Roommate Etiquette Now That You're Both Home All The Time

Living with good roommates can be tricky but living with bad roommates can cause all sorts of tension and take a toll. Which is why we find it important to interview your potential roommate before signing a lease with them.

But even if you did interview them before becoming official roommates, things have changed. With everyone suddenly working from home, roommate etiquette isn't as cut and dry as it once was. 

You no longer just have to see them in the morning when you're both on your way to work or in the evenings when you cross paths in the hallway. Now you see each other all day every day and on top of all the normal roommate things, you're now having to deal with making sure both of you are staying COVID safe. 

Reading through all the dos and don'ts when it comes to social interactions, safety, and work life will help you and your roommate stay sane until everyone can go back to work in the office. 

Being a Good Roommate During Coronavirus: Dos and Don’ts

Written and posted by: The New York Times

Suddenly, you’re counting on that friend of a friend or that roommate from Craigslist to help keep the coronavirus at bay. And aside from the new anxiety between roommates over safety, the pandemic is aggravating arguments that have long plagued shared living spaces, including those about dirty dishes, cable bills and cluttered bathroom sinks.

Think things are going swimmingly in your apartment? Then you may be the one at fault after all.

Here are some tips to make sure your habits aren’t sending your roommates to stew in their bedrooms.

Social Etiquette

Don’t

• • Attach passive-aggressive notes criticizing their hygiene to a container of Lysol wipes and leave it in front of their door.
  • Keep playing the same horrible song on repeat.
  • Take on a new instrument without properly soundproofing your room first.

• • Vape products that supposedly smell of coconut rice but actually smell like a dentist’s office. It’s bad for your lungs anyway.
  • Take long showers. Three roommates. One toilet. Not everyone has a bladder of steel.
  • Cook copious amounts of garlic. We’re not warding off vampires.
  • Force or guilt your roommate into your latest TikTok routine. It’s not going to happen.

Do

• • Ask if anyone wants a drink when you go to make one for yourself.
  • Ask how your roommate is doing like you really mean it.
  • Create a balanced routine of alone time and common activities.
  • Replace the roll of toilet paper if you were the last person to use it.

Safety

Don’t

• • Go outside multiple times a day and expose your roommates and yourself to the virus.
  • Forget to wash your hands regularly.

[Click to continue reading the don’ts and dos of Safety & Work Life]

If you didn't already have roommate guidelines in place pre-COVID, then make sure you read through them! Then you'll want to add in the dos and don'ts of roommate etiquette during COVID to ensure that you're both on the same page and set up to stay as happy and healthy as possible.