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Living with friends can be a positive opportunity that brings about friendship and savings, but it can also create a unique set of challenges. You may experience conflict over splitting bills, cleaning the house, or addressing an issue. Having some structure or communication is very important in these settings. Luckily, it seems like there is an app for everything these days, and in fact, there are many apps that are designed to make your experience of having a roommate better, more fun and organized.
A successful roommate arrangement will depend heavily on your compatibility with the person or people that you share your living space with. In other words, on each of the aspects from your lifestyle habits to your accountability in paying bills, the more aligned you are, aligned on what you value, what you prefer to do, preferences on the noises you enjoy or don’t enjoy, and so forth, the simpler the arrangement will be for you. If you are new to a city or simply wanted a change, it could be nice to have a roommate who meets your needs.
One of the best methods for getting a dependable and compatible roommate is using SpareRoom. SpareRoom is a widely used roommate finder that immediately connects you with people looking for a room (or people to rent to). Once you're set up, SpareRoom allows you to filter prospective roommates based on a variety of characteristics that can include lifestyle, budget, or area.
spareroom.com covers all sorts of cities including Dallas, NYC, Austin, Las Vegas, among many others. As you consider where to find someone to live with, and if you are in Dallas, consider using SpareRoom to find someone else who fits what you want in a living situation.
One of the most common sources of tension among roommates is managing finances, especially when it comes to splitting bills. Fortunately, there are apps designed specifically to eliminate the confusion and ensure everyone pays their fair share.
Splitwise is one of the most popular apps for tracking shared expenses. Whether you’re splitting rent, groceries, utilities, or dining out, Splitwise makes it easy to log expenses and track who owes whom. The app calculates the balances automatically, so you don’t have to worry about the math. You can also use it to send reminders and settle up via Venmo or PayPal.
While Venmo is not tailored for use with roommates, it is certainly a popular app for sending money. If you need to reimburse your roommates for a mutual monthly purchase or send them money for rent, it is the perfect app. Venmo works nicely with other apps like Splitwise, which can be helpful for managing finances as well.
In addition, Venmo has a feature that allows you to split any transaction and send your fair share, so you can transfer your share of the bill when you’re at the store or for pizza with roommates.
Zently is an app designed for rent, bills, and other expenses in a shared living space. Not only can you pay rent through the app, but it can help you ensure payments are received on time, and eliminate the hassle of checks or bank transfers. In addition to paying rent, Zently allows you to set up your roommate agreements, and track payments and bills.
Keeping the apartment clean and organized can be a major challenge when living with roommates. From dishwashing to vacuuming, household chores can easily become a point of contention if there isn’t a clear system in place. Thankfully, there are apps that can help create an organized chore schedule and ensure everyone pulls their weight.
OurHome is an excellent app for managing household chores, grocery lists, and shared calendars. It allows roommates to assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress. With features for creating grocery shopping lists, meal plans, and reminders, OurHome helps make household management a breeze.
The app has a point system to keep everyone motivated, making it a fun way to stay on top of chores and responsibilities. If you’re looking for a way to keep your apartment clean without arguments, OurHome might be your best friend.
Although Trello was originally intented for project management, it also works as a great household organization tool. You can create boards for each area in your home (kitchen, bathroom, living room) and assign each roommate tasks that need to be taken care of. Trello also allows you to add due dates, checklists, and comments to ensure everyone's on the same page.
Because of Trello's customizable nature, this is potentially the best tool for roommates who would rather create their own system or routine for completing their household chores.
If you want something that is a little more straightforward, Clean My House is a task management app specifically created to manage cleaning type tasks. It offers a structured and simple way to list chores that were prioritized and assign to specific roommates. The app provides reminders and notification due dates to manage tasks so that no chore is overlooked.
Communication is so important when living with roommates, and sometimes text messages or group chats can get overwhelming. Fortunately, there are apps that make it easy to communicate and coordinate with your housemates.
GroupMe is a free messaging application which allows you to create group chats for any topic. It will definitely help you and your roommates keep all of your communication in one place! You could create chats for rent, chores, social events, etc. In addition to chat trades, GroupMe enables you to send pictures, polls, and reminders—making it easier to find a good use for the events and tasks that take up our time as roommates!
While Google Keep is a note-taking app, it will help the organized roommate stay productive too! It really helps with sharing lists, ideas, or reminders. You and your roommates can share a shopping list for grocery needs, housekeeping needs, or even ideas for the next decorating project for the apartment.
Slack is a messaging tool aimed primarily at team communication in workplaces, but is just as easy for roommates! With Slack you can create different "channels" for any topic you like; cleaning, bills, social activities. Slack can help organize your home and keep all discussions in one place that everyone can access at any time. Slack adds to that effort by linking with other apps our tool, such as Google Calendar, Trello, etc.
In addition to managing finances and chores, staying organized is essential to maintaining a smooth and happy household.
Cozi is a family and household organization application that functions well for roommate use too. Cozi includes shared calendars, to-do lists, and meal planners to help keep your group organized for "important" tasks. Cozi works great for roommates who want to plan group activities, keep track of household events, or coordinate shopping trips.
For those roommates that need a little more help getting tasks done on time, Todoist is an excellent option. Todoist is a task management app that allows you to create shared to-do lists and assign specific tasks to each roommate. Using Todoist, you can keep track of cleaning chores, or plan for an upcoming trip.
Having roommates can be such a rewarding living situation! But being a good roommate calls for good communication, cooperation, and organization. Having the right apps to help you manage finances, chores, and everyday tasks will make it much easier than ever!
