Isolation Is Overrated - 8 Steps to Stress-Free Living With Roommates

By Edward Green

Ask anyone that’s ever lived with roommates if they have any horror stories, and they’ll likely have their fair share.

We’ve all got a horror story or two - from moving in with friends or relatives, to sharing an apartment with people that started out as complete strangers, there always seemed to be some level of craziness that we found ourselves living with at one point or another.

The main reason why I wrote this eBook is because I know that a great many of the bad experiences people have had while living with roommates could have easily been avoided had they just done some things a little differently. Just in the small ways we interact (or don’t interact) with the people we live with can, many times, be the very root of all those roommate horror stories we've come away with.

So like most bad experiences in life, we can learn new ways and ideas on how to deal with them or even prevent them from happening again. That’s what we’re going to do here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304268242

Book preview

Isolation Is Overrated - 8 Steps to Stress-Free Living With Roommates

Isolation Is Overrated: 8 Steps to Stress-Free Living With Roommates

By Edward F. Green

©2013, All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-304-26824-2

It is illegal to copy,

distribute, or create derivative works from this book in whole or in part, or to

contribute to the copying, distribution, or creating of derivative works of this

book.

Copyright

Isolation Is Overrated is copyright 2013 with all rights reserved.

Disclaimer

This book is designed to provide information on the subject matter covered; however, all books are sold with an understanding that the publisher and author are not engaged in professional services, including legal, accounting, and personal advice. If further professional support in these areas is required, please seek the services of a competent professional.

The author and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information covered in this eBook.

It is illegal to copy, distribute, or create derivative works from this book in whole or in part or to contribute to the copying, distribution, or creating of derivative works of this book - I actively check online for that sort of thing, so please don’t.

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Introduction

Ask anyone that’s ever lived with roommates if they have any horror stories, and they’ll likely have their fair share.

We’ve all got a horror story or two - from moving in with friends or relatives, to sharing an apartment with people that started out as complete strangers, there always seemed to be some level of craziness that we found ourselves living with at one point or another.

Some of you may even be thinking that it just doesn’t seem possible anymore that you could ever feel comfortable living with roommates again. Considering that nearly every situation you’ve been in, one after another, seemed to yield its own unique brand of headaches, arguments, strangeness, confusion and worst of all, tension – there’s just no way.

They’d all start out the same: everything’s fine and polite at first, but gradually as you got more comfortable and accustomed to each other, bad things started happening. Someone stopped communicating, someone’s girlfriend began taking up full residence at the house unannounced, someone began eating your food or drinking your booze regularly (and never replaced any of it), strangers from bars started being brought home after closing, or you slowly came to realize that you were the only one willing to clean anything in the house. Ever.

You may have even tried talking it out with the people you live with about these offenses or better yet, left a note voicing your concerns. But after you did that, to your surprise, things actually got worse (we’ll talk about that one later).

Maybe even outside forces like obnoxious neighbors or overly intrusive landlords were the ones that threw the wrench in the machine and started making life for everyone living together unbearable. But no matter who or what the cause, you’ve made up your mind that maybe living with roommates is a hell you should no longer put yourself through.

Now I’m not just referring to your first roommate experiences in college either. That’s usually the first time you’ve been away from home ever, so it’s no surprise that things will get crazy then. No, there’re plenty more crazy times that can be had long after you’ve left the safe cocoon of college life or your parent’s house; where you’re no longer loosely connected to these people by your school affiliation or by family blood.

These are the stories you can end up with after you’ve entered the real world.

No matter what the case may be, if you’ve ever dealt with any scenario remotely similar to the ones listed above, you already know that from here, things can develop into such a tense state that you begin to regularly dread even going home. You may even start to feel anxiety just THINKING about entering your own rented residence (something I’ve definitely experienced a few times). When this is something you start experiencing each and every single day, it can make you feel utterly miserable and you’ll be yearning for something, anything, to put you out of your misery.

You’ve had it with these nightmare experiences… to the point where you’d swear that you never want to live with another person ever again. You’ve heard your friend’s horror stories too and, coupled with your own, you’ve seen enough to make up your mind.

So why do people do it? Why do people move in with roommates in the first place? Well…according to some studies, a lot of people are not.

More people today are opting to live alone than ever before. There are roughly 31 million Americans living alone in the United States – more women than men, with young adults as the group that’s growing the fastest.

This shouldn’t be that big of a surprise considering that to most young adults in America, total independence is one of the things that they strive for the most; it’s a part of growing up. Total independence from our parents offers the chance to finally experience life freely for the first time without any authoritative influence or interference.

But why are more people living alone now than ever before?

Broken homes are one contributing factor; divorces produce a ton of single living it seems -- divorced men mostly (since women traditionally get the kids).