Swipe right on roommates
Why isn’t there an easy, foolproof way of finding someone you’ll be brushing your teeth next to for a whole year?
It’s probably a recipe for disaster, but my sister, Clare, and I are getting an apartment together in D.C. here at the start of February. (Don’t ask me how my packing is going.) We figured looking for a three-bedroom place was the way to go to get more breathing room for a better price, and we found a perfect spot! But now… we have to find a roommate.
Of course, I’m like Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way. I mean, I just took a Psychology Today quiz that classified me as a “nearly perfect roommate.” Yes, OK, I have my quirks, but I’ve worked on being less persnickety when it comes to cleanliness and more communicative when it comes to something that isn’t working. But I have stories from hell that make me a little recalcitrant to give this whole roommate thing a go again. I mean, I once lived in a sorority house with 80 other college girls and am still haunted about occasionally finding puke in hallways and in bathrooms (but not in the toilet).
So I was determined Clare and I would go about this the right way.
We posted something in a D.C. Housing Facebook group, and we (surprisingly?) got tons of responses; I mean, our move-in date was about three weeks away. Looks like there are procrastinators out there just like us. See? Harmony already. So we had to get a feel for people based on their responses and their public social media profiles — well, and their private ones I found, too. And then we had to schedule FaceTime calls to check out compatibility and coordinate meet-up times with our leasing agent. The best call was definitely with the guy who had knowingly been corresponding with two people with the same last name and who said in their post they were sisters and asked us: How long have you known each other, and have you lived together before? (Well, we’ve known each other for 26 years of my life, and we’ve lived together for 16 years.)
This whole process has been overwhelming. How do you know you’re choosing someone you’re going to get along with for a whole year — and who you’ve talked to face-to-face on a tiny screen for 20 minutes? How do you choose among three great options? How do you tell people, “Sorry, you’re great, but you’re not great enough to live with us”? Why isn’t there a better way of checking your compatibility — a dating app–like situation where you can swipe right (or left) without having to respond to every single person who responds to your post? A roommate is more commitment than agreeing to go on a single date with someone; it’s bad if your date is a serial killer, but if your roommate is!? Whoo, boy.
So, I’ve decided to make a foolproof roommate compatibility quiz I can pass out to any and all future roommates to make this process easier on us. And because it’s the kind of person I am, I’ve decided to share it with you, too.
Final Thoughts:
On what I’m reading: It’s the start of the Lunar New Year — happy Year of the Rabbit (or Year of the Cat, if you’re Vietnamese) — so I’ve been reading two contemporary romance books that use that as a centerpiece for the story. They are “Lunar Love” by Lauren Kung Jessen and “The Year of Cecily” by Lisa Lin, both of which I’ve enjoyed! I’ve also been reading way too many design blogs (scrolling Arch Digest isn’t good for my wallet) as I try to create an intricate, well-designed floor plan for our new place that maximizes every dang inch.
On what I’m watching: Sports, sports, and more sports. This time of year wreaks havoc on my sleep schedule; I’m up until 2 a.m. to watch most of the Australian Open (and up until about 7 a.m. if I’m watching Andy Murray play), and I’ve been watching the skiing that starts around 1:30 a.m. to see if Mikaela Shiffrin could break the women’s record for ski victories (she did it — and then she won another one). All my favorites are really out of the tennis (the Netflix curse is real, sorry, FAA, Ons, and Casper), so I’ll root on just about anyone but Novax Djocovid.
On what I’m listening to: My mom asking me why I haven’t packed more (and then kindly offering me some help).