Tag: roommate

10 Tips for a Pleasant Roommate Experience

Living with people takes skill and patience. It’s one of those things everyone should do at least once to learn life lessons that may not be learned otherwise. You’ll form life long bonds (or disdain) for the people you room with. Sadly, there isn’t a magical silver bullet to a successful roommate relationship. It’s one of those things that take time, effort and lots of work.

To avoid uncomfortable situations while sharing living space with someone, use these 10 tips to make your living experience easier to manage.

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Don’t Forget! Enter our Halloween Roommate Horror Story Contest

Don’t forget to send in your roommate horror story submission for our Halloween contest to ask@splitwise.com.

We’ve got some amazing submissions so far, but we want more! Do you think your horrible roommate experience can top the competition? The horror story can encompass anything involving roommates: money, personal hygiene, bad habits, theft, ect.

Get your submissions in before October 25th to qualify for our contest.

The Multi-Purpose Home

Today in Dear Splitwise, we talk about a unique housing situation in which one occupant makes considerably more than the other, and how rent should be handled when in that situation.

Dear Splitwise,

I have been utterly in love with a specific home design for nearly half of my life. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that this particular home is far bigger (and more expensive) than I could manage all by myself. Then an idea struck me- why not make it a two family home?! My best friend and I see eye to eye on just about everything from chore duties to child rearing, every core value that makes or breaks cohabitation.

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Splitwise Halloween Contest: A Quest for the Best Roommate Horror Story

Have you ever lived with someone so terrible that you couldn’t ever forget the horror that ensued? I sure have, and I’m sure many of you have too. Here at Splitwise we get some pretty good stories about the insanity that goes on behind closed doors, and it gave us a great idea. Since Halloween is coming up, we wanted to have a contest of who has had the most horrific roommate experience.

Now obviously this isn’t a Postsecret situation, and I don’t want any stories that cross the line of legality too much. It can be about anything: money, personal hygiene, bad habits, theft, ect.

Send me an email at ask@splitwise.com with your tale of woe about that insane roommate situation you’ve lived through. I’ll post the top 3 on October 30th, anonymity is completely up to you.

Living With the Same Sex – Is It Even Possible?

I read a wonderful blog post from Lisa DeCanio last week on why she couldn’t live with a co-ed roommate. It got me thinking about my past living situations, and I realized that I’ve never actually had a successful female roommate experience yet. They’ve all started off well enough, but usually ended up with someone setting the other persons worldly possessions on fire or a fist fight.

Is it me? Am I that much of a nightmare to live with that I should just live alone? (Hint: most likely) I’ve lived with plenty of men, and none of those situations ended with a police escort on moving out day. It must be something about my personal tastes clashing with the same sex.

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Shelling Out for Dish Duty

Ever have one of those roommates that just can’t seem to ever do their share when it comes to chores around the house? Today we discuss that person who don’t get the importance of cleaning up after themselves while leaving appliances on 24/7.

Dear Splitwise,

I think maybe you guys should make a calculator for roommates who leave appliances on. Sorry, but I’m not paying for you to leave 2 fans and a scentsy on all day. Maybe even one for doing all your dishes all the time since you love to cook and use every dish in the house. There are flies and I’m not waiting for you to do them. Charge them.

Drowning in Dishes

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Latrines’ Galore

Today we’re talking about some sweet unconventional housing, hardwood floors, and figuring out how much rent each housemate should pay.

Dear Splitwise,

I am trying to arbitrate a living situation for my daughter and want to share some Outhouses Galorethoughts. Your “Splitwise” rent calculator is ingenious! However it may not work as well with unconventional housing. One thing missing from the calculation is the number of bathrooms. This is a drawback as a typical 4 bedroom house might have only two bathrooms so the MBR rent would be much higher due to the exclusive use of the MBR bath. All other tenants and house guests would use the single remaining bath… much less desirable.

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Saving the World, One Microwave at a Time

In today’s Dear Splitwise, we consider the troubles of a super-intense treehugger who lives off-campus with his roommates (and their girlfriends).

Dear Splitwise,Unplug that Microwave!

I live in an student-style apartment with 3 roommates, and we all have separate leases. The only thing not separate is the electricity, and there are a couple issues splitting it based on usage and our guests. Also, I’m an environmentalist, and every month, they hand me a $180 electric bill and asking me to pay for a third of it. To me, this is like saying, “Hey I need you to give me some of your money for something I need that you will not be using that will cause your friends to die, can I get that on the 20th?”

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Fridge Overlord

Shelf OverlordDear Splitwise returns this week to settle the issue of shelf space in a fridge that is owned by a roommate. This is common in places like Europe, where household appliances being included with a rental isn’t necessarily the norm.

Hi Splitwise,

I live with three other people in a four-bedroom share house. One of my housemates owns a 400L fridge. She uses between 40-60% of the fridge space, depending on how much food she has at the time. She also claims sole use of the largest and most convenient shelf (there are only three shelves, so no-one else can have their own shelf) and says that this is fair because it is her fridge. If we wanted to have unfettered fridge access, then we should supply our own fridge.

The problem with this – aside from the logistical issues with placing multiple fridges in an average-sized, inner-suburban house – is that the kitchen of a shared house is shared space. We all rent that space. If a housemate wants to carve out a fridge empire or own other large ungainly objects that others can’t freely use, they should do so in their bedroom and leave the common areas to be used equally by all housemates.

What do you think?

Yours Truly,
Shelfless

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