For the most part having a roommate is quite awesome. There are surely many advantages of a roomie and looking at the high cost of living nowadays people choose to share their apartments with roommates. But what happens when you no longer bond well with your roommate. We all like to feel that we are going to be best buddies with our roommates but this actually never happens. It is very natural to develop some tensions while sharing space with another person. It is very common to have fights with your roommate regarding space, cleanliness, food etc. Below are the top 10 common reasons why roommates fight with each other, have a look.
10. Cleanliness.
This might be one of the major reasons why roommates fight. Keeping the house clean can be a difficult task for some people. Especially if you are one of those people who likes to keep his/her house neat and clean then you might face problems. Everyone might not feel the same urge to clean the house like you and many people end up fighting with their partners on this issue. There can be as many arguments about how and how often to clean the house.
9. Space.
The most common problems with roommates have to do with space. In the shared areas of the household, problems can arise in terms of how much space one or another roommate claims for himself/herself. Most of the people like to spread their things all over the house and leave no space for the other partner. These kinds of issues can create a lot of problems between roommates. It is important to specify from the beginning only that what rooms and spaces one will get and how much rent one should pay for it.
8. Food.
Food prices are increasing day-by-day and this becomes another common reason to fight. The food and grocery bills can be a touchy subject when it comes to sharing the bill. And even if roommates decide to separate their things then also many times food items become an issue of conflict. This mostly happens when one uses the things of the other partner without asking or without replacing it later. If you find your favorite food is eaten by your roomie you can’t help but become upset. So it’s very important to decide what food items you want and how you are going to split the bill with your partner.
7. Delay in Paying Rent.
Money can be a crucial issue especially when you are living with someone else. When it comes to where you live the first thing a person will want is to pay the rent on time. But sometimes this doesn’t happen because the person you live in with may not agree with you. Punctuality can be a problem and can cause serious tensions between roommates. Some people aren’t punctual like others and may want to delay things especially when it comes to paying the rent and other bills. Paying the rent late might also cause spending more which can shake the budget. This is very common and causes fights between roomies.
6. Partying Regular.
After a tiring day at work or college would you like to hear loud noises in your house? Certainly, you wouldn’t like it, partying till late hours might not suit everyone. While it sounds quite cool to throw parties but doing it regularly can be an issue. It mostly annoys people also with partying comes the alcohol and smoking. People are not comfortable with their roomies and their friends drinking, smoking and making noise at odd hours in their house. More than anything noise can really make people go crazy and if roommates have different schedules it can be hard to coordinate.
5. Coping with damages.
When you are staying in a rented apartment it is very common to face problems and many times goods get damaged while using. You cannot just simply ignore it and repairing things becomes your responsibility. But if your roomie disagrees to repair things or pay his share then there is no other way except fighting. Before staying with a person one must make sure that how will they handle any major damages. Though roommates have equal access to all the things present in the apartment, but sometimes one may not feel the need to repair a certain thing while other may feel the need so it becomes difficult to cope up with situations like these.
4. Keeping a pet or not.
Yes, we understand the love people have for animals but one cannot simple keep a pet in their apartment without asking their roomies. This pet problem is a major problem, while one may love to keep pets the other may not. Many people have allergies and phobias when it comes to animals. Pets can cause a huge amount of discord and one must take full responsibility if they are planning to keep pets. Roommates usually fight about who will feed the pet and clean the mess. Also if you are an animal lover you would not want anybody to behave badly with your pet and in these cases, the fight can get worse.
3. Sharing things can be problematic.
How will you feel when you get to know your favorite dress is missing from your closet? Many people do not like to share their belongings with their roommates which results in conflicts. You might not like it when your roomie uses and checks out your stuff without your consent. This is one of the major problems every roommate complains about. And even if one is using the other person’s stuff it is a basic courtesy to return them or replace them which does not happen in most of the situations. It annoys people a lot and is a frequent cause of conflicts.
2. Visitor problem.
Do you expect people coming over and crowding your place every now and then? Friends, boyfriends and girlfriends can often be an issue while staying with a roommate. It becomes difficult to share space with a third person and sometimes roommates don’t understand this and bring friends to hang out all the time. If it’s a matter of some days then people usually don’t find any fault but if this happens consistently then the situation gets out of control. And people don’t like an extra roommate every time, who don’t pay his/her share for the apartment.
1. The bathroom and the kitchen issues.
The bathroom and kitchen are the most likely to be contentious areas in any roommate situation. Constantly occupying the kitchen and bathroom usually ends up in a fight. Ignoring the bathroom schedules is possibly the worst thing a roomie can do. Many times roommates deliberately make their room partners wait for their turns in kitchen and bathrooms. Also, a lot of chaos is there when cleaning schedule is not followed properly in these two areas. One may want the kitchen and bathroom to be free from the other persons belonging while the other may not be willing to remove his junk.
Sometimes the experience of living with a roommate might not turn out as good as you thought it would be. Before choosing to stay with an altogether new person keep in mind these common reasons over which you might fight with your roomie. And make sue from the next time that the person you will be staying with is friendly, responsible and reliable. There is no guarantee that fights won’t happen but you will be able to solve them better than before.