Let me throw this scenario out there: you’re in need of a place to live but can’t afford to move out on your own. Coincidentally, your best friend since childhood is also in the same boat as you.
The natural course of action then would be to simply rent a place together, right? You’ve known each other for most of your lives, you already spend a heap of time together, and it’s far safer than finding some random to be your housemate. Plus, you’re living with your best friend and that just screams fun.
Well, I hate to throw a bucket of cold water all over this flame but this is a slippery slope to breaking the bond between you and your BFF.
It’s one thing to spend a few hours every other day with your best friend, but having to be around them all the time in the same house? That can get tiresome. Sometimes you just want some time to yourself and having your BFF get all up in your space will inevitably grind your gears.
Then there’s the actual “living” part of living with your BFF. All of a sudden you’ve been given a front row seat to things you never experienced with your friend before, like their habit of not washing the dishes, leaving you to clean the bathroom all the time, never packing up their stuff that’s left lying around, and playing music loudly at night when you’re trying to sleep.
This also goes both ways. You may get annoyed at your friend’s slobbish tendencies but they’re probably annoyed at how you hog the bathroom for hours at a time, take up all the shelves in the fridge, or use up all the space on the clothes line.
Now the simple solution would be to hash it out with your friend. After all, the two of you are pals and have had many D&Ms in the past so a chat about living rules should be easy. Well, not always.
There’s the worry that being upfront with your BFF could upset the dynamic of the household and make things awkward. The last thing you want is to get in a spat with your best friend over not cleaning the dishes.
It sounds stupid but all these little things ultimately add up and the resulting resentment could ultimately boil over into your friendship.
This isn’t to say that you won’t be able to live peacefully with your BFF, it’s perfectly possible and it is frigging awesome. But having experienced both the good and bad that comes with renting with close friends, relationships being strained over dumb little things does happen and things can go downhill.
Just be mindful that being housemates is different to being friends and not necessarily always in a good way.