7 Benefits And 7 Disadvantages Of Sharing An Apartment

Sharing Is Not Always Caring.

March 30, 2022

Sharing an apartment with someone can be a cool experience and, at the same time, a nightmare. Or a bit of both worlds I shared apartments for almost 7 years and learned much about myself and other people. It was fun, entertaining, and exhausting at the same time.

That’s why in this blog post, I will tell you why I am done sharing apartments.

No matter what you do, there will always be a shiny and a dark side to the story. The same comes with sharing a place.

If you are younger, in your 20s or early 30s, I encourage you to do it. It is a beneficial experience that will teach you many lessons and improve skills that maybe you didn’t even know about.

My first shared accommodation was in 2010 when I moved to Berlin, and it was not the best one. I had a big room with a small bed and almost zero furniture. The landlord was a nice older woman but pedantic and difficult. She is the mother of a friend of mine there. A lovely lady bless her heart. But at that time, we didn’t really get along. First of all, there was an age difference. Every evening she was expecting me to sit and talk to her and, well, didn’t really feel like it. I was in my late 20s, and she was in her late 50s, so you get my point.

The bathroom was shared, and she kept raising my rent. After 3 months she told me I had to move … in 2 days. So my first experience sharing a house with someone was not the most exciting, to say the least.

A few months later, I moved in with Olga, a Russian girl, and we shared a nice place in West Berlin. We had great fun times, and we used to go out together, plus we were both from the salsa community. After 2 years, she told me that she wanted to live alone. I was sad initially, but it was for the best as I rented a very nice 2 bedroom myself.

Because I was single and wanted to make an extra buck, I rented one of the rooms.

So there we go, me being in charge of making the rules and ultimately some money.

I had 3 girls staying with me (at different times) of all different nationalities: Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish.

The Portuguese and the Romanian were all friendly and clean, but the Spanish kept the room dirty and stinky. And the Romanian, as lovely as she was every time I was getting home, she wanted to chat and blah blah …, and that was not what I wanted, at least not every evening.

When I moved to Dubai, I shared my first apartment with one of the company’s owners I was working with.

Generally speaking, it was ok, but of course, she had rules even though I was paying as well. And ridiculous ones like: we can’t decorate the house for Christmas because it reminded me of my fucked up childhood when I was a spoiled rich little girl. Like please … #rollingmyeyes

I was ok at that time, but now I would show her the middle finger and send her to a therapist.

I also wanna mention that her cat (cute one but … ) had the “wonderful” habit of jumping on the table while eating. I have a cat as well, but Jesus, let’s talk about basic hygiene here – and it’s enough hair everywhere. The cat was also eating the plants (mine) and … all the fucking cables in the house. All wires and threads in the place were destroyed. Eventually, the cat had to “fix” my 100 USD laptop charger. When I told my flatmate, she thought it was funny. So, who paid for it? Me! Happy Days!

My last shared apartment was a nice place close to the Mall of the Emirates (Dubai) with one of the girls from our group. It was a delightful experience and not in a fun way. We had a lot of fights and misunderstandings, and I treated her super well, and she talked shit behind my back.

She expected me to come home every evening, entertain her, and help her while she was cleaning, even though I didn’t ask her anything when it was my turn. Requested me for 20 DHS because she drove me once to the post office when she offered, complained that I had the nerve to have guests at home while she had guests too, And my visitors were actually common friends.

We had a lot of great memorable times as most of our friends were from the same group. The parties were wild, and we were clubbing and traveling together.

But there was a lot of shitty BS that made me wanna be on my own.
Below It’s A List Of What I Think Is Good About Sharing And What Sucks:
Benefits

1. You meet new people and build friendships 
2. You test your limits and get to understand more what you can tolerate and what you can’t 
3. You might not need to buy furniture and spend money decorating a house. 
4. The fun times are priceless
5. There is always someone around, and you can do stuff together 
6. Rent and all the bills are split in half, so you will end up paying less
7. You can throw fantastic parties

Disadvantages

1. You don’t have 100% privacy. Never. Unless your flatmate is traveling. Otherwise, there will always be someone around. 
2. In Germany, the bathroom is shared, which sucks. I remember one of the girls used to spend 30 min just flossing. At least in Dubai, every room has a bathroom allocated. 
3. You have to ask permission for certain things or discuss other things like having guests. If you have your friends traveling simultaneously, it’s a big issue.
4. All decisions are joint. And it’s not like you are in a couple. So imagine if you wanna take a pet, for example. 
5. Hygiene can be a problem.
6. It can be noisy sometimes. 
7. You might have shitty, useless, and annoying disagreements frequently #headache!

Listen, I am far from perfect, and I have my habits, patterns, and moods. But I am not an ungrateful bitch, and I will always give space.

Currently, I live alone from the summer of 2017. And I am telling you! I will never ever go back to sharing, not even for free. If I am in a couple, yes, but with someone else, never in my life.

It was exciting, entertaining, and unique in so many ways. I think everyone should share at least once because this experience will teach you so many valuable things.

Living alone is also good and bad, but believe me, there are more perks than disadvantages.

Yeah, if you are single, sometimes you might feel alone. It happens even to me, even though I am super busy and many times I have guests.

But I am the boss of the house, and I rule my kingdom the way that I want! Hurray for that!

What is your experience sharing an apartment with someone?