The Roommate Decision Making Game

I’ve been living alone in my two-bedroom apartment since I moved up here. I’ve been liking it a lot, however I am not loving how much the utilities are on my own. And we haven’t even gotten to winter yet and I am super nervous about the electric bill in the winter because I have electric heat (baseboard heaters) and it’s already over $100 for each March and April when it was still slightly cold.

I’m also not loving how big a percentage of my income/budget housing is, when you include all the things like rent, water, electric, and internet. When I do the math it’s 35-40% of my income with rough estimates of utilities each month (I haven’t been here long enough to fully have estimates down), which isn’t bad, it’s pretty much right where “they” say my housing expenses should be. However, I keep thinking about how I could get a roommate and half all of my expenses (except cell phone, car insurance, and student loan payments). And have a lot more money for saving, investing, and buying furniture.

However, the reason I’m not contacting my landlord and posting the room immediately is more feelings based and not so much based on numbers.

I’m currently using the bedroom closet to store my Christmas decorations and off-season tires. I was also using the room as my office, but I moved my desk and drawers into my bedroom to see what it feels like in there. But I have no clue what to do with my Christmas decorations bin or my off-season tires. I’m not going to make my tires into coffee tables, and I don’t want my apartment to smell like rubber and the Christmas bin is huge. It’s one of the big tree bins. So I only have one bin of Christmas decorations, but it’s probably 5 feet long and 2 feet deep and wide. I don’t have room in my closet for it and there’s no outside storage for stuff like this.
This is the more feeling based one- I really like having the living space all to myself. I like not having to share the kitchen, I like being able to leave my dishes for a day if I feel like it and not have to worry about it bothering anyone. I like being able to spend all evening out in the living room watching whatever I want on TV, changing the show if I get bored without asking anyone. I like being able to do whatever I want without worrying about if I’m bothering another person. Not sharing a bathroom! Not needing to coordinate laundry – I can leave my stuff in the dryer for a day if I want! It’s the best.

I’m stuck in the middle of this somewhere. But who doesn’t love a Seventeen magazine style quiz?

I also have another reason in the pro column of getting a roommate. Housing is tough here. There is not enough, a lot of people end up in temporary housing situations, moving every few months, and among the Indigenous traditional residents, they often end up in poor housing conditions or in overcrowded houses because the healthcare workers with more money to spend on housing come up here and take the better rentals or buy the empty lots and build million dollar homes on them, not only taking up big plots of land but often public access to their traditional waterways. But anyways, that’s the #SJW reason.

So in the can you move your stuff area, I am looking at this tire rack from Home Depot. I think I have a spot where it could go perfectly and be hidden, it just also probably means buying a drill or hiring someone to put it up. And maybe also getting permission from my landlords to put it up? If I take it down and fill in and cover the holes, do I need to ask permission? We don’t have security deposits in Ontario, but they can charge you for repairs if you do big damage.