Good advice when you don't know your new roommate

Many are moving in together and becoming roommates without knowing each other beforehand. It can be hard and intimidating living together but not knowing each other as you don't know the other person's habits and rutines. Here are 5 pieces of advice you can use to quickly get a good roommate-life running.

Match expectations
It is important that, as soon as you have moved in together, you sit down and have a talk about your expectations about living together. Do you have the idea about how and how often to clean, how to take care of things, how to clean up in the kitchen etc. The more you talk about all this and how you look at the life as roommates, the better and more functional everyday life you'll get together.
If you know it means a lot to your roommate that the dishes are taken every night, invest the 5 minutes it takes to clean up before going to bed and then you'll have a happy roommate

Agree on the use of common areas
Make sure to also have a clear agreement on how to go about the common areas in your home. If you from the start have made these agreements and both know how often you clean etc. you can prevent many conflicts and annoyance that things are not done as you want them to be.

Spend time together
Get to know each other by spending some time together. You can go to Tivoli, go out eating or something else. You don't have to spend all 24 hours a day together. As long as you in the start prioritise spending some time together, you can come far. You don't necessarily have to go out to do something, you can also stay at home and watch a movie or have some good wine. The most important is just that you get to know each other.

Talk to each other
If you at any point in time thinks that your roommate does anything wrong that annoys you or does not respect your agreements, talk to your roommate about it instead of hoping and waiting for it to stop or change. It is the only good way to keep a good roommate relationship!

Compromise
Whether you want it or not you share a home with someone else. Therefore, you can't decide everything on your own. It is just like a relationship. In order to make it work, you have to make compromises from time to time.

I hope that this advice can help you and your roommate establish a good relationship. Feel free to write me on [[email protected]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#34474144445b464074525d5a50465b5b59595540511a505f) for comments or questions.

Updated on: 31/01/2020