Sharing space with roommates can be challenging in the best of times — and that's not mentioning the other times. You know, the times your roomie takes your food without asking (or replacing it), leaves a huge mess for others (you) to clean up, or brings a significant other home to stay for weeks (or months).

With a new school year here, and lots of folks moving into new apartments with new roommates and good intentions, let's get a few things straight about roommate etiquette — and save a lot of headaches down the road.



Be social. You certainly don't need to do everything together or be the best of friends — but hiding out in your room all the time and declining every time your roommates invite you to do something sends a negative message.

Part of what can make living with roommates fun is hanging out together. Likewise, don't form a clique and exclude another roommate from activities. If a roommate situation is not working out, address it directly.



Share decorating space. That means you should all get equal wall space (if you want it) to hang things in common areas, and you should work together to decide on furniture arrangements.. To each his or her own in bedrooms, but shared space really should be shared.



Keep common areas tidy. Keep your personal items from taking up permanent residence in shared areas. The room should not be a dumping ground for piles of dirty cloths, unwashed plates and scattered books!

When you are done with something, put it back. Just because your roommate seems to always leave her stuff laying around doesn't mean you should, too. Especially in households with three or more roommates, messiness is a slippery slope. Set a good example, and it's more likely your roommates will follow suit.



Do your own dishes. This has got to be the most common roommate complaint of all time — don't let it be about you! Do your own dishes promptly after meals, and if your roommate cooked dinner for both of you, get in there and wash up after. When handling roommates who do not wash their dishes, try speaking with them directly first, aiming for a tone that is firm but not angry.

In an extreme case of dish-neglect, try removing some of the dishes from the cupboards entirely (if there are tons) — fewer dishes means the pile of dirties can never get too bad. Let your roommate know how serious it is to you, and begin keeping separate dishes. Their dirties can go in a dishpan out of sight under the sink until they are ready to deal with them, and your clean ones can be stored wherever you like (even in your room if necessary).



Decide how to handle food and stick with it. A roomie who eats your food without asking is right up there with the one who leaves the dirty dishes piled up in the sink. Let's hope you never have to live with someone who does both.

The best way to avoid conflict around food is to agree early on how you will handle food, and stick to it. Here are three common ways to handle the food situation, along with pros and cons:

Share everything. For some, sharing food and splitting costs evenly works out without a hassle. Conflicts can arise if one of you has friends over a lot and feeds said friends from the (supposedly) equally shared food stash. If you go this route, be clear that the food is for roommates only.
Separate sides of the fridge. Shop separately, and keep your paws off your roommate's food. This can be a smart choice if you tend to buy very different kinds of food (i.e., one roommate is vegan, another loves meat).
Share staples, split the rest. This compromise sounds good, but can be a little tricky in practice. Be sure you agree on what exactly is on your list of staples, and trade off paying for them.


Share bathroom cleaning (and other onerous tasks). No one wants to clean the toilet or take out the trash, but it must be done — and if one person ends up doing the dirtiest jobs all the time, tempers can flare.

Set up a chore chart somewhere easily viewed by all housemates, and use it to rotate tasks. Common courtesy dictates that each person should pull his or her own hair from the drain after showers, and replace the soap or TP if you use the last of it.



Be respectful of your roommate's schedule. If you know your roommate has to get up early, be polite and keep noise down late at night.

Always talk to your roommates about parties in advance, and skip it if a roommate requests you throw the party a different weekend.
Respect personal space and belongings. Do not go into a housemate's room when they are not home, and do not use or borrow anything of theirs without asking first. If you share a bedroom, don't sit on or put stuff on your roommate's bed. And if you do borrow something (with permission) and it gets stained or damaged, it is your responsibility to have it cleaned, repaired or replaced promptly!

If your roommate has been taking your stuff without asking, have a conversation with her about it as soon as possible. She may have just assumed it was OK with you, so be clear about how and what you are willing (or not willing) to share. And be honest: If you regularly borrow your roomie's shoes, don't get your feathers in a ruffle when she borrows your sweater.


Keep up with your laundry. Big, stinky piles of dirty laundry will win you no fans, even if the piles are contained to your room. Keep that laundry moving, or make regular trips to the laundromat if you don't have access to a washer dryer.

For roommates who neglect laundry, the first step is getting them to keep it contained to their own space. Offering to go along on a shopping trip for extra hampers could be enough to get the message across.



Follow the golden rule. Treat your roommates as you want to be treated. When something is bothering you, tell them in a clear but polite way rather than letting bad feelings fester. And remember that small, nice gestures — like bringing home flowers for the dining room table or a bag of cookies to share — can go a long way to roommate peace.

Hope you liked the Tip]

see more tips here

http://evilla.com.ng/en/nigeria-real-estate-property-blog/26-ways-to-keep-the-peace-with-roommates

Happy new semester

Thanks luv this write up.

Truth be told, there's nothing as sweet as living alone. You'll have issues with roomies whether you like it or not.

lalasticlala

Nice pics... Thumb up.

You never jam evil room mate

Sha, to be honest, evil roomie na evil roomie. Nothing you do can ever please her. It's much better to stay alone if you have the means. Thanks OP

wait make I read am first

Jeeeeeeeez..

OP can you pls organise your write up and make it more readable

Even people who are blood related tend to have have issues.. Staying alone is always the best.

Exactly

nice write up!

