millennialgeneration

Advantages: 

Before I expand on how to choose a new roommate and how to live with your current house companion, I might point out those things that a roommate can bring to your lovely home.  First, is, of course, the practical:  safety and stuff.  In many of today’s cities, the crime rate is high and rising, though it has fallen overall in 2007.[1] A roommate provides someone to monitor your whereabouts or help with any kind of an emergency.  It may sound absurd, but a roommate can be the person who notifies the authorities if you are missing or helps you deal with a burglary, a car theft, or simply a leak in the plumbing.  A roommate can also bring you a lot of great stuff.  This may sound awful, but both of you can spend less if you don’t overlap too much with stuff that you share:  dishes, electronics, furniture, and, my favorite, kitchen implements.  My sister’s favorite trait of a past crazy roommate was, fortunately or unfortunately, her DVD collection.

“I moved into the apartment with a bed, a miniature blue arm chair, and six books.  Among other advantages to my past roommate, she provided every other furnishing.  While I was uncomfortably aware of the power dynamic that accompanied the split of possessions it was wonderful to live in a fully furnished apartment,” says Kate Reese, a running shoe store sales associate from Philadelphia.

Secondly, roommates can bring more intangible things to your living situation such as a sense of community and an expansion of your own comfort zone.  As one of my friends reminded me, we millennials are often misunderstood by older and younger generations. Assuming that we live with people close to our age, it can be great to share work and personal triumphs and frustrations. Though we often feel we are alone in our search for who we are, roommates can remind us that almost everybody in his or her twenties experiences a Who am I? and What am I doing? crisis.  More importantly, a roommate can make you question the lifestyle that you have so firmly grasped and expand your perspective and friend circle. In a past roommate situation, I thought that my roommates and I wouldn’t get along because of our completely different interests and friends.  As it happened, I met a lot of great people through them, and we threw one of the best parties I’ve ever attended through combining our three formerly separate friend groups.  

 Whether you immediately recognize the advantage to living with someone or not, there are ways of dealing with non-ideal roommate situations. Read on so that those experienced in the roommate trade and I may give you a piece of advice you’d never considered before. I sent an email to my friends, colleagues, and my colleague’s friends to ask them what they look for, what works and what most annoys them about a roommate.

[1] “Crime in the United States:  Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report.” For Release 9 June 2008.  http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/2007prelim/.

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