For most people, college is their first time living without their parents and with a roommate. This is an incredibly exciting time in your life, but it is also a big adjustment from living at home. I am going to offer several tips that will hopefully ease your transition from life at home to life in University Housing.
- Communicate with your roommate: The majority of you will be moving in with somebody that you have never met in your life. The first thing to do, is set some ground rules. Let them know your pet peeves and ask them about theirs. This will hopefully minimize tension between the two of you during the school year.
- Keep organized: In my opinion, there is nothing more stressful than walking in to a room that is completely trashed. Something that may help, is to have a designated time every week where you take half an hour to clean your room and organize everything. This will prevent the build up of trash and will ultimately make your life more manageable and less stressful when you get to look at a relatively organized room.
- Have a basket for dirty clothes: I really wish somebody had given me this piece of advice before starting college. It’s going to be really tempting to rip your clothes off at the end of a long day of classes and just throw them on the floor; don’t do it! This can get out of hand really fast, so just have a basket of some sort to place dirty clothes in until the end of the week.