How to Live With a Best Friend

Have some Respect. There comes a lot of things that you'll need to consider when you're living with your best friend and one of them is that you show respect. Not only respect them (which you most likely do already) but respect their personal belongings and their personal space too. Don't go through their stuff without asking them first - even if they say, "What's mine is yours", they could still get angry with you and an argument can occur. It's ideal to hang out with each other but when your best friend is clearly busy with something/someone and doesn't want to be disturbed, respect that and leave them alone until they're free. Another thing would be respecting their personal beliefs, and problems concerning that could have been avoided if you talked about before you actually moved in together. However, if, for example, they initially forget to tell you that they can't have pork in the house because of their beliefs and you get into an argument after you cook some bacon, sincerely apologise and make sure not to upset them over the same thing again.^[4]

Stay clean. Practicing good hygiene isn't always something that crosses someone's mind as a potential problem when they want to live with their friend because they would expect them to do that anyway. However, you could end up surprised when you figure out that they are not as hygienic as you thought they were. This is the same for them; what you might find acceptable might come across as inconsiderate and "bad manners" to them. Leaving dirty dishes, dirty underwear, juice cartons, used disposable razors, take-away containers and other health and safety hazards laying around will give you some unwanted guests and they can potentially even do some harm to the both of you. Be considerate and think twice about putting dirty cutlery back in the drawer or not washing the bathtub after you use it. Encourage each other to clean up after your own mess and maybe even talk about a couple of unsanitary things around the house every now and then to give them a hint. If it doesn't bother you too much, clean up after them too every once in a while but don't let them start taking advantage of you because it can become a habit if it already isn't one. If things aren't going too well and it turns out that your friend is a slob, you'll need to be as assertive as you can with them without hurting their feelings - some people just can't help themselves.^[5]

Respect each others Dietary habits and needs. You've already discussed potential dietary habits as a result of their own personal beliefs and/or health conditions so make sure that you stand by the things that you agreed on. If your lactose intolerant friend doesn't see why there should even be a problem with you having dairy products in the house but doesn't want any kind of meat in the house, you'll need to stick by your initial promise. You can try reasoning with them to see if they can change their mind but things that involve allergies need to be taken seriously - especially nut allergies. Your friend may not appreciate you cooking/eating certain things (with or without religious/cultural/health reasons) when they're around so make sure that you also respect that. Another thing would be making sure that you're not eating everything in the house. If they seem to be doing this themselves, go easy on them when you address it because they might have an eating disorder that they never told you about. You might also want to be careful about eating things that they bought. Considering the fact that you live together, you should be able to share food with each other without any immature problems but if they have made it clear that they don't want that at all, then make sure that you listen. Make sure that they know how to respect your requests too.^[6]

Be aware of "Pet peeves". We all have those little things that make us tick; things that we sometimes tend to not actually bring up unless we see/hear someone doing it. Make sure that you address them properly with each other when the offender is at play and try not to take things out of context. If people leaving the cap off of toothpaste fuels your fire, try to be reasonable when you express the way that you feel about it, your friend may find it hard to take you too seriously otherwise, may dismiss it as a joke and then continue doing it much to your annoyance.^[7]