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At some point in most of our lives, we will live with another human being. While co-habitating with a romantic partner offers life lessons of its own, there is also plenty that can be learned from just having to share space platonically with another human being.
Some of these are funny while others are more poignant, but these 17 people know for sure that every life experience has something to teach you – and now they’re passing that knowledge along to you.
17. People can be gross.
Along the same vein, actual adult roommates exist which will flat out tell you they’ll clean things “when I feel like it” even though there is clear mold in the shower, the toilet hasn’t been cleaned in over a month, and they leave piss drops all over the floor.
16. There’s a learning curve.
That everyone has a different understanding of “clean” and “cleaning.”
My roommate dusted all the time, whereas dust didn’t really bother me. He also left dirty dishes everywhere, which I found disgusting, but he didn’t really mind at all.
15. People are lazy.
I learned how to cook very nice meals from scratch from having roommates. Whenever I had frozen dinners or something like that, they would steal them and eat them leaving me with nothing and would never replace them.
Buy raw ingredients instead, and they wouldn’t put out the effort to do anything with them.
14. Don’t let it pile up.
its better to have frequent small conflicts and confrontations than to let things go and pile up in your mind. like Hey, do the dishes. not you do the dishes for weeks and then now you’re genuinely mad.
I thought I was a pretty upfront person until I was faced with my very first roommate. He took food and was overall a using asshole. But at the time I didn’t have the gull. He was kinda one of those drama kings that doesn’t take critique without taking it personal. So I knew it would escalate it.
I instead simply told his wife about all the women he was cheating on her with.
13. You always need a backup plan.
If at all possible, always make sure you have a plan in case things suddenly go south.
You cannot always trust the other person to do what they are supposed to do (like pay their portion for bills)
12. Communication is key.
CLEARLY define expectations from day ONE. I wrongly assumed we would all just clean up after ourselves, like one does, and more or less split “general” duties like mowing the lawn, whole house cleaning/vacuuming, sticking around to meet repair people/landlord etc.
I started doing all that general stuff because they simply wouldn’t care. Not before long it became a big point of contention that harbored animosity and would come out at other times during any sort of little disagreement (“At least I mow the god damn lawn!”)
11. Take responsibility.
You cook for yourself, you clean it. Others want to use the kitchen too.
I’m in the military and I share a kitchen and bathroom with my roommate. This guy will use MY dishes/pots and not clean them for a month. We’ll get room inspections every now and then and I end up getting in trouble for it
10. There is no ‘normal.’
People’s normal schedules are all over the f**king place.
I barely saw my roommate for nearly a year. I worked in a factory and he worked in a restaurant.
His shift started at the same time mine ended, and it ended well after I was in bed. Then he’d be asleep when I got up again.
It was uncanny having the only sign that I still had a roommate be the stuff moving while I was at work, and the car that was there in the mornings.
9. You might not be a people person.
I hate being around people for extended periods of time and privacy is the most important thing in the world to me. Pretty sure I lost a friend because he thought I hated him after we moved in together.
I would just spend all of my time in my room avoiding him because I needed a break from socializing lol.
8. Totally wack.
A lot more people than I realized have had their parents/maids/ caretakers do almost everything for them.
I already commented this but ill say it again cause it was wack, i was roomates with my best friend.
His mom would help me do the dishes cause she knew he never did, and shed clean out the living room, which he stayed in constantly instead of going in his bedroom.
Edit just too add another thing that ticked me off, he bought a bose speaker & left the empty box sitting on the landing on the staircase, for months
I normally picked up after him too but figured that box wasn’t in the way, ill wait too see how long it takes for him too move it, sat there for a good 3-4months,
My gf at the time moved in with us, she was more clean than both of us but she left her jacket on a chair in the kitchen (which was by the front door) when he thought we were sleeping we heard him on the phone with someone, complaining that my gf was really messy.
In the morning i took the box and put it in his room, he realized we heard him & he seemed very embarrassed
Or the time HIS SISTER brought a stray pregnant cat over (It was really cute & friendly tbh) but I was expected too pay to take care of it cause I already owned a cat
7. Totally unacceptable.
Even though I clearly told him not to, my first college roommate would “borrow” my clean underwear (when he failed to do laundry) and return them dirty, especially after a date.
Lesson learned reminds me of a famous phrase from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”
6. I cannot even.
Before I married my husband his mom would come visit from out of state every few months and deep clean his entire apartment (including steaming the carpets), sort through his clothes and toss the damages ones and buy new clothes and shoes, take his dry cleaning in, toss his old food and stock his fridge with new food, etc.
The first time I saw it I thought it was sweet but then I realized later it was a weird and my husband would just wait for her visits to for her to clean and do all that stuff.
When I moved in and we got married she would fly down and still do it so I had to set boundaries with her that we are adults and she doesn’t need to do all those things.
It’s been 6 years now and we have two kids and she still struggles with coming over and taking over my house and kids but it’s getting better. I’ve been teaching my husband how to do things too but man as a mom I’m for sure making sure my kids learn to clean up after themselves and know how to cook and can just do life stuff.
5. Seems very specific.
That the roommate’s girlfriend passed out on the floor from what you assume is a heroin nod as you leave for work at 3 am may actually be a corpse.
4. We all have regrets.
Good friends do not always make good roommates.
Found the answer. I regret having to find this one out myself.
3. It won’t be fun for long.
Don’t move in with “fun” people.
2. You cannot control other people.
If you want to control how all things in the house are done (ie, cleaning) you will discourage others from helping and end up responsible for everything that needs to be done.
1. It never lasts forever.
The party house was fun while it lasted. The lack of respect for when my housemate would bring a shitload of people over without asking got old real quick.
The minors who started “just showing up” at our parties made me move out ASAP.
Yeah, I’d say all of these sound about right!
Did you learn something valuable from a roommate situation? Let us know what it was in the comments!
