Living with your best friend can bring many benefits: not only can you share the rent, but you can also enjoy his company 24 hours a day, every day of the week. However, it is not always as easy as it sounds; living with your best friend can do more harm than good, because it tests your friendship and you may begin to see sides of his character that you never thought existed. First, be the friend you wish you had.
Steps
Step 1. Talk about moving in together
Don't just bring it up once - make sure you thoroughly discuss your thoughts, ideas, and opinions with each other. Take the time to sit down with your best friend and see if you can agree on whether you could and should live together or not. You will need to consider topics such as rent payment, "house rules" and purchases that will benefit the well-being of community life and the home itself. Useful topics of discussion could be, for example, the destination of the rooms, when you can and when you can't have guests around and any behavior of a cultural and religious nature. Make sure you understand each other intimately and are able to reach an agreement before actually taking the big step of moving in together - what now seems like a small matter can lead to enormous consequences later on.
Step 2. Start making plans
When you are both sure that you want to move in together, start planning when you will actually do so and other things, such as the distribution of furniture, decorations and / or the destination of the rooms. You may want a guest room to accommodate friends and family, but maybe your best friend would like to use that room as a study; so make sure you agree on the schedule as well. If you are not moving into your best friend's house or vice versa, you should also start looking for possible accommodation.
Step 3. Move together
After everything has been organized and you are both happy, you can start with the actual move. Help each other with your personal items and be 100% sure you want to.
Method 1 of 1: Living Together
Step 1. Show respect
Living with your best friend, there are many things you need to take into consideration, and one of them is that you need to show respect. Not only respect him (which you probably already do), but also respect his personal property and personal space. Don't use his stuff without asking him first: even if he says "What's mine is yours," he may still get mad at you and raise an argument. Spending time together is great, but when your friend is busy with something or someone and doesn't want to be disturbed, respect this fact and leave him alone until he's free. Respect for his personal beliefs must also be considered, and the problems that concern them could be avoided if you talked about them before moving in together. However, if for example he forgot to tell you from the start that there must be no pork in the house because of his beliefs and you start an argument after you have cooked some bacon, sincerely apologize and make sure that you will not upset him again for. the same reason.
Step 2. Maintain cleanliness
Good hygiene behavior is not always a potential problem that crosses someone's mind when they intend to live with their friend, because that is what is expected of them anyway. Still, you may be surprised to find that he is not as clean as you thought he was. The same goes for him; what seems acceptable to you may be disrespectful and rude to him. Leaving dirty dishes, filthy linens, beverage cartons, used disposable razors, takeaway meal containers and other items that are hazardous to health and safety lying around could cause some unwanted and even potentially harmful guests to arrive friend. Be considerate, and think twice before putting dirty cutlery back in the drawer or avoiding washing the bathtub after using it. Invite each other to clean up your own mess and maybe talk about a couple of unhygienic things inside the house every now and then to give you a tip. If that doesn't bother you too much, clean up after him from time to time, but don't let him take advantage of it, as it could become a habit if it isn't already. If things don't go too well and your friend turns out to be dirty, you need to be as firm with him as possible, without hurting his feelings - there are people who just can't get by.
Step 3. Respect everyone's needs and eating habits
Since you have already talked about possible eating habits as a result of your personal beliefs and / or health conditions, be sure to stick to the behaviors you have agreed upon. If your lactose intolerant friend doesn't see why there should be a problem if you keep dairy in the house, but doesn't want any meat, you'll need to stick to the promise you made in the beginning. You can try to reason with him to see if you can get him to change his mind, but allergy issues need to be taken seriously - especially nut intolerances. Your friend may not like you cooking and eating certain foods (with or without religious, cultural, or health reasons) when they're around, so be sure to respect that too. Another thing to consider is making sure you don't eat everything in the house. If it seems to you that he does, deal with it gently, as he may be suffering from an eating disorder he has never told you about. Also be careful not to eat things he bought. Considering the fact that you live together, you should be able to share food with each other without problems arising from immature people, but if he has made it clear that he is not at all good, act accordingly. Make sure he also knows how to comply with your requests.
Step 4. Watch out for "little fixations"
We all have those little quirks that freak us out, the ones we sometimes tend not to mention unless we see or hear someone doing them. Make sure you deal with each other appropriately when the person in charge does one, and try not to take things out of context. If people who leave the toothpaste tube open make you angry, try to be reasonable when you express your feelings about it - otherwise your friend may find it hard to take you too seriously, dismiss it as a joke and then continue doing it, annoying you..
Step 5. Concerning against intolerance
It takes a good balance between being considerate and being tolerant if you want your best friend to stay that way while living together. You may decide to tolerate your friend playing the drums late into the night, but he too needs to be aware that he should show some consideration: just because you don't say anything, that doesn't mean he has to get the idea that he can get away with it. continuously. Again, if there is something that is bothering you and that seems inappropriate, talk to your friend in the appropriate way. If she disagrees, you may tolerate the smaller things, but also reconsider living together if you find yourself having to endure almost everything.
Advice
Remember: "respect and consideration, tolerance and acceptance", and you could become a better roommate
Warnings
- If your best friend engages in illegal or abnormal activities around the house that don't make you feel comfortable, consider moving if he doesn't.
- It's easy to think you know a lot about someone, especially if they're your best friend, but it only takes a week or two of living together to see them as a completely different person. This shouldn't ruin your friendship with your best friend, but you may discover things you probably didn't want to know at first or didn't feel the need to know.
- You will argue from time to time, and it may not be very helpful if either of you or both of you are argumentative types.
