After living by myself for a semester, I was thrilled to have one of my best friends move in with me. I would no longer be alone when I heard creepy noises at night and have someone to help pay the bills. As excited as I was, I had forgotten a few things about living with another person. Here are five things I had to readjust to when my new roommate moved in.
- It's not only my house anymore. My new roommate moved into a house I was already leasing and accustomed to calling my own. Of course I was excited for it to be our house now, but whenever I found myself getting upset about something I would always refer to it as my house. Despite the fact that I was in the house before my roommate, we are both on the lease and I know that I can't dictate everything. There will have to be compromises in our house.
- Sharing cleaning responsibilities. While living by myself I was able to let things drag around the house and let the few dishes I would use pile up in the sink. I don't consider myself messy, but the house definitely was not spotless on a daily basis. However, now that I again have a roommate, I am concerned about the house staying clean. I find it disrespectful to my roommate to leave a large mess that I have made, so I am always trying to clean up after myself. I expect my roommate to treat me with the same respect and clean up after himself as well. However, that does not always happen, and we are working together to keep our house clean and respect each other.
- Deciding how to decorate the house. The walls of the living room remained pretty bare while I lived alone. I never felt the need to decorate because I did not anticipate being there for very long, but now there is a reason to make the house look like a home. Surprisingly, my roommate took charge and used the things he planned for his room in our living room. While I had a few protests during decorating, I am grateful he filled the walls with fun posters, banners, and flags. It is not the most girly or what I had envisioned, but we decided on things to display together and our walls are no longer dull.
- Pets. My dog from my parents' house, Gizmo, lived with me during the semester I was alone. He is an old and cranky little dog that does not like anyone except for me. I loved having him with me and ignored the complaints of my friends when they would visit. However, Gizmo really cannot tolerate my new roommate and would constantly bark or try bite him. He has to live my parents again since it would not be fair to my roommate to keep him. No longer having my little fluff to cuddle with is a huge change but a necessary one.
- Actually having another person always in the house. This is probably the biggest adjustment of them all. Living alone allowed me to always lay on the couch and watch whatever I wanted, play loud music whenever I felt like it, and never wear pants. Now that another person lives with me, I have to be considerate of him and can't do whatever I want whenever I want.
Living alone had a lot of positives, but living with one of my best friends is so much better. Although it requires some adjusting, a lot of patience, and occasional disagreements, I am still thrilled to have a roommate again. Coming home to an empty and quiet house after a long day is not fun. Now I am greeted by my best friend and roommate. We can talk about our days, hang out and relax, and encourage each other to do our homework. The above five things definitely took some getting used to, but it's worth the change.
