Living with your best friend can either be a nightmare, an utter disaster, or a harmonious heaven. I've heard many people who have lived with their best friends in a dorm and ended up moving out because they can be friends but cannot live together. These stories are usually with two girls. For me, I live with five of my best friends.
At Rider University, living in a dorm that offered a six-person dorm sounded like the best thing that could happen to us. We figured we wouldn't have to walk down the hall anymore to see each other. We would just have to knock on the other's door and be able to spend time together. No more worrying about having to walk across campus to visit each other either. It was the perfect solution.
And honestly, it still is.
Of course, we can get frustrated with living with your friends. Sometimes I've tried to go to sleep and I can hear one of my friends talking or even just moving around (though I blame myself for being a very light sleeper.) Doors slamming can be frustrating when it's late or early in the morning. It all depends, but I feel that all the people I live with have not caused any problems to the point where anyone is moving out anytime soon because of who they are living with.
How are we living together though? Well of course, having roommates in general, you need to have precautions and rules. Now we were just adding a small hallway and two bathrooms. So, over the summer we discussed what we would need when we moved it.
So over the summer, we all came up with ideas to stay organized and keep the new addition to our dorms clean. A document was made where we threw all our ideas out and made a list on who was bringing what. Then we thought about how expensive things were. If one person bought one expensive thing and another bought many things that were inexpensive it evened out. As friends, we all got excited about who was bringing what, because we wouldn't feel weird about borrowing the vacuum in one person's room and borrowing the mop that was in another's.
A large calendar was made out of an old whiteboard for everyone to not only be organized but for all of us to support each other if we were doing events. This calendar that hangs in our hallway has so many goofy quotes and activities that we are doing that it's decorated with every color under the rainbow. It adds more excitement for the following days, and things to look forward to for not only ourselves but for each other.
Also, I recommend a chores list. This is more of a tip for anyone who will be living in a dorm that has extensions like a kitchen, a bathroom, or a living room. There are so many little things that you realize will build up in a bathroom and in a shower that you never noticed at home. You never realize how much dirt and leaves you track in when you walk in until you see it on the floor. You most certainly never realize that when you brush your hair, some strands fall to the ground in the bathroom until you're sweeping around the tiny crevices under the cabinets.
Each person has a small job on a large list in the hallway as a reminder for what they have to do on their given day. Of course, no one wants to do a chore on a Monday so that space is blank, but if someone forgets it's always a good day to remember. When all these jobs are done correctly, it feels like the dorm is as clean and organized as a dorm can get.
As friends who are so close, we are there for each other during the good and the bad times. It's good to bond with each other and catch up with each other. Living with each other is just more fun. I can walk over not even ten feet to ask my friends if they want to order a pizza.
Living with each other will never be perfect, but having a nice yet organized way of living is the most productive way to go without ruining any friendships.
