At some point in all our lives, we end up living with roommates. Whether it's in college or not, odds are you will live with people sooner or later. Living with others is stressful a lot of the time. There are just a few things that everybody who lives with roommates should do and be aware of. As long as you have these things in the back of your mind, living with others should go swimmingly.
1. Boundaries
Most people care a lot about their personal space. Nobody wants a roommate that goes into their room without asking, touches their things, eats their food, etc. When you are living with other people in your home, just be sure to respect their things and their boundaries and make yours clear to them as well.
2. Good Communication
This is a really important thing that needs to be present between roommates. You need to be able to talk about things that bother you or things that need to change. Some people are okay with just being passive about their problems with their roommates, but it shouldn't be like that when you're living with someone. You don't want an awkward living situation, so it is always best to just be able to talk to them about it. You shouldn't confront them by getting mad, though. The best way to fix problems between you and your roomies would be to say things like "We should do this instead of…" or "Can we talk about…" Just try to make it a conversation between you all rather than making it a one-sided conversation where they feel attacked.
3. Respect
As long as all of you are respectful of where you live and respectful of those around you, there won't really be any problems. Just make sure you clean after yourself when you cook or anything like that, keep the noise down if your roommates are sleeping, respect your roommate's things and be careful with it, and just be aware that though it is your home it is theirs too.
4. Know Who You're Living With
In some cases, you don't really have a choice of who you live with, such as when you get an assigned roommate in college. But, if you are able to have some choice in who you live with, make sure you meet them first and get a good idea of what it would be like living with them. It obviously won't tell you everything about what it will be like to have them as a roommate, but it will give you some choice in it and you will have an option to have what will work best for you.
Living with others can be the most fun experience. You don't need to be best friends with your roommates, but the experience doesn't need to be awkward and bad either. Just try to make the best of the situation and be open to your roommate's thoughts and concerns, and you should be just fine.
