So, now you are living in an off campus apartment with the roommate everyone dreads – they are dirty, they use your stuff, and they are up all night talking or doing only God knows what. The good news, there are several ways you can deal with the situation. Some are positive and others are negative. Choose wisely.
Talk About It
If you cannot move to another room, speak with your roommate. It is wise to get things in the open, rather than bottling them up. Ideally, talk about the difficulties you are encountering under the current living arrangement without passing the blame to him or her, and then give them a chance to air their grievances too.
For instance, say something like, “I feel bad when our dishes are left in the sink for 2 days. Can we brainstorm and come up with a routine on washing them?” Such a statement helps by pointing out a bad issue and at the same time allowing you to own the feeling without accusing anyone. Discussing your problems amongst yourself improves your off campus living experience positively and allows you both to be honest to each other. In the long run, it might not only make you feel better living in your together, but it might ultimately make you life-long friends.
A few tips to note:
➢ If you note the talk is about to turn into a sort of a blowout in a back alley, cut it out and explore other options.
➢ If your roommate agrees to the plan but does not put it into action, a weekly reminder may be all they need.
Make Them Your Friend
By sharing fun time together, you can improve the atmosphere in your off campus rental and cement your bond further. Share your interests with him or her and after figuring out what interests them, find common ground and do something together. Why not go and watch a film together if you both like the same types of movies? Regardless of how you spend the time, it will improve the environment with your bad roommate.
Set Ground Rules
Setting boundaries makes a bad roommate bearable. Agree on issues such as setting up personal space in the room, being considerate about noise, how you will share food, and more. Also, give your roommate a chance to talk about some things that you do that make them feel out of home. Setting ground rules makes it easier to know what to expect and what not to expect from each other. After coming up with the rules, sign a commitment, not to cross them. Well, you might not sign but you need to promise to keep them. It is a popular strategy among off campus student housing and one that works.
Well, these are the tips we have prepared for you in this post. We encourage you to start a search for off campus student housing using our site. We also invite you to share this post via social media.
Comment with some examples of how you have handled roommate conflict & connect with us on your favorite social media channel!
