(Intro)

Emma: Hey! So last week we talked about how to move back in with your parents, this week we're gonna talk about how to live with someone who did not create you. Namely, how to be or have a roommate.

Let's get started! Now a lot of the tips for living with parents also apply here. For instance, tip #1: set the rules early on. Here's a question: Who buys garbage bags? Who takes out the trash from the kitchen and the bathroom, is this on a rotating basis? Other stuff to consider: Are there smoking zones? Phone zones?

Tip #2: Have a status meeting for Our Apartment Incorporated once a month. Say, it's your roommate's designated duty to make sure the electricity bill gets paid. This is your opportunity to make sure that it's like actually getting paid. Additionally, your roommate gets the opportunity to check back in with U-R-E your designated duties.

Tip#3: Be consistent. If you'd like to keep things quieter in the evenings, maybe don't start out your roommate relationship by throwing ragers every night.

Tip #4: Be generous. Listen, people is people, and when two peoples live in a closed space there's gonna be some friction. So every once in a while, do things that aren't expected of you, for example maybe clean the bathroom for your roommate when they're having a stressful time at school or work. Now this isn't about being a pushover, it's about giving the other person a bit of the same grace that you'd like them to give to you. You'd be surprised how far changing the TP roll before it runs out can get you in this life. Golden rule, people, golden rule.

Tip #5: Likewise remember that this isn't "your apartment." it's "your and your roommate's apartment." So the living style won't conform precisely to either of your preferences. You can be firm on what's important with this caveat: "Not everything can be important."

To quote shedoesthecity.com, "move past your need to take 5 hour baths and you can bet your flatmate will find it easier to turn down the music when it's vibrating the whole house, or clean out the fridge when all the food's gone off."

Tip#6: Keep the lines of communication open. You may assume that your roommate is okay with all the late night explosions coming from your room because of your time machine experiments, but it never hurts to be suresies. It might be an awkward conversation, but here's an adulthood secret: awkwardness and vulnerability are often the price of admission to make things more Awesomeland.

Tip #7: Well what if things just don't get better? Well one of you might have to move out and although we don't offer legal counsel here at How to Adult, it pays to take a look at your lease in advance to see what would happen if one of you were to abandon ship. After all, you don't want to be on the hook if they stop paying rent, which may well be the case unless you have a written and signed agreement in advance.

And that's all we've got for you here today. If you have any roommate tips, please leave them for us in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, I am working on a catchphrase that is so mindblowingly awesome. It will be ready for you in approximately 3 to 6 months. Patent pending.

When I was in college I had a roommate. It just so happened that I got food poisoning from an on campus meal. She would always get that same meal and bring it back to our room and, like, the smell of it would make me feel really ill.

Michael: OK, so my roommate story. It was in the middle of this blizzard. I was literally snowed in my apartment and I was with this guy. I had one packet of reduced fat bologna. So we had rationed it out and finally Brendan had eaten all of his bologna and I was like "Brendan, I'm going to the bathroom. Do not eat my bologna." And as soon as I was indisposed I heard, like, scrambling for the refrigerator and I, like, darted out. He had, like, tears in his eyes as he put the last shred of bologna in his mouth. He went "I'm so sorry Mike".