It's spring (kind of), which means students are scrambling to figure out what they're doing for housing next year. I'm sitting around, ready to graduate, and reminiscing about past roommates. I have had nothing but awesome roommates! (Shout out to all of you guys for putting up with me.) So I figured I should share my co-living wisdom.

Here are my tips for easy living:

Live with a friend.

Living together works out better when you're friends and have fun together, but also still have separate groups of friends. So get separate groups of close friends and spend some time apart. But being friends with each other means that you'll probably enjoy the friends that your roommate brings over. Which is also a plus. Pick a friend who you know is responsible -- someone who will pay their share of the rent and do their share of the cleaning.

But don't live with your best friend.

This is super important. If you're constantly around each other, you'll probably end up fighting. I have never lived with my best friend, which was purposeful. I do know some best friends who have lived together and it has taken a toll on their friendship. Plus, I really need someone who will encourage me to get off my butt and be productive. And my best friends would just egg me on to be a lazy piece of poop.

Have some fun!

Being roommates entails collaboration on some not so fun things: grocery shopping, paying bills, dishes, cleaning, homework. But don't forget to have some fun together, too! If you can make the boring things fun, that's when you know you have a great roommate! Have a system to make sure all the dull stuff is equally distributed. Then, you can begin to have fun cleaning or grocery shopping together. Also, make sure to hang out just as roommates without anyone else sometimes. Bonding will make everything else easier and more fun.

Don't be afraid to talk about issues

If your roommate doesn't know that something is bugging you, they can't fix it! You have to live with someone that you can comfortably talk about issues with when they start. Don't hold things in. Just nicely say, "Hey, I feel like I've been the only one doing __________ lately." Sometimes your roommate is having a stressful week and doesn't realize you've done the dishes all week. And that's cool. Talking about it will make them aware and then if they're your friend, they'll fix it.

Having a roommate doesn't have to be a bad experience. You just need to pick a great friend, but not your best friend. If you pick the right person, living with a roommate can be an awesome experience. Just be sure to follow these tips when you pick out your next roommate!