each other and you have a recipe for chaos. The neat freak may be slightly upset to find a moldy, half-eaten grilled cheese sitting on the counter. The messy has probably always been messy. After years stuffing clothes in corners, why in the world would they start hanging them in closets? It’s best that roommates are comfortable with the same level of perfection or disaster.
2. Relationships
Being uncomfortable with a friend’s significant other is aggravating and awkward. Living with them makes that situation permanent. Let’s face it, some people spend the majority of their time with a significant other and if you cannot stand the person your roommate is with, that could turn out to be a problem.
3. Partying
If you want to spend your nights with your Ben & Jerry’s and Netflix, a drunken roommate might not be the best choice. Those two people have very different energies. Nothing ruins a quiet night faster than a party. It is best if the roommates are also on the same page as to whether or not they want a party at their place.
4. Friends
Not only is it important to be friends with the roommate(s), but to be friends with their friends. Initially, this may not seem like a huge issue, but disrespectful friends that you do not get along with are not going to be the people you want hanging around your place.
5. Talkative
Some people find silence beautiful and peaceful, others find it boring and unnecessary, others like to share every detail of their day down to what size of coffee they decided to drink at Morgan’s Grind. The person who does not want to engage in conversation is going to grow more and more irritated with the lack of quiet. The person who likes to talk would probably most enjoy living with someone who does the same.
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Collegian Entertainment Reporter Cassie Maack can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com.