Maximize Your Dorm Room Space

Many dorm rooms are the size of a smallish bedroom and house two people. Anything that saves space is a godsend. My college dorm room was tiny. My roommate and I capitalized our space by renting loft attachments for our beds; in the space we had created beneath we had our TV, mini-fridge and some beanbag chairs. It was like an additional extra room, small but it felt like a unique space. Use your imagination. If you make the most of your space it will remove some of the stress you and your roommate are exposed to sharing such a tiny living space.

Winning Over A Four Legged Thing

Some roommates come with pets. Sometimes their pets wont like you right off the bat. Even if you don't really care for roommate animal, it can be a bit creepy and sometimes dangerous to share a dwelling with a creature that actively dislikes you. The easiest way to get most pets to like you is to get them to associate you with treats. Talk to your roommate and figure out the best way for you to get into a treat giving routine. I happen to come with a cat, an extremely fluffy gray thing. When I moved in with my husband, my cat clearly didn't like him and my husband wasn't particularly fond of cats. We live in an old house and occasionally get a mouse. The day the cat ran into the living room with a mouse in its mouth was that day my husband decided he liked the cat, because now the cat had a purpose. But the cat still didn't like him. It wasn't until he started giving the cat occasional treats that the cat liked him. It was a night and day difference. One day the cat hated him and the next they were buddies.

Coping With Piles Of Clothes

I've had many a roommate who had the nasty habit of leaving piles of dirty clothing about. Over time this can get a bit funky. A polite quiet way that might remedy this comes in the form of a present. Do some shopping around and seek out a hamper that reflects your roommate's style. There is a huge selection out there and most are relatively inexpensive. Present it to them with the line, "I saw this and it made me think of you." If you've hit their style, they will be flattered and possibly excited to use their gift.

Sink From Hell

If your roommate, or you, has let the kitchen sink get wicked nasty, and I mean dishes, pots, pans, rotting food, it can be horrible experience cleaning it up. Once, after being out of town for two weeks, I returned to a sink full of nastiness. The remnants of numerous meals floated in murky funky water amongst half submerged dishes, pans and glasses. (Awwwww. Wasn't that sweet? My roommate decided to soak the dishes.) The stench was unbearable. Other than beans and rice, I couldn't identify any of the meals my roommate had prepared in my absence. I just wanted that funk gone as fast as possible. I gloved up and stacked all the dishes, cookware and cutlery into the dish drying rack and took it outside. I took it to a garden hose behind the building and laid out all the dishes on the ground and then sprayed out the now befouled drying rack. I then picked up each item, sprayed it down and stacked it back in the drying rack. After that, it was time to attack the sink. Had I a garbage disposal at the time, it would have been easy, but alas. So I triple bagged some plastic grocery bags, scooped out the nasty and then tied the bag up and threw it out. After I got it down to reasonable level, I kept spraying down the sink and emptying the drain trap. With things back to sane levels, I brought the dishes back in and did a normal wash-rinse-dry routine. It actually took much less time than I thought it would and the evil was gone.

Beware The Sob Story

This is a tale not so much about a roommate, but of a house guest my roommate and I had to endure. It was towards the end of my sophomore year of college and a friend of ours came to us with a sob story about having to move out of her dorm room because she was being stalked by her violent ex-boyfriend. She was scared and needed a place to stay for the last month of the term. As we lived off campus, it was ideal as the ex-boyfriend did not have a car nor did he know where we lived. If we let her move her stuff in and crash on the couch, she promised to pay part of the rent and her split of the utilities. She gave us $100 goodwill money and moved in. Things went along just fine for about two weeks, we had no reason to doubt that she was hiding from someone as she was amazingly careful about her comings and goings. Then my roommate and I came home to find our house guest romantically entwined on the couch with her supposed ex-boyfriend. After he left we had a few questions.
"Oh, it was all a misunderstanding. We're back together now."
"So..... you'll be moving back to your dorm room?"
"Oh no."
"No?"
"No, I'm failing out and no matter how good I do on my finals, it wont help. My brother is coming this weekend to help me move back home."
"'kay."
This sudden turn seemed a bit shady but as long as she was leaving, what did I care? My roommate and I were both going home for the weekend, getting a jump on cramming with fewer distractions. When we left Friday evening, our soon to be departing house guest was preparing a spaghetti dinner for her soon to be arriving brother.
When we returned Sunday evening she was gone as promised, her key left on the kitchen counter. But, oddly, about half her stuff was still there. The dishes she used to make a spaghetti dinner were rinsed but not washed, the plates stacked on top of the pasta bowl in the sink. This didn't break any house rules however, it was agreed upon that if you didn't wash a dish right away, that was ok as long as you rinsed it. Cluttered was ok, filthy was not. Any mysteries were soon out of our minds with impending finals.
We studied like mad, slept very little and survived on caffeine and carry-out for the next two weeks. When the final exam was done, we met up with our circle of friends at a local greasy spoon for celebration, fried food and gossip. Everyone had a small piece of the puzzle and we soon put it together. Apparently, our dear house guest had misled us on a few accounts. We would have discovered the truth sooner if it wasn't for the frantic mostly solo activities that take place during exam time. To begin with, she wasn't fleeing a stalking ex-boyfriend, she had been kicked out of her dorm because of drug possession. And she was hiding from someone though it was not her "ex-boyfriend". She had been in trouble with the local police, also drug related, and had given the police much information about one of the biggest local drug dealers to escape any charges herself. OK.
We had been been lied to, but on the lighter side she was gone and a scary drug dealer didn't show up to curb us. A week later her scary rich lawyer daddy showed up for the rest of her possessions. Not that he moved the stuff himself, he brought helpers for that. He was just there to make sure there was no trouble. He looked at us as we were dangerous criminals instead of arts students whose worst crimes were library fines. It was pretty creepy. At the time, I was too naive to realize that whatever bullshit she had fed us to make us sympathetic to her was nothing compared to what she fed to daddy dear. The only possessions of hers they left behind were her school books. Interesting.
We had two more unpleasant discoveries to make. She had run up $250 on our phone bill talking to the Psychic Network and those nicely rinsed dishes sitting atop the pasta bowl covered a nasty secret.
Exams were over and we begin straitening up and cleaning the apartment. I got around to washing the pre-rinsed dishes in the sink. She had rinsed the plates, but she had not emptied the pasta bowl somewhat sealed beneath them. Rotting meat sauce! Oh joy!
Beware the sob story!

