Starting Over
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How does everyone feel about random roommates?
Ive been living alone for a year and while I LOVE it, I have a long term goal of owning my own place some day. I am 30 and the thought of finding a random roommate on craigslist or something makes me cringe but it would literally be a savings of like $600 a month.
I actually think living alone was the thing I needed after the divorce but now it just doesnt seem cost effective at all.
Anyone lived with randoms after living alone?
Re: How does everyone feel about random roommates?
I've never had random roommates. I don't think I could do it. My sister was my roommate in college and for one year after college my BFF was my roommate. I've always lived alone other than that.
What about reaching to friends to see if anyone knows of anyone looking for a roommate? This would be my first choice over a CL ad.
3/12 5 mi -- 49:22 Pace: 9:52
5/1 Half Marathon -- 2:11:22 Pace: 10:01
5/22 10k -- 56:29 Pace: 9:00
5/24 3.6 -- 29:03 Pace: 8:18
7/10 15k -- 1:44:46 injured Pace: 11:14
10/29 5k -- 28:24 Pace: 9:04
Yeah. Don't do it.
My experience was atrocious. Out of 6 months here, she worked for 6 weeks. Was never on time for rent. And living with her was miserable.
And then my cousin moved in after that. Still miserable, still never on time for rent.
Don't do it.
I repeat, don't do it.
I've had two random roommates. The first one was a friend of a friend and it was great. I wasn't too keen on getting a roommate, but needed the extra cash. We meshed really well. We hung out occasionally, but it wasn't like we did a lot of stuff together. And now that she's moved to Nebraska, we hardly ever talk.
The roommate I have now I found off of roommates.com. It's a bit interesting. She travels about 8 months out of the year. She pays less when she's gone and more when she's here. At first I thought I would love it...get some extra income but not have anyone staying with me. But it's when she's here that I have a hard time with. She is a nice person. Pretty quiet. She has a boyfriend that is weird. They work together and this time she was like can he stay here too...I'll pay extra. I felt awkward and just said yes. They are leaving next week again, so it's almost over.
But I get so used to not having anyone there and then they are back and I have to readjust to that. My house has a basement and we don't every really share any common areas (other than the kitchen).
It is nice to have someone there sometimes though. Lately, it's been really hard to come home to a completely empty house. When the boyfriend wasn't staying there it was nice to talk to her a little bit in the evenings. And with the first roommate it was nice. But it does take some getting used to!
Ive definitely asked everyone I know and no one is looking right now or is married
Im going to meet one girl on Monday night at her place but I just realized shes 25....I feel like there is a major difference between 25 and 30.
Eh, BF is 4 years younger than me and I have a close friend who is 24 and I am 33. Maturity plays a big part of it. GL!
3/12 5 mi -- 49:22 Pace: 9:52
5/1 Half Marathon -- 2:11:22 Pace: 10:01
5/22 10k -- 56:29 Pace: 9:00
5/24 3.6 -- 29:03 Pace: 8:18
7/10 15k -- 1:44:46 injured Pace: 11:14
10/29 5k -- 28:24 Pace: 9:04
Oh that is good news. I guess you are right. It is totally subjective!
One girl that came out to see if she like the space was older than me. She was like 33 I think. She was extremely immature. One thing that was a red flag to me was I mentioned to her that I was sort of looking in other states for jobs. Nothing serious but just to let her know in case something came up. She said oh I have nothing keeping me in KS. I could totally move with you. Uh, I don't even know your last name yet -- I am not asking you to move to another state with me!
I haven't had a roomie for a long time. I've never exactly lived with randoms after living alone, but I HAVE lived with randoms.
I had an ok experience save the time I came home and my roomie was full on riding her BF like a wild mustang with her bedroom door wide open and having the loudest *ahem* I've ever heard. My room was directly across from hers so I couldn't miss the activity.
I've never had a random roommate but I have lived with someone who I didn't know very well. A co-worker of mine at the time was relocating and was moving out of his apartment. I was looking for a place to live and he suggested I take his place.
so I met his roommate and we clicked. He was a guy and the best roommate I ever had. We lived in a townhouse and his bedroom and bathroom were on the first floor and mine was on the second. We only shared living room and kitchen. It worked out awesome.
I have had several random roommates in the past that were based off of Craigslist. All of them were super great. All the roommates I had all had steady jobs and friends of their own.
