Walking past the living room, I noticed a "back to school" commercial on TV. Multiple emotions overtook me. First, there was a sense of relief and joy at the fact that I may never go back to school again, having just finished my undergrad. On the other hand, I felt a melancholy emptiness. As I started questioning what I was doing with my life without school, I realized one thing that I would have again. Roommates. Although I'm currently living back at home, eventually I'm going to have to find roommates again wherever I move to. After living with a total of seven different roommates in the past four years, I've learned a thing or two about how to survive living with them.

So, without further ado - here are my top five tips on how to survive living with roommates.

1. Find out a little about them.

I'm not saying you have to know their whole family history and the fact that they're second cousins twice removed to Thomas Jefferson. I'm just saying get your phone out and find any tea you can on them. It might feel invasive at first, but when you find out that they're a convicted felon in 28 states, you're gonna be glad you stalked them on Facebook and went back 282 weeks on Instagram, just saying. Hopefully you find this out before you sign a lease with them. If you're a freshman in college and have no choice when it comes to your roommate, may the odds be ever in your favor.

2. Meet them!

Sure, it might be a little awkward at first, but this is the person/people that you will be living with for potentially six months to a year. Choose a place that's easy for both of you to meet at, I always chose Panera. (I always choose Panera for everything though.) This will give you a chance to see if you vibe or not. Sometimes you have to just pick a person because time is running out, but if you have the chance, meeting in real definitely helps you to see what they're like. If you both live too far from each other, a Skype call or FaceTime is a good way to get to talk more personally.

3. House Rules.

Grab a pen and paper, or go crazy like Kermit, and create some house rules together. At first you may think, "This is going overboard. I'm sure they're decent people, why create a list of all the do's and don'ts? Isn't this childish?" What's "childish" is when you have petty wars less than halfway through the year because none of you ever communicated what you did and didn't tolerate together. Soon you'll be leaving your dishes out on purpose, because they never put theirs away, so then they'll decide to be extra messy, because you give them the cold shoulder every time they try to talk to you, because you think they're so disgusting.

All I'm saying is, it's easiest when you first move in, to just write up a list of house rules for things such as guests staying over, when the dishes get done, shower routines, splitting utilities, etc. Trust me, you will be glad you have on paper what you all agreed upon later when the petty wars start.

4. Charts, charts, and more charts.

I'm not saying you have to make a chart as elaborate as this, but charts are a lifesaver for chores. I'd recommend creating a trash chart and a bathroom cleaning chart, unless you each have your own bathroom. Literally just put each of your roommates names on the chart then write trash on the left and bathroom underneath that. Put a tally mark under your name when you take the trash out and when you clean the bathrooms. As much as you'd like to believe everyone will just take the trash out when it's their turn, it almost never works out like that I've found. This way you always know whose turn it is. Definitely try clean the bathroom at least every other week also, because it gets nasty when multiple people share it.

5. Communicate.

Even though y'all may never end up being best friends, talking really is important. If you don't like how something is, let your roommates know in a way where they won't feel like they need to be defensive. An example being, "Hey, I know it's only 11:30 pm but I have a huge test tomorrow and I'd really appreciate if you could try quieting down a little bit, thanks." Sure, they may feel a little peeved that you asked them to be quiet but it won't last for long, and I'm sure they'll appreciate it if you return the favor for them next time they ask you for something. Try not to just text each other all the time either, it can be hard to read emotions through text, face to face is normally the best way, if it's something important to you. House meetings are also a great thing to do every once in a while to check on how everyone feels.

Hopefully these tips will help you survive living with roommates - if not, remember it's only a year.