Adjusting to college life can be exciting, overwhelming and sometimes scary.

Within the first year, college students learn and experience new things and face challenges they’ve never faced before. Adjusting to new roommates can be one of those hurdles.

Your roommate can be your new best friend or a complete disaster, but it’s up to you to decide how to handle the situation. 

One of the most common complaints from students is that their roommate is inexcusably messy. 

Questia, the premier online research tool for students, has compiled a list of the top five tips for college students to use to deal with a messy roommate. 

• Create a Task List or Schedule: 

Tasks like cleaning the shared bathroom or vacuuming may not be your thing, but your roommate may not mind doing them. Divvy up cleaning tasks based on what your strong suits are or what you don’t mind cleaning. If you have half of the amount of work, cleaning can become a breeze. 

• Share Responsibilities: 

Set aside a dedicated hour or two once or twice a week to clean together. Not only will your dorm be clean, but it will resolve any future fights about who does most of the work. There will be time where you have to pick up the slack every now and again, but doing all of the work should not become a regular occurrence.  Sharing cleaning responsibilities can make the process a lot smoother for all parties involved. 

• Be Honest: 

Be honest about your pet peeves or if you feel your new roommate isn’t sharing responsibilities. Letting it get to the point where every little thing annoys you or you become passive aggressive is counter-productive to your relationship. The ability to have an honest conversation will ensure that you both are on the same page with each other. 

• Get Your RA Involved: 

If you’ve tried everything and there are still issues with your messy roommate, try getting your RA involved. Maybe they have some techniques or advice that will help. Also, the wrath of an RA might be enough to scare your roommate into cleaning. 

• If All Else Fails, Request a Transfer: 

This is for the dirtiest of dirty roommate situations. If nothing else has worked and you cannot live in your current conditions, you can request a transfer out of the dorm room. This might be the thing you need to get a fresh start by either living solo or with a new roomie.

About Cengage Learning and Questia

Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide.

Questia, part of Cengage Learning, is the web’s premier online collection of copyrighted fiction and non-fiction books, academic journals, and research periodicals for students; with integrated tools for note taking, organizing research, citing sources, creating footnotes, and building bibliographies to help students write better research papers faster.

For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.questia.com.