SUNY Potsdam

The people you live with also play an important role in your off-campus life.  Here are things to keep in mind regarding housemates:

• Make sure that you are at least acquainted and somewhat compatible with your housemates.  There are enough times throughout your college career when you are feeling stressed.  Housemates can either help you through things, or they can push you over the edge.  

• The smoothest way to run a household is to split up the chores of maintenance in an equal manner.  If everyone has something to clean, pick up, etc., then the household knows who is helping and who is not.  

• Make sure, however, that there is some leniency in your schedule; everyone is extremely busy at different points in the school year.  

• The best way to split up rooms in your household is to draw names out of a hat.  If there are two or more people in a bedroom, try to match up people who are the most compatible with each other.

• The best way to go about handling bills is to have each person in the household be responsible for one utility or “extra” (cable or phone).  This person would be responsible for initiating the hook-up, figuring out the bill, collecting the money and paying for the utility.  This way, one person won’t be getting away without paying their share, and no one will feel cheated.