Rent Out a Room! Kati's Exciting Life in Shared Apartments

Sometimes life puts us in a situation where it's not possible or practical to rent an entire apartment, and we have to rent a room in a shared apartment. As you can imagine, life and the company there can be quite colorful. Kati, a long-time resident of shared apartments, shared her experiences and advice with us. Kati's name is not really Kati, because otherwise she might run into problems. And we certainly don't want that.

So.

Tenant sought (read: cleaner)

Once Kati read an ad that a landlord in a roof apartment in a nice house was looking for female tenants for two vacant rooms. It was a bit suspicious why specifically women were being sought, but the house was nice and Kati decided to move into the new home with her friend. Soon it became clear why the landlord preferred women. The gentleman, namely, was looking for cleaners for himself, because he very much liked a clean room, but didn't like cleaning at all. "Well, girls," could occasionally be heard from the gentleman, "we should probably do a bit of cleaning here." Cleaning, of course, meant that the gentleman didn't lift a finger himself. Kati is a clean person, but she cleans when she wants to, not when a neighbor tells her to.

The landlord also needed to do his laundry, but the female tenants had to figure it out from hints. On two consecutive weekends, it happened that the landlord went away and left laundry in the washing machine. Kati hung out his underwear and other clothes on two Fridays, but when the same thing happened the third week, she left it in the machine. Go to hell!

The gentleman had a wife on the other side of Estonia and a mistress in Tallinn. Kati was given to understand that she should leave the house for his mistress's weekends, but she decided to ignore those silly hints. It was her home, after all, which she paid rent for! The mistress was certainly bothered by Kati's presence, but what could be done.

The landlord had a foul mouth and a crude sense of humor, and Kati's friend couldn't last more than two months in such an environment. She also abandoned the gentleman's book recommendation, which was the life story of the famous porn star Ron Jeremy.

However, the apartment landlord did have one nice rule, which Kati later adopted for herself: food packages don't belong on the table. Let milk be in a jug and butter in a box! We approve.

Roommates should be similar types

Currently Kati lives in Kadriorg in an old wooden house whose owners apparently expect it to collapse, because the house is under monument protection and renovation would cost exorbitantly because of that. The owners are two brothers who play good cop and bad cop: one brings fruit and champagne once a year, the other comes to cause trouble.

Even more interesting, however, is the company of neighbors that Kati has encountered over the years. Each has their own quirks and habits that have developed over time, which others have to adapt to. We all have them, don't we? Okay, actually some people have completely their own logic and understanding that you can't really do anything with. For example, can you imagine having to knock on your neighbor's door and say, "Hey, you dropped potato salad on the kitchen floor, would you please clean it up?"

Or the fact that some people don't close kitchen cabinet doors. They just don't close them, and when Kati drew attention to it, it was considered her quirk. What do you mean!?

One neighbor was the type who didn't cook for himself once a year and lived only on coffee and computer games. He clearly had no idea about vacuum cleaner work principles and was not willing to try, even though Kati tried a couple of times to spark his interest. Nothing.

Meanwhile, Kati had a roommate who was interested, on the other hand, only in cleaning and a cat. And when the cat fell into depression, the neighbor started keeping a cat diary. You would have almost fallen into depression yourself…

Sometimes it happens in a shared apartment that other people's food gets eaten. Otherwise the rule is that everyone has their own shelf in the cabinet. But Kati had a neighbor who filled her shelf with Thai instant noodles. Kati herself doesn't buy such things from the store, because then she wouldn't eat anything else, but now she has to constantly fight with her neighbor's instant noodles and ignore their tempting calls: "Kati, Kati, eat us!" But who could ignore Thai instant noodles all the time, and that's why Kati often has to buy instant noodles from the store, because the packages taken from the neighbor's shelf during moments of weakness need to be replaced. So in a shared apartment it can be unexpectedly difficult to stick to your eating habits.

Recommendations

• Set rules that all residents must follow.
• Explain clearly what cleaning means exactly.
• If a new neighbor comes straight from mom and dad, then you need to find out if they really understand that there is no app for cleaning that sweeps up dust and takes out trash?
• Residents should be as similar types as possible.
• Democracy should prevail in a shared apartment. No other system promises anything good.

In conclusion, Kati says that living in a shared apartment is a great personal development project. Pretty soon you realize that others will never think like you and passive-aggressive complaining doesn't get you anywhere. You have to discuss everything in a friendly and honest way, then everyone will have a pleasant life.

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