For many students, shared living is a first-time experience when getting into college dorms or in any private student rental accommodation. Even though it’s a good way to socialize, some students find it hard to live with strangers.

But, regardless of your initial doubts or fears, shared living doesn’t have to be daunting. In fact, it can be the most rewarding experience for students. It’s also a great way to meet new people and find a family while you’re away from home.

So, if you want to make the most out of your college life or college housing, here are the best tips to survive shared living:

1. Choose The Right Roommates

Before you choose a housemate or roommate, determine first the perfect student housing suited for your needs. If you have a tight budget, you can check out sites like MyAmericanAve.com for affordable student housing options.

Depending on your preferred student housing units, the price per person may improve as you get more roommates. However, it’s wise to choose the right roommates. Although you can opt to live with your friends, they’re not always good roommates or housemates. This is especially true if some of your friends always borrow money from you and don’t know how to pay for their expenses properly.

If you’re having a tough time choosing your housemates or roommates, there are various things you can consider, and these include the following:

• Know the pros and cons of living with your friends.
• Be aware of the number of tenants allowed in the property.
• Determine if living with your partner is a good idea
• Choose those who have the same hobbies, interests, and courses as yours.

But, at the end of the day, it all boils down to your personal preferences and trusting your instincts when choosing your roommates.

2. Support One Another

To enjoy shared living and survive college, it’s necessary to support your roommates. For instance, if one of your roommates is sick, it’s imperative that you take care of them. Also, if your roommate is studying for exams, avoid making noise.

If you and your roommates support one another, you won’t struggle in shared living. In fact, you’ll enjoy it over time, especially if you’ve created a strong bond with them.

3. Create Rules

Late-night banging on the doors and inviting loud guests can create unnecessary friction between housemates or roommates. To avoid misunderstandings, certain rules should be framed from day one so everyone follows the rules sincerely and stays on the same page.

Some of the rules you can create may include:

• Keeping the windows and doors locked when nobody’s in the house
• Anything labeled in the fridge isn’t for communal use
• If the partner stays or moves a lot, they must contribute to the bills
• Only bring friends on weekends or when no one is home
• No noise late at night

If you want to add more rules to your shared living unit, you can ask your housemates or roommates.

4. Have A Cleaning Rota

You might find it okay to see a ball of hair clogging your shower drain, but it doesn’t mean that your roommates are fine with it. To maintain cleanliness in your student housing unit, having a cleaning rota is never a bad idea.

A rota can be a good way to divide the cleaning equally. If you ensure communal areas are cleaned every week by somebody on a rotation, it means cleanliness will be maintained. This will also let everybody know who’s slacking and doesn’t do their job well.

To ensure that everything is in order, have a list of the stuff that should be done. However, keep in mind that chores can’t be equally split exactly, and some may clean in a different manner. So, make sure to get all of your roommates or housemates involved when creating a cleaning rota to avoid misunderstandings in the long run.

5. Be Considerate

Always remember to be considerate with your roommates. If one of them has a part-time job early in the morning, don’t make a noise and let them sleep properly.

Although you can easily get carried away with socializing, you would want to ensure that you won’t upset your roommates if you don’t want to deal with more struggles in shared living.

Take note that some people aren’t comfortable when there are unknown visitors. If you want to be considerate towards your roommates, ask them before you invite visitors, so you’ll know that you won’t disturb them.  Other than that, during exam periods, be responsible and be careful to respect one another’s study time.

6. Practice Sharing

Apart from sharing the cleaning, it’s also essential that some things are shared to avoid conflicts between your roommates. The common dispute areas may include:

• Bills – You must ensure that all your student housing bills are shared fairly throughout your stay.

• Parking – If your unit has allocated parking, then share it with your roommates.

• Communal Areas – Kitchens, living rooms, and gardens must be there for everybody’s enjoyment, not for your visitors only.

• Showers – Make sure to leave some time to shower beforehand, particularly if your roommates have the same schedule as you.

• Bathrooms – If there’s one bathroom in your unit, make sure that everyone communicates when they know they’re going to be in there for more minutes.

If you don’t know the other things to share with your roommates, don’t hesitate to ask them because they might add up something important you’ve missed.

7. Be Chill

If you don’t get along with some of your roommates or they did something annoying, try to be chill at all times. Be polite and calm in airing your problems. Once you let your anger rule over you, things might get sour easily.

It’s also a good idea to weigh up whether the problem is a big deal or not. If it isn’t, you might want to let it go or have a word with your roommates calmly and politely.

8. Respect One Another’s Schedules

One of the reasons why conflicts happen in a shared living space is clashing schedules. If you don’t want to have a conflict with any of your roommates, you have to respect their schedules. Keep in touch with your roommates to agree who’ll go first in the shower. You can also create a routine to sort things out and keep things harmonious in your unit.

9. Keep The Food In Mind

Decide whether everyone will cook on their own or cook for everybody on a rota system. It’s great to get together for a meal, particularly when you’re just getting to know one another. However, if your budget is tight, you can consider preparing your meals by yourself to control your expenses.

Regardless of the things you agree on when it comes to food, decide which groceries are communal and ensure that everybody contributes when buying food. If you want to eat something that isn’t communal, ask your roommates first. 

Don’t just get their food and leave notes for them to avoid upsetting one of your roommates. In addition, asking for their permission first shows how honest you are and how you respect them.

10. Build A Relationship

You don’t need to be the best of friends with your roommates. However, you have to know that you’ll be spending a lot of time with them, so it’s good to get to know one another.

Whenever possible, grab dinner together, attend an event, chat with them, or study together. Building relationships with your roommates will help you make the most of your college dorm life. It can also make it easier for you to adjust and survive shared living and be comfortable with the new surroundings.

11. Respect One Another’s Privacy

One of the most crucial aspects of surviving shared living is privacy. Although other people are open, some may want to do their things on their own or prefer to keep their own space.

When it comes to privacy, the bedroom is an important space since it’s the place where nobody will disturb you when you’re studying or resting. That’s why it’s the space that you must always respect from your roommates.

12. Be Open And Honest When There Are Problems

Things happen and anyone can make mistakes because nobody’s perfect. Even if it’s good to be understanding when some things are iffy, never wait for too long to talk about your feelings and opinions. If somebody’s doing something upsetting or irritating over and over again, stewing over the issues will only make things worse and build resentment in the long run.

The best solution is to have a chat with your roommate and explain why you’re upset and what really happened. Work out everything together to resolve the conflicts, and by creating a space where you can have an open dialogue, you’ll make it easier to bring various things up over time.

Bottom Line

Shared living as a student has pros and cons. But, there’s nothing to worry about as the pros outweigh the cons. The only thing you should do is to find the right roommates, follow the rules, respect one another’s privacy, and be open with everything. This way, you’ll experience convenience and peace of mind, while making the most of your student life in college.