>
Article snippet: Sign up here to get the Smarter Living newsletter in your inbox every Monday morning. I’m 21, and I’ve had 33 roommates. I’ve had at least one roommate at a time, at most six, and everything in between. I’ve slept four to a room, and six to a tiny apartment. Right now, I live in one of the most spacious, least populous living arrangements I’ve ever had — my own room in a two-bedroom in Manhattan, in which I can actually fit a queen-size bed. A roommate situation can, at best, make life significantly happier, or, at worst, make going home every night a living nightmare. So as I settle into my new place with my 33rd roommate, I wanted to set myself up for success. Over the past week I have texted, emailed, called and accosted half the people I used to have morning coffee with to investigate my own past as a roommate. Some cited quirky things we laughed about, like my excessive baking and weird Eastern European remedies, but most gave me something I could work with. I compiled a few of my common mistakes so that you can try to avoid them. It’s a painfully obvious adage: Communication is key. “We never really established any type of procedure for people spending the night or using the room,” my freshman-year roommate told me when I asked her what I could’ve done better as a roommate. “We both could’ve been better communicators. I think you were too nice and lenient.” How you communicate with your roommate, and how comfortable you both are with offering and accepting ... Link to the full article to read more