In 2008, I moved into a tower apartment with three other people close to San Francisco State University. During the move in, no one knew the exact living arrangements. I originally was hoping to live in the master bedroom with my friend from the dorms. Instead, I was paired up with a person I did not know too well and forced to live in the smaller room. One roommate, Ben, made the argument that whoever brought the most communal things should live in the master bedroom, and if the current living arrangements did not work out then we all could swap rooms during winter. We all agreed to the idea and I settled living in the small room.
Ben got to live in the master bedroom because he brought half of the living room furniture, but he also brought the most junk. He was the kind of guy who brought things no one would never need: five samurai swords for display, a closet full of BB guns, and glassware for mixing drinks. Half the stuff Ben brought from home was impractical and a waste of space. Towards the end of our lease we ended up throwing away most of his furniture (It was destroyed through his obsessive partying), and he sold his BB gun collection to make rent. The lesson I learned from Ben is do not bring junk for “decoration” because it serves no purpose. To anyone who plans to live with other people please be considerate and prioritize bringing only bare essentials and things other people can use like dishes, pots, pans, toaster, etc…but do not use random junk or personal belongings as a justification to live in the master bedroom.
2 comments:
I agree that you shouldn't use the amount of junk you have as justification for getting the master bedroom. However, I believe that every one is entitled to bring their own things into the living space, and make it there own. Granted there are limits to how much stuff I would be willing to tolerate. But without all the stuff and chotchkies, It ceases to be a home and is merely a place where people sleep.
There is a big discrepancy between what some people think is useful and some think is just crap. It's very hard to tell your roommate that you do not want her myriad empty wine bottles to the kitchen table decoration. You never really know what weird possessions people are attached to. In my house, I'm forbidden to dispose of any dead flowers. We keep flowers for years, dead in their vases. I admit, they're pretty for awhile, but after a month, I'm over the dead flora. It's impossible to say anything about this situation because the roommate who hoards all this stuff is also the roommate who has supplied us with the kitchen table, sofa, pots and pans, comfortable chairs, carpets, etc. I suppose this is when we have to take one for the team - ignore our annoyance of extra junk so that we can appreciate the luxury of actual furniture. Your blog is very relatable, and I think most people can understand these roommate difficulties. It's remarkable how terrible roommates can be during the first couple of years of college. We have no idea how to be good roommates, and you depict typical roommate flaws very well!
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