Should I switch room sides with my roommate?

Try to see the situation from her point of view. You don’t really live there. If you had an apartment with someone who only slept there 2 days/week can you truly say you’d be okay with them having the best space? The mature thing to do is to acknowledge that you’ve made other living arrangements and are using the room primarily to store your belongings. Since she’s actually living in the space, you should do what you can to make sure she’s comfortable.

I do live here and I spend plenty time here, just not sleep because she keeps me up. The problem is her bed placement, I offered to let her sleep in my bed instead, but she doesn’t want that. The only different between our sides is she faces the door

You could also try putting something up to block the light – a curtain she can draw around her bed, or something. I wouldn’t want to switch either. That’s a heck of a lot of work during midterm season.

She is currently microwaving macaroni and cheese underneath my bed.

My first vote is switch-- but–

Can you hang a curtain from the ceiling with command strips? It could be either near her bed shielding it from the door light or near the door, shielding the whole room from the door light? Make sure it’s light weight material.

The curtain is a good idea, I’ll suggest that to her in morning :slight_smile:

She said it wasn’t worth the effort to put a curtain up.

Then it’s not worth the effort of switching either. Her loss.

Though maybe you might want to do it anyway and take redpoodles’s suggestion of putting it near the door – “The light’s a problem for me too, so I’m just going to fix it”

A lightweight folding screen (room divider type) would work–just put it at end of bed at night. Or move it in front of the desk when she’s working on computer so you don’t see her light. Easier than hanging a curtain and easy to stash when you don’t want it.

If she’s not willing to just try using your bed when you’re not there then I wouldn’t switch either.

Get a can of WD-40 and spray the hinges to lessen the door noise.

Holy cow - the amount of time to switch and get the room exactly the way you’d want it if you switched must be a girl thing. If my son and his roommate had wanted to do that it would have taken 2 hours - TOPS

I understand the frustration - I have trouble sleeping if it’s too bright. IMO the curtain sounds easier, and you don’t necessarily need her help to do it. Hell, you could hang a twin sheet and it would probably get the job done. I have a queen size sheet hung over the window in my bedroom to make it darker since I never open the shades anyways.

Tell her to put a pillow over her head…LOL.

Hanging a sheet from the ceiling into the middle of a room is likely a fire code violation.

Is the light and noise from the door the only thing that is bothering her? Suggest to her that she buys a eye mask and some ear plugs. Maybe you should too.
I’ve been there. My freshman year I had the bed in front of the door and it is awkward! I remember trying to fall asleep and my roommate would open the door at weird hours and I could hear her giggle and whisper to her friends about me and all of this light would flood into the room. It was very annoying, but I learned that it is both our room and we needed to figure things out. Eventually we decided that we would open the door a little and if the lights were off then friends had to stay in the hall because it seemed like a weird invasion of privacy having friends/strangers watching you sleep. Anyways I also invested in the eye mask and ear plugs. It worked fine for me for the remainder of the time I had to spend with her.
Since this is occurring during a stressful time and sleep is so important I would see if you guys can come to a compromise. Tell her that you don’t feel like moving and that she doesn’t seem willing to compromise on anything and else and you are out of ideas. If things get really tricky then ask an RA for ideas.
In the meantime, I would ask maintenance if they can do anything about the squeaky door. And maybe try opening the door just a sliver and slipping into the room. As for the food smells, that is hard. My roommate cooks incredibly smelly food late at night that fills the entire apartment and I still haven’t found a solution for it.