I just wished I was better at picking boyfriends like I do with roommates. Now I have thoughts to ponder lol!
I currently live with a random roommate. She emailed the dance studio that I work at asking us to advertise that she was looking for a roommate in the dance community, and I happened to be looking for a place to live at the time. We've been sharing the house for almost 2 years, no problems. She's got her quirks, and I've got mine, but we're respectful of each other's space, and if something's annoying one of us, we bring it up with the other. I'm 25, and I'd guess she's in her early 40s. Both of our BFs sleep over at our house regularly (5 nights a week-ish). I'm generally out of the house from 7:30 am to 9 or 10 pm M-F, and I spend weekends at BF's, so she basically has the place to herself with the added benefit of a rent check. *shrug* It has been a good experience for me! And, FWIW, I was unemployed for 8 months of the almost 2 years that I have been living here, and I still never missed a rent payment. Thank goodness I had an emergency fund!
I know my church's young adult group often includes announcements in their emails about people looking for roommates, so if you're religious at all, that might be a good way to go.
I guess I could consider my first roomate in college a random roomate, since we didn't know each other and were paired up ina 10x10 "cell" dorm room together for a year? We lived together for 4 years after that. She became one of my best friends, but I think we lucked out.
My last roomate was a very close friend of mine and we ended up ruining a friendship as a result. Part of her beef was that I had a boyfriend (now XH) that was over all the time. I got pissed she was telling me how often he could stay over. I was admittingly a little selfish, but seriously? MYOB.
That being said? I'd rather be poor and live on ramen than live with a random roomate. Heck, it would be hard to live with a roomate I was friends with, let alone a stranger! I've grown too accostomed to my space, heard horror stories from friends and overall wouldn't feel comfortable with it.
I wouldn't trust a random internet person to live in my house with me and the pets... I don't know how they will treat them while I am gone. I prefer to live alone.
On that note, a friend of mine found an internet roommate, he ended up stealing (and selling her stuff), drove her car while she was out of town taking care of her Mom and ended up crashing it and broke a lot of her stuff.
They see us rollin'...they be hatin'.
Long story short. I acquired a random roommate off CL when I was about 22 after meeting for drinks at a bar. He was a sad, desperate, 40-something dude who was constantly searching for his next Russian bride.
Later, we added another roommate who I'd met in a club who turned out to be a prostitute (which we knew before we invited her to move in.)
Basically, I probably went about finding roommates in the most reckless way ever and everything turned out fine. They both paid their bills and were good roommates.
I would not live with a random roommate in my 30s unless things were really desperate. I am going to be moving in with a friend when I return to the US but it's not really about saving money.... I work from home and get really isolated. Maybe you can find someone you know through your circle of friends /coworkers that is looking to move in with someone?
If you love living alone I don't think it will be worth it just to buy a place... but I don't have much desire to be a homeowner right now....being a renter gives me more flexibility.
I lived with 2 random roomies when I first left. The one was a great roommate! It was a big black gay guy, we had absolutely nothing similar but a ton in common. When you have an understanding of what you expect from the roommate (rent, don't eat my stuff) and just respect in general, it works I think.
Our other roommate was a nightmare, but I think that can be attributed to the fact that she'd never lived on her own before and was a spoiled brat.
The guy and I keep in touch but maybe we got along so well because of our mutual hatred of the girl.
I did in my early 20s when I was first divorced. I kept the house in the divorce and was unable to sell at the time due to the market.
The first random person to move in was a friend of a friend, and it didn't work out that well. She thankfully only needed a short term place (through the summer). She left her stuff all over the place, didn't clean anything, and expected me to mother her. (for example- "can you call and wake me up at like 9 tomorrow?" ) I was really relieved when she moved out. It then took me hours to scrub her bathroom down to make it not smell like a boy's locker room anymore.
After she moved out I decided to live alone for awhile. I loved it, but it was just too expensive and I couldn't keep working extra jobs. The second random turned out perfectly! I found her on one of those websites (roommates.com I think?) She was in law school at the time. Very nice, always on time with rent, and she ended up staying until she graduated. She also (though not expected) helped out with my dog. We became pretty good friends, but not super close or anything. In this case, it was well worth it for me.
So obviously it can go either way... good luck if you decide to!