I am back with another roommate problem! My roommate recently asked me to switch sides of the room. She says the door wakes her up when I open in; the door makes noise and she is right across from it so it does shine a light into her face. I made the point that then it would be bothering me if we switched, but I don’t sleep in the room very often so it would not bother me as much. She thinks that because I don’t sleep in the room a lot (I sleep there about 2 nights each week, but I do nap there) and because I have had two school quarters with that side, we should switch.
Honestly, I do have the better side of the room, but I made a point to get to move-in day early so I could choose my room side. Also, this means I would have to move my posters, lights, clothes, and everything. It would take forever. Even if we did switch, I can still hear the door from my side and creates light, just not as much.
I told her if she lofts her bed, she could put it against the other wall where she would not be facing the wall, but she doesn’t want to loft it.
Switch. It’s the right thing to do. Getting there early doesn’t give you dibs for the whole year. How much time is left - 2 months or so? Moving your stuff would only take a few hours, probably less.
Do the right thing and give your roommate the good half of the room for a few months.
^ Meh not really. She is entitled to keep her side. However, not sure if it’s worth any arguments with the roommate.
You don’t have a roommate problem, just a bit of a selfishness problem! Switch. It’s the nice, fair thing to do, and no, it won’t take “forever” to move. More like an hour. It also makes no sense to claim a permanent right to a room side because you got there first–what if she had to travel far or her family couldn’t accommodate an earlier schedule? If one side was clearly better, the nice thing to do would have been to wait for her to arrive and toss a coin, with an agreement to switch halfway through the year. So, be nice now!
It will take at least a day. Just to move her bed and my desk and drawers a couple weeks ago, it took 4 or so hours because we need to clear our shelves. It took me 2 hours to put my lights up the way I have them, and this time we would have to move ALL of our stuff including posters, I would have to deloft and re loft my bed to move it, clean our closets out, etc. Also, I have been courteous enough to not open the door anytime before 9:15, whereas she is coming in and out the room until 5AM and chooses to wake up at 2PM. (no, it’s not a schedule thing, she has class at 10:30 but chooses not to attend).
She lives 1/3 the distance away I do and she drove herself. The NSO letter told us to come early and she chose to come later. I wish both sides were made equal, but I don’t think it’s fair to have to go through a large switch in the middle of year, I think it’s petty. I have offered alternatives for her, but she does not want to take them. If I had not gotten the side I wanted, it would have sucked, but I would have gotten over it - I’ve been in the situation before.
If it was a quick switch, I’d probably do it even if I thought she was being petty, but it’s a big deal and a large time commitment.
Every freshman pairing uses the first come, first serve rule at Stanford if they arrive at earlier times. It does not make sense to wait the six hours I would have had to to choose a side.
So, if you are being so stubborn about it and seem to have made up your mind already, WHY are you even asking here?
I still think you should move. And you are greatly exaggerating the time it would take to move things. I’ve packed and unpacked many dorm rooms. You’re just moving things across the room. You cannot possibly have so much stuff in a dorm room that it would take 2 days.
I am here because I want to give the idea a fair chance and see if maybe there is a side of this I have no already thought through but I do not think the pros outweigh the cons here. Taking everything off our desks, drawers (I have my dishes and coffee maker set up on my drawers) and shelves take a ridiculous amount of time. It would take about a full day to set things back up and get reorganized.
The only difference between our sides is the door is on her side. All she needs to do is raise her bed and I told her she can have half her bed on my side to avoid looking at the light shining through the door and she can have some of my space but she is not willing to compromise.
Just switch beds if that’s the problem and you don’t want to invest the time to re do the whole thing. And you can loft the bed so you have a better arrangement than she did.
I don’t think there is much of a question. Switch sides. It doesn’t affect you and it sounds like the only reason you wouldn’t do it would be principle (I got here first). I can give you a good reason that can affect you if merely being nice to another is not enough. Living with a grateful roommate could possibly be a benefit to you at sometime in the next two months. Living with someone who resents you won’t.
Don’t switch everything - just switch beds. You’re being petty.
So kids really switch rooms half way through? I didn’t know that was a thing.
You are exaggerating on the time it would take, but at the same time, your roommate is lucky you are never there. It’s like she has a single.
I would just change beds.
I offered to let her use my bed but she doesn’t want that. Accounting for other things we do in a day (eating, classes, getting ready, other necessities) it would take a day. It seems simple but there’s always complications that arise. Even just moving stuff in to a new home (I moved slot as a foster kid) it took a day even without owning many belongings.
She’s up so late and gets kinda loud sometimes so I can’t sleep there much. Like right now it’s five, my usual sleeping space is being used, and her laptop is illuminating the room while eating a burger loudly which is making the room smell.
But I get that she’s on her own schedule and she’s gotta do her thing. I just gotta suck it up
I will continue to think about it but at the moment I’m not sure If it’s worth it so she can avoid a small crack of light from the door and a little more lights than I see when the door is opened.
It doesn’t take long. You’re looking for excuses. Is the furniture built in or movable? Just slide the dresser and stuff across the floor. If the two of you do it together, easy peasy. A lot of your stuff you can just leave where it is to move it. Do it on the weekend and set aside 2 hours when you don’t have classes. You’ve spent time here that could have been spent taking your posters off the wall, if you really wanted to be cooperative. 
None of the furniture we have can be slid without taking everything we put on top off, we tried and it was a disaster. Also, there’s no space to keep the stuff while we move other than on top of her bed so we had to put everything in the lounge, than reorganize. We could probably do everything in 4 hours at most if we were productive, but we get distracted and lazy so it will take longer.
We had previously re arranged the room because she wanted to put her bed lower so I let her put some of her stuff on my side
Maybe I am being petty. Thinking through everything she has done, I think I am growing to resent her, it might be affecting my judgement in this situation