Private Property

To build on the concept of roommate relationships as a business situation, consider the value of your private property. In order to do "business" with the selected roommate, you must be able to trust their code of ethics. In a normal context, business deals are not made with untrustworthy parties due to the risk of failure to the business person. The same ideas apply to shared spaces and property within a roommate household. It is a well known fact that people are more appreciative and respectful of their own gains, because they worked and earned that property. On the flip side, most people take advantage of the property of others, even if they do not recognize this abuse of privileges. The issue with roommates can arise when one party abuses the property of the other. In a family household, this abuse of privileges usually comes from the child toward the property of the parent, and the consequence is usually a form of punishment or removal of those privileges. However, when living with a roommate, there is no real hierarchy or justice system in place and situations cannot be so easily resolved.

For instance, in my current living arrangement, I purchased a washing machine and clothes dryer and gave my roommate, Kate, the privileges to use these laundry machines. With this, my only requests were that she not abuse the machines and to clean the dryer lint after each use. You guessed it, she abuses my property. Normal issues like dryer lint never really bothered me, but it is quite disturbing to find a slice of lunch meat in your washing machine. It made me question my own sanity. I reacted with amazement at this disgusting find, and when I questioned Kate about this detergent-smelling slice of ham, she of course denied that it belonged to her. It must have been a ghost...

The point here is that if you are going to provide any of your property for common use, expect it to be mistreated and possibly destroyed. Depending on the type of roommate, your things may only be accidentally damaged or perhaps deliberately destroyed because "it was ugly". Words from my first roommate, Lacy. Needless to say, I expected her to replace the whiteboard calendar that she wrote on with permanent marker but she never did so. I am still trying to figure out what could be ugly about a whiteboard. It is plain white.

After three attempts at fair use of shared property, it is my advice to you that separation of goods is the way to good. Any items that can be reasonably kept separate should be. This includes all food, kitchen items including dishes and cookware, household products like laundry detergent, and miscellaneous property such as DVDs and linens. If it is unreasonable to keep these items separate, I would suggest marking your property with some type of identifier so that when your lease ends and you move out, there is no dispute over who owns your property.