Two of my three roomates are moving out in January. I’m kind of bummed because I got along well with all my roomates, and by having two new people I’m worried that I’ll push my luck.
Of course, I don’t know that new roomates will necessarily be bad, but so far I haven’t encountered anyone I couldn’t stand to get along with and I’d like to keep it that way.
What kind of track record have you had with roomates? Any horror stories? Do you feel it is easier for things to sour if the roomates were people you knew previous to the move-in? (friends, SO’s, etc)
I live right next to a major Campus so I’ve had a lot of roommates over the years. I estimate about 15, more if I include all the people who stayed only a month or two. The best roommates I’ve had have been one I found online though roommate services such as Craigs List. The worst roommate I ever had I lived with for a year before accepting him as a roommate. He was dating an official roommate of mine and after she moved out, I let him take her place. Unfortunately, while he was very nice during the time he was living with us while his girlfriend was there, after she left he turned into a pothead and stole hundreds of dollars worth of stuff from me and my other roommates.
What works best is being very upfront in the beginning. Here in Orange County, I get a lot of applicants who say they want to move in but never do. I now consider the apartment open for applicants unless I have their security deposit in my hand. I also tell them no drugs, no smoking, no parties, etc. If they are shocked by the “no parties” rule, then they probably won’t be good roommates. The apartment is very small and there is no place to have parties without involving other people’s living spaces. Not to mention, that 3 of us work and go to school and can’t afford to be kept up until late at night.
I’ve not personally had any problems with moving in with friends but my friend turned current roommate has had a lot of problems. For example, she moved in with this guy she only really knew from online and he turned out to be a total slob. She should’ve payed attention to the condition of his living space rather than to what the apartment as a whole looked like, because he lived with roommates that were neatfreaks and cleaned up after him before she moved in. I have had people I considered friends back out of the apartment pretty close to when they were supposed to move in. So even if they are a friend, I still require the security deposit before I stop looking for other roommates.
Posted too soon. Anyway, I wanted to say that I meet some wonderful people through renting out to strangers off the internet. I became friends with most of my roommates over the years. Overall, I’ve had better experience with strangers than with people I previously knew but a lot of that is due to that one brick who turned into a druggie after his girl left.
I’ve really only had one crap roomate. I should’ve taken the hint when her bf dumped her after living together for less than 2 weeks! Seriously though, there were hints of her domineering manner that I brushed off during the initial vetting that I should’ve paid better attention to.
I’m moving out in December because of her and unsuprisingly the 3rd flatmate has quietly asked me if I will find a with room for her as well.
I’ve also shared hostel rooms with 3 other girls for several months but since I was the assistant manager they were mostly too intimidated to annoy me.
In my college years and first couple of years as a working person, I would estimate that I had about 25 different roommates/housemates. Some were thieving, inconsiderate nightmares or annoying and unstable. Several became lifelong friends, one of which was my wife of almost thirteen years. It’s definitely run the gamut.
I’ve had 3 roommates (well, I lived with a 4th guy, but we were actually living together, so that doesn’t really count. )
Two of them were fine - obnoxious in their own special ways, but tolerable.
The third is actually insane. As in, certifiably nuts. I mean, sucks to be her, but I sort of wish she would have got some of her mental issues sorted before moving in with me, ya know?
Anyhow - my friends are all in awe of how truly bat-shit insane this girl is, so I’m willing to bet that she’s sort of an anomaly.
I’ve had somewhere around ten. About a third were “bad”. My last roommate was bad enough that it not only ended the friendship I had with him, it also soured me on roommates in general. I’d prefer to live in a cardboard box before I had one now.
None of my experiences were bad enough to be worth posting details in this thread. Just the usual parade of misanthropes, slobs and incompatible personalities. The final one had the usual mix of slovenliness and poor social skills plus endless shouting matches with his girlfiend (and me) if I happened to be in the vicinity during a fight (which was almost always).
Ive only had two, the first a model roommate and the second a horrible inconsiderate snob. Im not going to go into detail because I don’t want to curse myself with my next roommate, but I can not wait until I get an apartment and don’t have to share a 14x16 room with another random person again.
Only ever had one. My good friend from undergrad roomed with me during our last 2 years of school.
She is still one of my best friends and I love her dearly. We probably only had 1 disagreement during the course of our roommate relationship.
BUT, I would never ever ever ever ever room with anyone again. I lived by myself for grad school and I still live alone, even though I have to pay extra to do it (can’t split utilities etc. etc.). I’m just very particular, like my own space and not having to justify to anyone why my parents are crashing with me during their mini-vacations. The big reason it worked out with my friend is that we both had pretty similar living habits and need for space. Plus, she was cool with my sister (who attended the same university) hanging out with us, my parents coming up to see us and staying at our apartment (actually she loved them), Indian food in the fridge (you would not believe how many people complain about that).
I’m no longer in a place where I can put up with the vagaries of some random person. Between my commute and work hours I have about 2 hours of free time in the day before I have to go to bed and I don’t want to spend them dealing with anyone else.
I lived with anywhere from 1-3 other roommates throughout college and half of grad school. I probably had 10-12 roommates. Most of them were okay, not great friends, but okay.
There was the heroin addict who pulled so much nasty, surreal shit that it would take days to explain it all, but she was an anomaly I think. (I hope?)
A couple of roommates and I are still friends. One lives about 2 hours away, the other across the country. We still talk alot, and it’s been better than 4 years or so since we all moved out.
Oh, my roommate always used to eat the food. My parents would bring us a ton of stuff when they came up (they’d even make her favourite fancy restaurant stuff instead of the homier food).
My sister’s roommate told my sister that Indian food made the home smell like “an immigrant apartment” and there were always huge fights in my dorm about whether or not you could keep “ethnic food” in the communal fridge because apparently the aroma permeated the walls. Eventually Chinese, Middle Eastern, Thai and Indian food was more or less banned from that fridge.
I can see the other side of the argument with not everyone enjoying the redolent scents of turmeric and fish sauce in the air, but I prefer to remove the issue from my life altogether by just not living with anyone else and their potentially spice-sensitive olfactory preferences. I guess I could live with another ethnic but I’d rather avoid everything else that goes along with having a roommate.
