Have you ever dreaded going backing to your room after class? Were you ever afraid your hostel room or apartment would look like the aftermath of a home invasion? Are you always worried that your belongings may go missing? Has your leftover dinner become their lunch? If your answer is yes to any of these aforementioned questions, then you are living with an inconsiderate roommate.

If you are sharing space with an annoying roommate, it can be hard to live in harmony and peace and that can tangibly affect your quality of life both within the room and outside it. Your peace of mind and productivity in college take a beating. It’s true that the process of reconciliation is a cumbersome one and requires a lot of patience, especially when your roommate is constantly driving you crazy. A key solution to this problem is communication. You need to act like an adult while addressing issues with your roommate. Below are some tips to help you succeed in communicating your complaints to your roommate:

1. Don’t involve third parties and keep the negativity or trash talking to a minimum.

2. Always treat your roommate with respect and establish a clear line of communication.

3.  Be honest and never bottle up your feelings; passive-aggressiveness will only add fuel to the fire.

4. Analyze yourself. Understand your issues if any and commit to improving your behavior. Once your roommate sees that you’re willing to make an effort to coexist, they’ll be more likely to do the same.

5. Carefully delineate boundaries so that your roommate knows where each of you stands. If you have early classes and plan to be in bed as early as possible, or don’t want to share your food, or feel that your roommate is quite insensitive about keeping the room clean and tidy, explain to him in a mature manner.

In the end of the day, if there’s absolutely nothing you can do to improve the situation, contact your hostel supervisor or apartment management and attempt to make a change.

Going forward, take the lessons you’ve learned with the bad roommate and use them to cultivate a healthy relationship with your next roommate. Remember each living condition comes with its own unique scenarios and challenges, so whenever you see behavior that is not conducive to both of you, start with communication. If it works out, as it often does, then you’ll realize that the previous situation only made you a better roommate and a wiser one at that.  You will then know how to deal with an unpleasant situation even if it is not exactly the same as the one you have seen earlier.