There may be a period in time your life when you had to live with someone you didn’t care for much. I’m sure you know I’m referring to that one person who enters the room and your skin crawls! This can be a difficult situation for all parties involved, especially if you’re the one constantly struggling with this living arrangement.
If you have no choice but to tolerate this arrangement for a while, and you’ve tried unsuccessfully to make friends, don’t despair. There are several things you can do to survive this period of time without losing your mind and to avoid serious confrontations you may regret later.
- Define and give each other your own space. Designating space may ensure that everyone has their own area where they are free to do whatever they want, especially stay out of each other’s way. Common areas could be tricky, so either develop different times for use or collaborate on ways to share the space.
- Establish boundaries. Discuss which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. Establish house rules and abide by them, but always remain flexible. Make sure everyone understands and respects each other’s boundaries.
- Treat each other with respect. Ignoring someone; giving him or her dirty looks, and behaving passive-aggressively (leaving the cabinet doors open when you clearly know it annoys the other person), are spiteful behaviors. Treat others as you want to be treated. Just because you are stuck living together does not give you the right to be mean, rude, or insensitive.
- Try to maintain peace even when things don’t go smoothly. When a situation arises that may lead to confrontation, don’t give into it. Walk away, discuss the matter some other time when you’re not as upset, and certainly avoid becoming physically or verbally abusive.
- Avoidance. When it’s not possible to maintain harmonious living arrangements, avoid the person by remaining in your personal space or spending more time out of the house.
Respecting each other is essential to living in harmony. If living with the person becomes unbearable, make arrangements for one of you to move out as soon as possible. Living with someone you don’t like is not an ideal situation but sometimes you may not have a choice. If you all have to remain in this situation for a period of time, it is important for all parties to cooperate in order to make the living situation more bearable until you can each go your separate ways.
