Living with roommates isn’t all that easy the way movies and TV shows make it seem. I mean, it’s almost like a business deal; it takes a lot of communication, compromise, and respect to keep a healthy and sane living space. I’ve learned that roommates need to come to an agreement and really stick to it, or else everything becomes more difficult.

Luckily today, I live with three roommates, and we’ve really learned how to live with each other. We discuss our ideas about keeping the apartment clean and organized and we compromise on the things we want in terms of decor. But most importantly, we respect each other. We respect each other's privacy, items, and opinions. We’ve even become really close friends.

But I will admit that it wasn't always like this. My first year living on my "own" away from home required a lot of maturity, for I faced many challenges with my first roommates.

Now, after a year of living with girls that never got along with me and a year of living with girls that became some of my closest friends, here are some tips for future roomies:

1. Communicate.

Living with strangers is a bit uncomfortable. I mean...you literally don’t know the person that you’re sharing a room with, or a bathroom with, or even the kitchen with for a year or longer. So on day one, let the other person(s) know what you like and what you don’t like. It’s important to keep communication amongst each other strong and direct. Communicating things will help each of you understand how the person likes to live, and depending on whether you live that way or not, communicating can aid in proper compromises.

2. Compromise.

When meeting someone for the first time, you typically share conversations about likes and dislikes. In this case scenario for example, a roommate might hate a messy kitchen. Meanwhile, another roommate may not care for a messy kitchen, but they do care about having loud music or noises after 9 p.m., because they prefer going to bed early. This requires an agreement amongst the roommates; a compromise. Therefore, by using communication both these roommates can find a compromise like, such as one person person cleans the kitchen once a week and the house should be quiet after 10 p.m.

3. Respect.

Now, respect comes a long way in life in general, but when living with other people, it is imperative to respect one another in order to keep things civil. If on day one, you all set up agreements on things like taking out the trash, cleaning the kitchen, no noise past 10 p.m., etc., then each of the roommates needs to respect these agreements. It is unfair to everyone else otherwise.

It is hard to live with strangers and new people, but as long as each roommate communicates clearly what they want and what they don’t like, the living space will become a lot more feasible, possibly resulting to close friendships and fun memories.