Roommates

What’s tougher – living with someone messy or someone noisy?

Another weird choice.

“Go ahead and make a colossal mess, but please be quiet while you’re doing it!” or

“I don’t care how much noise you make practicing your drums all night, as long as you’re neat and tidy and don’t leave them lying around where I can trip over them!”

There’s no such thing as a perfect roommate. Something a roommate does or says or believes is going to bug you sooner or later. Best to take a deep breath and stock up on tolerance before you move in with someone.

When I went to university I rented a room in a house where two other students also lived – one in the room next to mine and the other in a basement suite. We all had kitchen privileges and we all vacated the premises on most weekends. The couple who rented to us were hardly ever around and each of us had different schedules so there was a lot of coming and going and passing eachother in the night. Whenever I was studying for an exam or writing a paper I had a terrible habit of chain smoking in my room – a small enclosed space with no ventilation – and it got pretty murky in there. When I’d come back after being gone for 8 or 12 hours the disgusting smell of stale smoke in my room would make me gag. I can imagine how much the rest of the residents in the house enjoyed that. The landlady used to sneak air freshners into my room and hide them under my bed. I have no idea why they didn’t just kick me out.

But I was incredibly quiet as I inhaled and exhaled and crushed those butts out oh so soundlessly into the over-flowing ashtray! My smoke infested clothes were all hung ever so neatly in the closet! I always emptied and washed my ash tray once my work was done. I eventually gave up the nasty smoking habit and now can hardly stand to be within touching distance of a smoker. I’d certainly never rent a room in my house to one of them.

Having an annoying roommate is good prep for marriage though. It’s kind of amazing what you can learn to live with.