You’ve likely heard all of the horror stories and now it is time for you to discover what roommate living is like on your own. It is natural to be a bit apprehensive, but if roommate living was really all that bad, there wouldn’t be millions of people doing it right this very moment in apartments. There are some important things you want to keep in mind if you want to maximize the positives of roommate living, however, and some things you want to avoid.

Positive roommate living is all about communication, respect and privacy. If you can handle those three things, you will be fine. Difficulties come from other first time roommates who have never been in a living situation where they had to think about anyone other than themselves before. Sometimes people who come from only-child households can be completely and utterly devoid of the ability to think of others needs when they have only had to think of their own for their entire lifetimes. Hopefully, this won’t happen to you.

Another important aspect of living with a roommate is dispute resolutions. No matter how well you get along, problems will happen and it is how you handle those problems that will determine how happy your stay will be with your roommate. If you run into a problem that you can’t solve, ask for outside help. The only failure you’ll experience is if you give up and there is no way to tell if a similar problem won’t crop up with another roommate.

One of the biggest challenges that any pair of roommates face is learning to share properly. Each roommate should have their own private bedroom space and sometimes their own bathroom, but everything else is up for grabs and the minor battles can sometimes turn ugly. One of those battles is over parking spaces. Although more and more people are turning to public transit thanks to absurdly high gas prices, most American cities still require a car to get from point A to point B and if your building or apartment complexes is short on spaces, that battle can be one that ruins an otherwise healthy roommate partnership. Here are a few tips to keep in mind if this battle sounds familiar.

Most roommates look at the parking space battle in terms of seniority. Whoever has been in the apartment longer gets the better parking space, or in some cases, the only parking space. However, if this is the case, that perk should be reflected in the amount of rent that is paid by both parties.

If both roommates move into an apartment at the same time, than parking accommodations should be a settled topic before either of you move in. If one person gets the parking space over the other, concessions should be made to compensate for that so that both parties agree. If there is only one space, both parties can also take turns so that one roommate can use it one month and the other roommate can use it another month.

It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of living with a roommate in apartment with a different sexual orientation seemed outrageous to most people. Today, it is something many men and women would do without even thinking twice. When you think about it, there really isn’t anything different about having a roommate with a different sexual orientation than having a roommate of the opposite sex. You simply extend the same degree of privacy, respect and politeness as you would with any roommate. Here are a few other important things to keep in mind.

Since human emotions are, by definition, illogical, there is always a chance that one roommate could develop feelings for the other, which would obviously be a problem since the other roommate wouldn’t share those feelings. If this problem arises, you can choose to keep quiet about it, which is probably the best course of action, or simply try to end the roommate agreement. If you do try to stay together, both parties should remember that they are both adults and that a crush really shouldn’t change any essential privacy rules that were present previously.

Just like how roommates with the same sexual orientation would respect each others requests for use of common rooms should one of you want to entertain, the same level of respect should be honored for roommates with different sexual orientations. If the idea bothers you, than you probably shouldn’t have a roommate with a different sexual orientation than you do.

We all have different ways in which we pick the roommate we are going to live with. Some of us meet someone through friends or we may find someone through an online community that we feel comfortable moving in apartment. Regardless of how you pick your roommate, there are a few basic things we all look for and one of them is that their personality matches yours. The Odd Couple may have been a funny movie and TV show, but in real life, living with a party animal when you aren’t one, can be a nerve racking experience. Here are a few things you can do.

First off, remember that you have just as much right to live there as your roommate does. You can set rules and make requests just like your roommate can, and you have the right to live in a comfortable, quiet environment. Ask your roommate to either cut down on the number of parties they throw, or, better yet, have your roommate find a new place to party, such as at a friends house or in a bar or club. If your roommate is worth keeping, he or she will understand your concerns and honor them without question.

If the problems continue, you are left with two choices. Have another talk, hoping that you simply didn’t make yourself clear the first time, or start the moving out process. It simply could be that you’ve moved in with someone who isn’t at the same stage of their life as you are and they may not be ready to settle down and take life seriously yet. If you are looking for a roommate online, make sure you specify in your ad what kind of roommate you are looking for. Compatibility is the key to having a successful roommate relationship.

A recent study of married couples showed that the biggest source of tension and fights isn’t money or sex, it is how household chores are divided. House work is a necessary job that can be back breaking, and since it doesn’t pay anything, it can be some of the least rewarding work we do on a regular basis. If you have found yourself in a situation where one person is making most of the messes and the other person is doing most of the cleaning, it can lead to serious problems. Here are a few things you can do to help divide up the chores more evenly.

When the two of you first move in together, you should set ground rules that cover things like chores. Each person should obviously be responsible for their own bedroom and bathroom, so the only areas you should have to divide up are the common areas. Most people have chores that they enjoy doing, or at the very least ones that they don’t mind doing, and ones that they can’t stand, so see if you can divide up the chores on that basis. If that doesn’t work, try taking turns. Have one person vacuum one time and then have your roommate vacuum the next time. The only problem here is that turns can get skipped, missed or each roommate can think they were the most recent person to do it and that can lead to fights.

It may sound juvenile, but if you are having problems dividing up chores, you might need to make a chart and put it on the refrigerator door. It may bring back memories of when you were a kid, but keeping track of chores so that turns are indisputable can be a great way to avoid conflict in the future.

While there are known problems with the idea of rooming with your best friend, it is a common desire to have similar interests with your roommate so that living together is more fun than formal. Of course, bonding can be taken a bit too far at times so that lines of respect and privacy are unknowingly violated. Here are a few safe roommate bonding tips that can turn strangers into friends in no time flat.

Chances are, when you were searching for your roommate, you intentionally sought out someone you would have a few things in common with. It is those similar interests that are the root of your future bonding experience. It could be a concert that you both attend or a sporting event you watch together on television. Make your bonding experience a date that you can plan out. If you’re going out, you can have a bite to eat on the way, or if you’re staying home, you can order pizza and split the cost. The key to the bonding experience is the experience itself. Make it a memorable one and you and your roomie will be fast friends in no time.

If you and your roommate have moved into a brand new space and you have similar decorating taste, you can decorate the common areas together as a bonding experience, as well. Be careful with this one, however, as a decorating debate can often turn ugly and sour a roommate relationship before it has a chance to get off the ground.

If you could trace the history of all roommate conflicts, a good number of them would begin with housekeeping duties. The same goes for a marriage or any other kind of relationship: sharing housework is vitally important. This can be exasperated by living with someone in the apartment,who you think is a “slob.” Here are a few helpful tips that can make housework with a roommate a bit easier to take.

Set rules

You should each have a list of things that the other person “must do.” Such examples can be doing the dishes within an hour of eating or never leaving dirty laundry strewn throughout the house. Don’t get carried away, though. Having too many of these rules can make the other person feel like they are living in a prison. Settle on a reasonable number and enforce them.

Take turns

Sometimes, turn taking works for roommates, and other times it doesn’t. If you both have a reasonable expectation of how clean your apartment should be, than taking turns works. If you don’t, it won’t. Things can also get out of whack if one person is messier than the other by a wide margin or if one person has a cat that requires a lot of care and the other doesn’t. It may turn out that one person does all of the vacuuming and that’s fine as long as it doesn’t cause any kind of issue.

Talk

This is the big problem, especially for male roommates. Talking about problems that crop up can be difficult since men aren’t really supposed to talk about how they feel ever. However, if you want this relationship to work, and it is a relationship, you have to talk about things that are making you mad. Don’t do it in a caddy, snippy way, either. That will only sabotage the relationship and lead to one of you moving out.