The Nevada Sagebrush

“When you find a good roommate, keep them,”said Jerome Maese, associate director for Residential Life.

Picking roommates:

• Look beyond friends and find people you can be compatible with, Maese said.
• Finding someone with similar habits and patterns works well, he said. Opposites also complement each other well.
• Finding someone who can pay his or her share of the bills is vital.
• If one rents a room, investigating the roommates provides a level of financial and physical security, he said. Pick a six-month lease until you know you and your roommates are compatible, he said.
• “You can put up with a lot of stuff for six months,”he said.
• Asking questions and being honest with the answers helps prove whether two people can live together, he said.

Questions to ask:

• 1. Finances: How much will each person pay? When? How will utilities be split? What can both parties afford?
• 2. Lifestyle compatibility: How much noise is acceptable? How much cleaning must be done? Partying or studying?
• 3. Boundaries: What kind of boundaries will there be in the roommate relationship?
• 4. Comfort level: Do both parties feel comfortable and safe with each other? Can both parties easily communicate?

Communicate:

“Setting up lines of communication is always better than setting up ground rules,”Maese said.

Set up a meeting at least once a month between roommates, he said. Ask if anything over the past month bugged your roommates in an open forum.

Universal rules:

• Buy your fair share of toilet paper.
• Don’t stink up the kitchen. Smelly cooking infiltrates each person’s room.
• “Cleanliness and using other people’s stuff without asking”form the basis of most arguments between roommates, Maese said.

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