I got the job... and another request!!!

I got the job!!!!... I got the job!!!!... I got the job!!!!

I am the assistant manager for the Cherry Hill Photo Santa Set at the mall!!! SOOOOOO excited!!!!!

And I also got a request on facebook to give my feedback on which rules I think should be put in place on the CP apartments between roommates, so here goes nothing...

Technically, all of your roommates are going to be legal adults. With that being said... not all of them will act like it and in order to keep yourself from going insane, you might want to sit down with your roommates day 1 and come up with some friendly guidelines...

Here are some ideas:

1. My roommates and I did a chores chart. we took a piece of paper and drew a line down the middle. on one side, went everyone's name on the other side went the chores that needed to be done : garbage, dishes, get the mail, etc etc etc.

We found cute little square magnets in the target dollar section and placed that list on the fridge. When the magnet was on your name, you did that chore. and then you would place the magnet on the next name. It worked really well for us.

2. Figure out a cooking schedule. My roommates and I bought all of our own food and then we had masking tape and a permanent marker so we could write our name on our food. No one ever had the same schedules, so we all cooked for ourselves. Something you may consider buying though and splitting the cost of is stuff like pots and pans. The ones we got in chatham were in kind of poor condition and for 8 people, we didn't get that many.

3. You may want to figure out in your apartment who has a car and who doesn't. I allllwayyysss drove everywhere and noone ever really offered to help chip in for gas and the gas stations by the apartments are a lot higher then anywhere else. It really adds up in gas when you think about it, so come up with some reinbursement system for gas if that is something you will particpate in.

4. talk with your roommates and decide on the rules of inviting others over to your apartment. Like how late is too late, on noise levels, etc. Also... get it across to your roommates that you WILL be termed if there is illegal stuff going on in your apartment and you get caught. No one wants to get termed for something that isn't their fault.

5. Have rules about sleepovers and levels of PDA. seriously. my roommate and I didn't have any such rules and I had one too many surprises... also keep in mind that you can lock the bedroom door from the inside, so if you get home, and all you want to do is go to bed... your roommate might have the door locked, so talk about how you will handle that.

6. Talk to your immediate roommate about what kind of a sleeper you are. How do you handle lights turned on, hair dryers blowing, etc in the morning?!? If you can sleep through it, GREAT! If not... let them know. After a week or so of being woken up every morning, you'll get cranky. trust me. Just be honest from the begining and you'll be much better off!

I think that's about all i've got now. Remember... your roommates pay to live there too, so compromise is key. You will be living with people from all over the country and in some cases, all over the world. People have different ways of doing things than you do and it's part of the learning process of the college program. Learning to live with different people. Have fun though, be creative, and follow the housing rules. Property Management doesn't take them lightly.