Be Careful With Your Name

Unless you live someplace where the utilities are included in the rent, the utilities will have to be put into someone's name. It's ok to put one or all of them in your name as long as you are personally responsible for making sure those bills are paid in a timely manner. When bills are paid late, that looks bad on your credit report. Don't assume your roommate is as aware of this as you are. I once had a roommate spend our combined gas bill money on a video game that just came out. When I confronted him, he said, "Oh, it's ok. I get paid in a week and half, I'll pay the whole thing then. It will only be two weeks late." Sure, no big deal to him, but the gas was in my name and therefore late payments reflected on my credit. I know it sounds vicious, but you should never trust anyone where your credit is concerned. What seems to work out for the best is to split the utilities between your names, for example, I'd have gas and cable in my name and my roommate would have electric and phone in their name. When rent came due we would compare bills and work out who had paid how much and balance it out in how much each of us paid in rent.

Trashcan Blues

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised. A roommate of mine had trashcan issues. Apparently he was adverse to trash bags. He had no problem emptying the trash when it was full, but once he took the old bag out, he wouldn't put a new liner in the can, even when I started keeping the bags directly over the trashcan. Then, he would just start pitching trash right into the trashcan sans the bag. Here is nasty little secret, once a trashcan is used without a liner, especially the kitchen trashcan, it will never be the same. No amount of hosing it out that will ever returning it to it's original condition. I know that bags occasionally leak, but that is nothing compared to all out freaky nastiness of a trashcan that's had an apple rooting in the corner of it. No amount of teasing him about it or, later, all out nagging him about it would make him change his way. Eventually I forbid him from taking out the trash, weirdly that didn't work. So, I bought a new trashcan and got the jump on him by taking out the trash whenever it was more than 2/3 full.

Do Not Give Up The Couch

I once had a roommate who decided he liked the couch better than his own bed. It started only once or twice a week and I turned a blind eye. I figured what's the harm if he occationaly falls asleep on the couch. Then it became a little more frequent. He moved his pillow and blanket permenently to the end of the couch and would only sleep in his room if I beat him home and had friends with me, and only then if we showed no signs of breaking things up anytime soon. I didn't entertain often so he would go for weeks, sometimes months without sleeping in his room. And worse, as couch cusions don't get laundered as often or as well as sheets, the couch developed a funk that took over the livingroom. It was his couch, but I was paying half the rent, he was not entitled to take over the livingroom. I tried to stay friendly but whenever I brought it up he would just state that it was far more comfortable than he bed and change the subject. If I had a long hard day and got in late, I couldn't veg out in front of the TV or play video games. If I wanted to bring friends over, I had to make sure it was before he became firmly entrenched on the couch. If I got up before him, which was the norm, I was pretty much limited to the kitchen or my bedroom. Eventually it became an uncomfortable topic between us. Don't let your roommate take over the livingroom. If it becomes a regular thing, put your foot down. There are times to compromise and times to stand your ground. This is a time to stand your ground. If they wont give up the couch, don't avoid the livingroom and don't bother being quiet. By the time we parted company, he had turned his bedroom into a closet.