When Sharing a Gainesville, Florida Apartment, Choose Your Roommate Carefully

Living with another person is one of the hardest situations you will face in life. Even when you live with people you love, at least one person in the home is going to be unhappy with someone else under the same roof. Unfortunately, humans have a knack for getting under each other’s skin, and these frustrations may be amplified when they are confined inside a house or apartment.

It only follows, therefore, that sharing your Gainesville, Florida apartment with a roommate (or roommates) could lead to some annoying situations. To create the most livable situation possible for both you and your roommate, it helps to clear the air and set up some guidelines before you agree to move in together.

For example, the following are some issues you should discuss with potential roommates:

1. How are you with paying the bills? Some people are great at personal budgeting; others are not. The best case scenario would be to hook up with a roommate who pays their bills on time, every time. Money problems have spoiled the best of marriages, so you can bet that a roommate who does not pay the bills will create huge problems for everyone in the apartment. Make sure everyone understands that bills must be paid in a timely manner.
2. How are you with settling conflicts? As mentioned previously, people who live in the same apartment are bound to disagree. Roommates need to know how to handle disagreements calmly and maturely. Everyone in your apartment should have the interpersonal skills required to bring up a subject and discuss it without hurting feelings or holding grudges.
3. What is your schedule like? Nothing makes a person quite as grumpy as being awoken in the middle of the night by a partying roommate. It is imperative for roommates to discuss their sleeping schedules and be honest about their tolerances for noise, visitors, music, TV, etc.
4. Do you clean up after yourself? Another top quarrel among roommates is their opinion of what is clean and what is not. After all, no one wants to maneuver around someone else’s sink full of dirty dishes or gobs of toothpaste on the bathroom vanity. These nitty-gritty issues should be discussed in detail.
5. Do you have a lot of visitors? Some people are perfectly comfortable with strangers marching in and out of their apartment, while others are more private. Whether you will be inviting friends or family members over, you should ask your potential roommate how he or she honestly feels about visitors.
6. How do you feel about pets? If you own pets, you will want a roommate who likes animals and will be okay with your pet. If your roommate has pets, ask yourself how you will feel if your roommate needs you to take the pet on a walk, feed it, or clean up after it. Remember that a roommate’s pet eventually becomes everyone’s pet.
7. Have you ever had a roommate before? Talk with your potential roommates about their past roomie experiences. This will tell you a lot about what type of roommate this person will be.

Another important factor in your roommate interviews is selecting someone you feel comfortable with. If you feel uneasy or unsure during your first interview, there is a good chance that this roommate is not for you.

In the same way that you were careful in choosing your Gainesville, Florida apartment, you must be doubly careful in choosing a roommate. Once you have decided upon a roommate, work with him or her to draw up a written and signed agreement about the living issues most important to both of you. This will give you and your new roommate some solid guidelines to ensure a better living experience for everyone involved.