Moving in with a roommate is a decision that many people have considered at certain point of their life. Living with someone temporarily will certainly leave some memories behind and not all of them will be necessarily good ones. Once you decide to take that important step and relocate to live with a roommate, you must be very careful with whom you want to live. These tips will help you make the right choice.
Always follow your gut feeling – if you are going to live with a stranger and your first impression of them is bad or it just doesn’t feel right while showing them the apartment - just get them out quickly. Another good way of getting to know them is by looking at what they post on their Facebook or Twitter stream. Even though those are not very reliable sources, they may help you with the screening of the candidates. After all, when you’re moving house along with someone, you should feel comfortable and safe with them not otherwise.
Once you’ve decided with whom you are going to do the removal, you may conduct some friendly discussion about the things that will be important during your life together. Here’s a list of mandatory things you must talk about carefully from the very beginning:
1) Bills and other expenses – It is clear that the rent, water and electricity bills will be divided equally between the two of you, but there are some things that you must talk about in advance. For example, you should agree on who will be responsible for paying the bills every month and decide whether you will split the costs for groceries equally. There may be things that will not be equally used by the two of you, such as the Internet. In that case you should figure out how to share the expenses.
2) Who is bringing what? – Do some moving checklist which will help you with the idea what to bring when moving in. Your own room would be easy to furnish because you know how you want it to look and it’s only up to you. However, there are other rooms like the kitchen, the hall and the bathroom that you will share, so make sure it is clear what other necessary items you will need to provide and what will have to be bought. Try not to divide costs of individual items, because when one of you needs to move out, you must remember who owns what and it may cause unwanted
squabble between the two of you.
3) Dividing and sharing space – Once you have moved in with your roommate, you must pick a room to make your own. If your bedrooms are not equal in space, you might consider moving furniture so as to make them comfortable for each one of you, avoiding arguments about more or less space.
Treat your roommate the way you want them to treat you. Respect each other’s private space and talk over every problem you think may cause you some serious aftermath if not being discussed in time. Once the man with a van, who brought all of your furniture to your new home, is gone – you will stay with this person with who you will share your space and who will eventually find about every strange little habit of yours – so make sure this person is someone you think you’ll get along with. If all goes well, there’s even a chance that your roommate becomes your best friend after some time.
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