Most people have them in college. But the relationship among people who spend extended amounts of time together in one space isn’t always roses. Everything is shared, the walls are very thin, and there is no backing out for a semester or two.
Speaking from experience, senior student Carrie Lacomini gave her opinion when it comes to roommate guests.
“I think since we’re all adults, we should be adult to know common courtesy of how often the guest can stay over, a proper noise level, and if your roommates are comfortable with that lifestyle.”
Uncleanliness, bad habits and a lack of common courtesy: all traits of a bad roommate.
It is important to know the guests not only to make the other roommates comfortable, but in some cases for safety issues.
All roommates in general have annoying habits because obviously not everyone is going to agree on the same lifestyle.
The most common problems for roommates are cleanliness, sex noises to the extreme, and immaturity.
For student Miranda Giddens, her first bad roommate experience happened when she was living in the freshmen dorms. After taking a shower and shaving, her roommate decided to leave all of her pubic hairs in the shower.
Disgusted, Giddens used her other roommate’s shower until it was cleaned up.
“I wrote her a letter and it backfired on me. She cussed me out and stuff,” Giddens said.
After learning from this experience, Giddens gives advice for future roommate problems.
“You just have to talk to them, don’t gang up on them. You just got to sit down one-on-one and say, ‘Hey, this is the concern I have.’ If there’s a problem address it as soon as possible.”
Sometimes the problem is not always the roommate, but who the roommate decides to bring over.
For Georgia State student Jake Dyer, his frustration came out with his roommates’ girlfriends.
“The guys that I have lived with were never the problem. The problem was with my roommates girlfriends. One roommate’s girlfriend stayed over at our place about four to five times a week,” Dyer said.
Dyer said he believes that if you are willing to spend that much time at the apartment, it is only fair to show respect towards the other roommates.
“No matter how close you are with someone, if you do not pay rent then you do not make any decisions regarding the apartment and you must respect the people who do pay to live there and do everything they say,” Dyer said.
Being a chill person, as he would describe himself, another Georgia State student, Ziheng He has only one problem when it comes to roommates and that is cleanliness.
“I am a clean person and [my roommate now] leaves dirty dishes out for too long and doesn’t clean up for a period of time.”
According to He, the dishes got so dirty to the point that there were flies.
“I believe most of problems can be avoided most of time. Just have to be courteous to each other,” said He.
Lacomini said communication is key. To her, it’s all about learning who you are and how to deal with others.
“This can be one of your fondest memory of your college years, enjoy it while it lasts. Just be courteous, the golden rule still applies in college,” Lacomini said.
