This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Tulane chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.
Fighting with roommates is something that I have noticed with my friends who live
off campus. I don’t know what it is about living in a “real place” that makes people flip their
lids more often. I’m assuming most fights are either related to bills, cleanliness, or the usual
friend stuff. The way I’m writing this makes it seem as though my roommates and I always
get along…and that’s not true. We fight, like everyone else living off-campus. However, there are just
greater things to worry about. After all, we no longer live in just a room. Our beds and fridges and
desks are not all located conveniently within 4 feet of each other. Our stuff is spread
throughout different rooms, so keeping it clean is that much more work.
People have different amounts of cleanliness and each roommate has a responsibility to respect their other
roommates’ choices. If one roommate is clean, and cleans all the time, the other roommates
should respect that and try to keep the rooms clean. But the clean roommate also needs to
realize that the other roommates may not care so much about being clean. There needs to
be some sort of balance abd compromise, or nothing will work. Each person should do their best to maintain
the communal chores (emptying the dishwasher, taking out the trash, filling the ice trays,
etc.) and not let it all fall on one person. A key to living in an apartment is cleaning up after
yourself, and take responsibility for yourself. Don’t let anyone tell you that part of living in
an apartment is cleaning up after your roommates, because it’s not.
Bill paying is also something that can cause a lot of stress within a household. What
my house does (and it works really well) is divide the main bills up between the three of us. I
take care of the cable/internet bill, one roommate takes care of the rent, and the other
takes care of water/energy bills. When we get those bills, we write the amount that the
other two owe us on a whiteboard that hangs in the kitchen. When any of us pay the bills
we owe, we erase it from the board. Easy method, and helps us keep track. That’s
something we don’t really fight about; we all respect the bills. Some of my friends,
however, have gotten in fights with their roommates because of bills and it’s ruined some
friendships, so just be mindful and have some kind of method.
Overall, friends always fight, but friends also always make up. Living with people is hard,
everyone has their own way of doing things and you have to adjust to that. Just remember
to be respectful and consider the perspective of your roommates. Also, when you’ve done something wrong, apologize. Don’t hold grudges and make up
when at all possible. Living with roommates is fun, but inevitable bumps in the road will
happen.
-B.