Friends or Strangers: The Roommate Question

By: Max Bindenal

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.

When I lived with my best friends they were constantly eating my things, and when I said something to them their reply was well it has been in the fridge for a day or 2 so I did not know you wanted it, because apparently I always buy groceries that I do not want to eat, and god forbid you lock your door so your roommates cant go onto your room because it is an insult that you don’t trust them to stay out of your room.

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 gamble in the casinos and especially the online casinos because it was easier then driving to the nearest land based casino, and sometimes he would spend all his money playing in the poker rooms or the Blackjack or Roulette table, and come the end of the month when the bills were due he would have to ask me to cover him.

Chores:
When sharing a place to live it is usually best to divide the chores around the house such as cleaning the bathroom and taking out the garbage. This is another example of something a stranger will stick to more then a friend will, sure a stranger from time to time may have something come up and they did not clean the shower on the ay he was supposed to, but he will usually let you know that he will do it the next day or as soon as he can. Friends will put things off with no explanations at all.

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.

When I have lived with friends I would constantly come home and find my roommates using the dryer even though we agreed only 1 usage a week per roommate, and the worst was how often I would come home to find the AC on in one of the bedrooms and no one is even home. This is a very common way for friends to take advantage of one another.

These are just some of the many reasons you should avoid living with friends, especially if you want to keep them as friends. It is one thing if a friend needs a place to stay for a week or two but never ever let them move in.

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Writing reviews for Online Casinos is what Max Bindenal does for a living, but Mobile Gambling on his cell phone is his hobby.

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