Sharing a Dorm Room With Another Person

Living in a Residence Hall is an entirely new experience that you have to get used to. A huge part of that is bringing about a quarter of your room to your new room which means severely picking and choosing what you bring. You have to share a bathroom on your floor with other people which can mean completely changing your schedule around just so you can shower before class. Of course, it also means sharing a room with another person. And when you’re sharing a room, you’re also sharing some of your essentials. So how do you do it without going a little crazy?

First of all, before you even move into your college, you need to figure out a few roommate things. Do you have to bring a mini-fridge and microwave? Your college may provide one or the other or even both in each room, so you first need to figure that out. Once that is settled and you find out you have to bring them or not, you need to decide how to split who brings the big things. Let’s face it – you’re in a college dorm room. You’re not going to have room for two mini-fridges, microwaves, and TVs no matter how optimistic you are. So you’ve decided that yes, you need to share those big items. The thing is, you can’t share the cost, meaning that you can’t each pay for half of the TV, fridge, or microwave. The reason for this is that if you’re each paying for half of one item, how do you decide who takes it at the end of the year? One person paying for the entirety of one item is much easier. Again, coordinate with your roommate how you will work it for who brings what.

Being in college dorm room means you’re going to be eating in it sometimes. That means you need A-Food and B-A mini-fridge. The key word here is mini. You won’t be able to have nearly as much food as you had at your parents. And you’re going to be eating in the cafeteria much of the time, so why would you. While your fridge is quite small, that doesn’t mean that you have to share every single food item with your roommate. There’s going to be some things you don’t want your roommate to have. For example, yogurt. Or your favorite chip dip. Or your bottle of juice. And then there will be other things that you want shared. Like the leftover pizza from the night before or the 2-liter jug of pop. The point here is you can’t expect your roommate to be a mind reader. You have to say “Harry, go ahead and eat that pizza, there’s no way I can eat it all.” Or “Ron, please…don’t eat my chicken. Again.” Or “Lily, feel free to have anything you want in this fridge.” Label things if you have to with your name or that you want the item shared. It may seem silly, but if Harry or Lily don’t think they can have any of your food yet Ron eats everything, investing in a labeling system may be beneficial.