Part 2 – Lifestyle Clashes
In the first article in our series about living with your friends in a rental property, we discussed the financial implications and what you should consider. In this article, we’ll discuss how differences in lifestyle should also be considered.
Being able to share a kitchen and a bathroom with someone and the nitty-gritty of everyday life and mood swings. That’s something else you need to be able to navigate without causing friendship breakup or deathly silences. No matter how well you think you know each other or how long you’ve been friends for. Unless you have cohabited in the same space for longer than a couple of weeks, you really don’t know each other’s routines. Both good and bad.
Different Working Hours
Not everyone works Monday to Friday 9am -5pm, in reality most people don’t, core working hours can vary significantly even if you both have office based roles. If you do work similar hours this can cause as many potential headaches as completely different working patterns.
Morning Routines
We’re not suggesting you actually create a rota for who has access to the bathroom, at what time. Although, you should consider if you both start work at similar times, you’re both likely to want to shower and get ready before work. So, you will need to be considerate of each other. Some people like to have a shower and get dressed the moment they get up, some prefer to enjoy their cup of coffee or tea, and breakfast before they even consider the bathroom. If your morning routines are the same, then you don’t want to be arguing outside the bathroom as to who is using it first.
Differences in Working Schedules
If you’re an office worker sharing your home with someone in the hospitality industry, or works nights, then your daily routines will be very varied. Although this will help with bathroom clashes, there are other things to take into consideration.
The kitchen, the office worker might be cooking their dinner while the night worker might want to make their breakfast. Things like housework also need to be thought through, running the hoover before you go to work while your house mate is still asleep, is likely to disturb them.
Having to be quiet in your home, while they sleep, can be difficult. If you’re used to having music blasting when you get ready, this may no longer be an option.
Early Riser versus Night Owl
The same issues may arise if you have different sleep patterns. Some people only need about 6 hours sleep and some need a minimum of 8 hours. Even if you’re work schedules are similar, your sleep patterns may not be.
The weekends can be more of an issue, the early riser may be used to getting up early on a Saturday and getting the housework and chores done early, so they can enjoy the rest of the day. But no-one wants to be woken by a hoover!
Party Animal Versus Home Bird
Some people like the weekend to start as soon as they finish work on a Friday, with a quick drink down the local, then roll in with a take-away after a few. If you have a stressful job, then an ideal Friday evening may be about relaxing and unwinding. There’s nothing worse than chilling out and the next minute, a half drunken house mate walks in and wants to chat.
It may also be that financial constraints means that partying budgets are lower for one housemate than the other. If you’re housemate is going to regularly roll in in the early hours of the morning, this could cause friction.
Houseproud Versus Untidy
Of all the previous lifestyle differences, this one can be the hardest to live with and can cause arguments, from both sides. If you’re houseproud and have a place for everything and everything in it’s place. Then walking in and finding a dirty mug on a coffee table without a coaster can grate. On the flip side, if you’re the one that’s left your mug on the coffee table because you know you’ll be making another brew shortly. Then your housemate swans in and complains, you’ll think they’re being unreasonable.
And we won’t even get into washing up not being done. Or shoes left by the front door instead of on the shoe rack. There’s so many different things that one of you may feel is acceptable and the other doesn’t.
Communicate with your Housemate
Again, most of the issues that can arise around lifestyle differences can be resolved before moving in together. It’s just about having open and honest conversations about each other’s lifestyles. Some of these examples are more extreme than you’re likely to experience. But talking everything through beforehand, will allow you both to decide whether moving in together will work for you both.
Smoothing as many issues out beforehand will help ensure that you’re not likely to fall out with each other after a month of living together.
This was the second article in a series of articles that discusses the pitfalls and how to avoid them with living with a mate.
Contact us on 01604 603450 if you’re looking to rent a property with a mate.
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