Do we always have to put up with the quirks of the people we live with?

A roommate relationship can sometimes be a strange one. This is a person whom you do not necessarily know that well, but you have a front row seat to their most intimate domestic habits, and vice versa. You either learn how to work with their personal schedule, or you find someone else to live with.

Much like bad bosses make people leave jobs, a bad roommate can dampen the experience of an otherwise nice place to live. They stop a house from feeling like your home. That being said, everybody’s idea of an undesirable individual to live with varies greatly depending on their personality and stage of life. A fellow slob might not care that the trash hasn’t been taken out in two weeks, and that nonstop party animal may have been super fun to live with if you were still in college.

Nothing will make you realize how varied the human experience is quite like living with other people, and often this feels like a negative realization. It is easy to let frustration and resentment build up, making a shared living space an uncomfortable place to be. Sometimes, the smallest annoyances can turn into the biggest disagreements.