Living with someone is not the easiest thing, especially when you or your roommate are not confrontational. These are just a few general tips for living with someone because you probably do most of this stuff without realizing.
Keep your alarm on vibrate
"But I won't hear it!" Yes, you will. I keep my alarm on vibrate 24/7 as a personal preference and I wake up after the first buzz. As long as you keep your phone close to you, you will hear it. It's super annoying when you don't have a class until 9:30 a.m. but you're up with your roommate at 7:15 a.m. for his/her 8 a.m.
Wash your dishes
Most college kids in dorms don't have to worry about this but when it comes time for you to live in an apartment with a kitchen, keep this in mind. Nobody likes to see dirty dishes piled up in the sink, especially when they can all be pinpointed to one specific person in the house. It's unsanitary, ugly, and quite honestly, annoying.
Warnings would be nice
Even a simple text like "hey my friends are coming up to the room for a minute so i can show them something" would be really appreciated. Especially if we're in the middle of putting on a face mask, it gives us time to run next door and hide.
Use common sense
If the door is closed, a knock is needed 99.8% of the time. If I'm asleep/taking a nap, I would prefer you didn't play loud music, turn on the lights, etc. because it will wake me up. It's not too hard to sense other people's moods, especially if they want theirs to be known, so at least make an effort in trying to respect me and my actions. Don't do something if you wouldn't want it being done to you.
Keep to your side of the room
This isn't to be taken literal at all times, just respect your roommates stuff when they're not around. If you have guests over, don't let them sleep in your roommates bed, unless they say it's okay. You wouldn't want random people coming into your room and touching your stuff, especially since you probably keep some pretty valuable things in there. Just be careful, but don't worry to the point where you have to "walk on eggshells" whenever you bring people into your room.
Don't lie
When you first meet your roommate you're probably going to want to seem as perfect as possible. You're going to wants to be best friends and want to have everything go perfectly. If you aren't being yourself with your roommate, your year is going to suck. If you're afraid your roommate won't like the real you, odds are he/she won't hate you. As long as your both respect each other and make an effort towards being the best roommates as possible, any problems you run into should be fixable. Worse comes to worse, you do a room change, it's not the end of the world.
Personal space is needed
When I'm laying in my bed after class watching netflix, it's not an invite for you to come lay on my bed with me and talk to me for hours. If you really need someone to talk to, then by all means, interrupt me, but if you're just bored, then that's annoying. I didn't ask you to come chill with me for a reason, I need some alone time here and there. It's so hard to get alone time when living with other people so when I'm under the covers with my laptop/phone and headphones, please don't bother me
