How was it like to have a roommate or roommates? I am a high school student and worried. I have OCD and expect things to be super clean. I am worried that I might just have to puke because my roommate is disgusting. I expect my roommate(s) to take shower daily,brush their teeth, and organize the room perfectly. They better not touch my food or it will disgust me to death. I don’t like any smoke or anything nasty like that. I expect music to be off when I am studying unless I want it to be on.
Is your roommate a thief too?
Is your roommate willing to let you stay up until 2am for you to do your homework?
Is your roommate chill?
Do your roommate borrow your belonging(s)?
Do your roommate give you privacy?
Can you share your experience?
Get a single or you’ll both be miserable.
You sound like you’ve got issues to work out. I shower every other day, because it’s healthier for your skin and I don’t stink after one day. My room was clean, but not organized perfectly. Sometimes I left a jacket on the floor, or something like that. Me and my roommate shared milk. We both shared snacks and stuff sometimes. We expected the other person to mention if music was annoying them. You can’t expect other people to maintain your standards, and it is also extreme to say that someone touching your food would disgust you to death and it’s also extreme of you to “expect” anything from them.
My roommate stole nothing. I stole nothing.
Generally we’d move to the lounge or go to the library if someone needed lights on and the other needed to sleep.
Yes he was, it doesn’t sound like you are.
We might have borrowed something once or twice with permission.
We kinda knew each other’s schedule, sometimes we were gone for a day, yes you get privacy.
Living with roommates is often fine, and most bad experiences either could have been solved with communication, or in more serious cases, by talking to an RA or someone else in residential life.
Do you actually have OCD or are you using that term (which is a legitimate mental illness) to describe your insufferable personality?
With demands like that, I don’t think your situation will go over too well.
If that’s legit how you feel, you might want to ask for a single ASAP.m
I was coming in this thread with the intention of suggesting you room with a friend…
but I don’t think that advice could apply here…
Get a single. No one should have to put up with that kind of responsibility. It’s their living space too (and this is coming from someone who prefers neatness in her living space).
You should probably plan on getting a single room or your own apartment off campus even if this costs more for you. Seriously, plan this into your budget even if it means going to a lower tuition school, or live at home and commute. If you really do have OCD, the added stress of your preoccupation with what your roommate is or isn’t doing to meet your needs is only going to add to your mental dysfunction. Living in a dorm room requires flexibility and ability to care about the other person’s feelings with whom you are sharing a room.
I’d suggest a single but it honestly doesn’t sound like you’re in a state to be going away to school at all right now…
Honestly it sounds like you would be a very difficult person to live with. You can’t expect to dictate a room mates hygiene habits. It’s a fact of life that college kids occasionally go a day or two (or three) without taking a shower. Organizing the room perfectly? Not everyone is that organized.
You “expect” music to be off while studying unless you want it on? If you have a room mate, you don’t get to dictate what they can and can’t do. Things like this can certainly be discussed and compromised on, but you don’t get to simply tell your room mate that they can’t listen to music while you’re studying, unless YOU decide that you’d like some on. I almost always listen to music while I’m studying. It helps me focus. People differ in this regard.
Get a single. Both you and your future room mates will be miserable if you don’t. Dorming with room mates isn’t always an ideal living situation and for some people they’re a bad decision. There’s a lot of compromise involved, and a lot of meeting in the middle. Get a single or an apartment. If I ended up dorming with you I’d go crazy within the first few weeks, and so would you.
Having OCD means you like things a certain way, but it doesn’t mean you get to have your way in all things. I have a friend whose eldest has OCD. She and her husband put a lot of effort into teaching him that he could live in whatever way made him comfortable unless it infringed on someone else.
If you can’t negotiate reasonable ground rules with the people you live with (hint: starting a sentence with, “I expect” doesn’t suggest the spirit of compromise), do everybody a favor and just get a single. You’ll have to pay more, but you can live by whatever rules you want. If you want to pay less, the price you have to pay for that is to develop some flexibility.
You have to figure out what you can control and what you cannot.
You cannot dictate their daily hygeine, but what you ask is the norm so you should be okay.
You cannot dictate if they keep their stuff perfectly organized.
You can say that you don’t want to share food.
You can say that you would like them to keep clothes/stuff off the floor.
You can vacuum the entire room when you would like.
You can ask that they use headphones for music.
You can ask to be with a non-smoker.
Thank you 