The adjustment to college can be extremely difficult for so many reasons. You basically have to start your life completely over in a new place away from family while living with people you’ve never met before. One of the hardest adjustments to college life is definitely having to live with a roommate(s), whether that is in a dorm, apartment or house. Coming to college, you’ll constantly hear horror stories about crazy roommates that sound like they’re out of a movie. These are just a few tips to help you survive living with roommates and avoid being able to tell those horror stories to your friends.
1. Communicate
The number one most important piece of advice I have for anybody living with roommates is to communicate! Sit down with them on day one and lay out any rules or expectations that you have for living together. That way you won’t have any funky surprises that cause any anger or annoyance. If they do occur, you will be able to reference that conversation when talking about it. If you plan on having someone over or you want to have a party at your place, just communicate with your roommate(s) and save yourself the hassle of any petty arguments in the future.
2. Stay clean
Whether or not you are a clean person going into college, try your best to keep the common areas of your dorm or apartment clean and free of any clutter. I know that whenever my roommates make a mess out of the common area and don’t clean it up, I tend to get really cranky. In order to avoid those arguments, just try your best to keep the common areas mess-free!
3. Be respectful/considerate
When living with new people for the first time, it is extremely easy to just forget that they are there and to live your life not taking them into account. That is completely understandable and happens to all of us. However, you should really be taking these new people into account now that you’re living with them. They are now a huge part of your life, whether you like it or not, and should be taken into consideration when making decisions about certain aspects of your life.
No longer can you just invite your boyfriend/girlfriend over for a sleepover without telling your roommate(s) and just expect it to be totally fine. Don’t just decide to throw a huge pre-game with all of your friends and just decide not to mention it to your roommate. From now on, you need to be thinking about whether or not things are okay with your roommate before deciding to do them. This isn’t a super hard thing to do and relates to my tip about communication. Just shoot your roommate(s) a text before making any decisions that could potentially impact them so that any arguments can be avoided.
4. Be open-minded
Something that many people struggle with going into college is being open-minded about how other people were raised and how they live their lives. Everybody is raised differently and has grown up with different cultures and ways of living that we are not necessarily used to. When living with a new person, try your best to be open-minded to different little quirks that they may have that you are not used to. Instead of being immediately annoyed by something that you find different, ask them about it and try to learn something new about the people you are living with. You may find out something super interesting that you want to adopt into your own life.
5. Try to make a new friend
College is all about making new friends and having the best four years of your life! So whether or not you go into living with someone thinking that they are going to be your new bestie, try to be open-minded and make a friend. Who knows, this random person may be the maid of honor or best man at your wedding one day!
College is hard for so many different reasons. High school did not prepare us for how hard classes are. We don’t have our parents guiding us anymore, we’re completely alone and are forced to make new friends. Living with someone new is one of the hardest things you will have to do in college and may end in a new enemy, a new best friend or something in between. With these tips, hopefully, you can lean towards the best friend side of that spectrum rather than the enemy side and make your college experience absolutely amazing!
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