Life With A Messy Roommate

(Image courtesy of juicyrai)

We all are comfortable in our homes in different ways. Some people find peace when they keep their possessions organized and clean, and others are more comfortable living in a more chaotic fashion. When you live with a roommate it can sometimes be a challenge to mesh these differing views on organization.

Though, everyone’s style is different it is not impossible to reconcile these differences and live together comfortably.This article from renters.apartments.com has some good tips to navigate your way through the roommate minefield. Keep reading to learn how to diffuse a difficult situation:

Make Sure You Each Have Some Personal Space

The most obvious way to ensure that you each have some personal space is by having separate bedrooms. Decide that each of you will be responsible for cleaning your own bedroom. Your messy roommate can then keep that one area of your apartment as messy as he/she wants, and you can be as tidy as you want.

Establish Ground Rules for Common Living Spaces

If you’re going to get along with your roommate, one of the first things you need to do together is establish ground rules for common living areas. It isn’t fair of your messy roommate to turn the kitchen into a disaster area so that you can’t find a clean plate or cup, and there isn’t an inch of clean work space so that you can make a sandwich.

Decide from the get-go that you’re each going to clean up after yourselves, or create a kitchen cleaning plan so that you clean up on alternating days. If you intend to eat your meals together, you might want to decide that when one of you cooks, the other does the clean up.

Create Storage Areas Throughout the Apartment

No matter where you live, how big your apartment is, or how much you’re paying for rent, there is probably a serious lack of usable storage space. If you don’t want to see shoes piled up everywhere when you walk into the apartment, put a bench and shoe shelf as close to the door as possible. That way, people can sit down, remove their shoes and put them on the shelf.

Anytime you subscribe to a magazine or ask to receive catalogs from different companies, you are opening up the possibility that paper clutter will accumulate very quickly in the apartment. Put baskets in a space close to the apartment entry so that garbage can be thrown into one, and things you need to look over and sort through can be thrown into the other.

If you don’t have a coat closet at the entry to the apartment, you might want to consider purchasing a coat rack, or some sort of hook system for the wall that will allow you and your roommate to hang your coat up as soon as your walk into the apartment. This will make it easy for both of you to hang up your coats as soon as you walk in the door.

Decide on Laundry Arrangements in Advance

If you have laundry in your apartment, you should each have a sorting system for sorting your laundry. You should also clarify your expectations about leaving stuff around. Since you have to share appliances, you should both remove your clothing from the washer or dryer when it’s done. Help your messy roommate get into the habit of cleaning the lint trap after using the dryer, and decide in advance whether you’re going to share laundry supplies or buy your own.
Be as clear as possible about your expectations of one another before moving in together. If necessary, put things in writing. A mutual understanding of what you expect from one another will prevent many potential fights that would otherwise be inevitable when a neat freak tries to live with a messy person – kind of like Felix and Oscar from The Odd Couple.