Some roommates are still impossible to live with o.
you never see devil roommate, parasitic roommate ehn

u try

OGA YOU CAN NEVER PLEASE SOME DEVIL ROOM MATES.....BACK THEN IN SCHOOL I USE VEX BREAK MY ROOM MATE NOSE ... THE GUY TOO DIRTY...BUT HAS THE SWAG OF JIDENNA AND DAVIDO PUT TOGETHER.... FELT ARRANGING THE ROOM WAS MY RESPONSIBILITY BECAUSE HIM SENIOR ME....I COUNTER CHANGE AM FOR AM ON THAT FATEFUL DAY, ALL MAN BEGIN RESPOND TO HIM DUTY TILL WE GRADUATE...

Just pray you dont have a room mate like me

Some room-mates derive pleasure from being difficult to live with!

c

Living with a roommate can be lovely and as well be hell........ Personality of individuals matters and basically, no matter how you tried, you can't just cope living with some people..

No matter how kind you are, some room mates will forever remain sadistic... Nice write-up OP

All these long stories no mean anything


My own roommate wey dey carry babes come 24/7 dy lock me outside nko


Even if I con dy room dy read, na so so music the guy go dy jam

You didn't talk about roomates who decide to blast music without caring whether you're having a siesta,reading or just want a quiet time

Talkative roomates.
Roomates who bring tons of friends to the room and the friends steal your stuff
Roommates friends sitting on your bed ,not only That eating on your bed and dropping left over rice on your bed
Those girls that are your roommates friends sitting with their bare yash on your bed and still giving you attitude till you give them a taste of their medicine
Roommates stealing your water during water scarcity
Tribal roomates who bring their friends to start speaking Yoruba ignore or Hausa language and
prayer warrior Roommates who had no regard for others sleeping at night and tags anyone who tells her to bring her voice down a witch
the Roommate that will bring her boyfriend in the room and be having sex at night while you're asleep

The night clubbers who will knock at the door at 3.30am to beg you to Open the door for them
The preacher roomate preaching to you that wearing trousers will take you to hell

The borrow borrow roomate.borrow maggi borrow matches borrow pot borrow slippers


The pregnant roomate that will be spitting and vomiting ever where
the married roommate who's husband is trying to famz you so you can help him monitor where his wife goes,which guy she talked to etc

The roommate who happens to be your coursemate but will never come to class.always going for one owanmbe to the other. If it's not her mother's 50th birthday it's her friends wedding ceremony or her uncle's burial ceremony. When exam time comes which she's oblivious of until you tell her that's when she'll start panicking and be begging you to borrow her your notes or text book or explain a topic to her .if you don't cold water has started
the roommate who has turned hostel to her permanent residence. 10 years she's still in school. She no wan graduate.When her mates are going for lectures she's sleeping. When she eventually wakes up in the afternoon she's watching movie or home video then in the evening she's going to her boyfriends house. You will never see her with books and if you ask her she will say that book the lecturer recommended is too expensive yet she doesn't mind buying an outfit for 15k yet a book of 2k is too expensive

Roommate that is always farting
fetish roomate always chanting incantations before going for runz
omo mummys roommate. The mother is always coming to greet her and wait in the room if she doesn't see her and come with rice and yam. Asking you whether she's not following boys as if you came to school to monitor her movements

The one with boyfriend drama. The boy will come to the room to wait for her whether he'll catch her with another man
The one the dad will call on phone from 4am to 7am to reign prayers and sermons for
The one that will call home if she needs any single thing.the father will now send the driver to drive all the way from Lagos to the east to bring bucket or sanitary pad onions and kellogs cornflakes for her and beg her to stay away from boys and go to only church or mosque

The weird dresser
The one who borrows money to do the latest hair or buy the latest clothes
the one that has all the provisions and very fashionable.she will bring everything to the hostel including what is not necessary
the weed smoker who's a cultist girlfriend always fond of dressing anyhow and behaving anyhow.anyone that dares talks to her for smoking weed in the room is in trouble
the one who every man wants to sleep with
the hottest roomate
the nerd/bookworm roommate
the local and razz roommate
the fake Behind wannabes always clinching to sophisticated girls and turn themselves to their errand girl just to belong and to be seen with them
the naturally sophisticated and posh girl
the village girl
the one that will be doing iya oko mi iyawo mi bullsht when the man in question knows who he wants or who he's dating. The roommate will be carrying cooked food for her imaginary supposed sister inlaw
the one with possessive husband that comes almost every weekend and begins to watch the wife's roomate to make his own personal judgment of her whether she's not a runz girl and always looking at the roomate such that she'll begin to feel uncomfortable

The roomate always famzing lecturer, going to the staff quarters to help lecturers wife wash plates so she can be in the good book of lecturer
the roomate that came to school to sell recharge card,egg,indomie, going from room to room selling clothes and in the process attracting people you're not even intrested in seeing OR taking with asking for your roommate and if you say she's not around they want to start a conversation with you
the roommate always forming attitude and lying till she's disgraced

I had a friend sef way back in school who was jisting me about her roommate who brought ijabe to school and was using it to do ewedu.the girl Will be eating fufu and ewedu at 11.30pm

I fia no roommate

mai go resume sef

Sm rmates dirty for africa eehh

So glad to be done with all those roommate shit....

OP people are differenet...what works or A might not work for B

hmmmm, you try well, I have to keep preparing myself be that because my admission is in 85% loading. university things.