How and Why to Pick a Roommate

In this article I have written the biggest problems I have found with sharing an apartment with friends of mine, after my two best friends and I decided to all move in together. Personal Space and Quiet time: When living with friends you will not have any privacy or quiet time, and the closer the friends you are the worse it will be. You may not realize it now but you are not always in the mood to be with your friends sometimes you may want to just sit in your room and relax, and if a friend called you up you could say you were busy but if you live with a friend they will be knocking on the door and bothering you all the time, and good friends will often borrow things of yours without asking you. Where as someone you found online will usually leave you alone when your door is closed except for something important. I can not begin to count how many times my roommates ate something I had been saving or went into my room to borrow my things without asking, and the worst part is when I asked them to not touch my things they took it as a insult like I don’t trust them with my things, or I am cheap for not letting them eat my food. Money: When living with a roommate you found in the news paper or on the internet, the person will be more considerate to you then a friend may be when it comes to paying the bill. A friend may ask you to pay it and they will pay you back in “just a few days”, but a stranger will not burden you with this. They will make sure they have the money to pay the bills. One of my friends would always spend his rent or bill money in online casinos playing blackjack, or in poker rooms online. I like to play some poker online just as much as anyone else but I always made sure to not gamble in an online casino with my rent money. If I was short on money I would not gamble, but I would never allow myself to not have the money to pay my share of the bills. Cleaning: When I have had roommates who were not my friends, they always made sure to clean up after themselves, but friends will leave things around because “it’s cool”, they will get to them eventually. When I have was living with a female friend of mine she insisted that I clean up any dishes or anything I used immediately, but would always leave her dishes in the sink, or things on the table for days, because she said she did not think I would minded if she left a mess, even though she would complain if I left something soaking in the sink because she did not like to see it when she came home from work. Utilities: Friends will take liberties with electrical usage that strangers usually will not take. When I lived with strangers if we ha an agreement to only use the AC for an hr before bed then they would usually stick to the agreement, but friends will break the agreement because you are friends and you will understand. My friends used to leave their Air conditionings on all day long and would often leave their rooms and even the apartment without turning them off, and instead of being more responsible for their actions they would make up excuses like "oops I forgot". By the time I eventually moved out of that apartment I was no longer on speaking terms with my former best friends and that is why I recommend that you do not ever move in or allow friends to move in with you.