One thing that almost every group of roommates goes through is what to do about chores.  Whether you're in the dorms or in an apartment, you may have to compromise how you keep your room.  While I don't like leaving food wrappings all over the place, I do have a tendency to leave papers scattered everywhere on the floor.  And since most of my roommates have been a lot more organized than me, I almost always get teased for it.  But since I do it in my own space, they can't actually yell at me to clean my room up!

Living with someone else is not always easy.  Sometimes, it's easier to agree with the other person rather than voice your own opinion.  Other times, you can get into a very big argument that ends in a huge fight.  For example, my housemates and I are having issues deciding chore schedule.  One person wants the chores to be done every week, on a weekly basis, and everyone has to do their chores.  Anotehr person is constantly missing her chores because she's trying to do other schoolwork.  Another person doesn't think we need to be quite so strict on chores, but she does them anyways.  And I am not sure how to deal with it.  On the one hand, I do think some chores should be done at least every two weeks.  On the other hand, I do get busy, which means I forget about doing other things, like chores or even other homework assignments.

How are we going to solve this?

We have the chores divided up, and we have a calendar that tells which chore falls to which person.  This allows us to know who did not do their chore.  Also, we all agreed on what the chores were.  This organization helps to spread the chores around, so one person isn't stuck doing everything.

Also, we have house meetings.  When school starts up again, we are going to have a discussion about chores, just so everyone is on the same page.  This can be done over dinner, during the day, or at any time, but the point of a house meeting is to get everything settled.  This allows everyone to voice their concerns, and allows us to compromise.  It also allows us to get to know each other, since we are all usually very busy with our own lives.

But we do need to figure out how to solve this problem.  Chores may not seem like that big a deal in the beginning, but it does quickly become an issue, especially if one roommate feels like they are doing all the work and the other roommate is not helping enough.