Got terrible roommates? 3 easy ways to deal

In order to afford to live in Toronto’s sky-high rental market, we often move in with roommates, who could be friends or total strangers. Either way, you’ve got about a 50-50 chance of loving your roomie or going crazy over how messy/loud/rude/awkward they are.

If you’ve got a terrible roommate situation, you’ve got a couple of options: Stay, or go. To help you decide on how to proceed, we made you this guide of the three essential ways to deal with roommates that suck.

1. Communicate. Even though we don’t always follow good advice, the best way to act in order to resolve a crappy issue with people is communication. Without it, we end up exhibiting passive-aggressive behaviour, which might seem like it helps, but in the end, it definitely makes things worse. When you’re upset with something your roommate has done (or not done), first calm yourself down so you don’t bring emotion into the conversation. Then, clearly communicate what is and isn’t working for you. Come prepared with solutions of how you can both improve the situation.
2. Relax. Cohabitating is hard, whether it’s someone you just met, a longtime friend or a romantic partner. Each person has his or her own quirks that might annoy us, or even piss us off. Sometimes, getting the other person to change their behaviour isn’t worth the hassle.
3. Make a change. Sometimes, there’s just no other option – someone’s gotta go. When none of the other solutions have worked, it’s time to (calmly) talk about one of you leaving. As a rule, whoever is the primary name on the lease/tenancy agreement would stay on the property just to avoid headaches with paperwork and changing the agreement with the landlord, but it’s not necessarily a must. We hope it doesn’t come to this for you!

Do you have bad roommate horror stories? How did you deal with a terrible roommate situation?