Whether you live with your family, best friends, acquaintances, or people from the classifieds, roommates can be difficult to get along with from time to time. I’ve shared tight spaces with a roomie who despised fans and open windows in the heat of summer, another who always left the kitchen compost open and smelling, then another who blasted music until the break of dawn. Your living situation only gets tougher when you and your roommates clash over environmental values. How dare they put another soda bottle in the garbage can or leave the bathroom light on! Here are some tips on how to resolve these differences.
BENEFITS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT : Conserve natural resource by getting everyone in your household on board.
Time and effort: Medium
Cost: Low
Tips to Green Living with Roommates:
1) Be positive! Just by living together, you’re already helping the environment. Two people sharing a space reduces household energy by about 18% per capita, and three people reduce it by 53% per person.1 On a personal note, living together is also the best cure for loneliness. The same roommates that I mentioned above also loved cooking dinner together, hosting awesome dance parties, and practicing group yoga. No matter how frustrating group living can get, having someone to come home to is most often pretty nice ☺
2) Express your concerns. Don’t assume your roommates know that you are bothered by their actions. Once you’ve calmed down, tell them exactly what the problem is. Never yell. Say something like, “I saw some soda cans in the trash. Would you mind separating the cans from the garbage from now on?” To make sure that you and your roommates are communicating, schedule a monthly house meeting!
3) Don’t be annoying. The more you nag your roommates (“Are you kidding me?! You left the light on again?”), the less responsive they’ll be. Not everyone has the time or desire to research the most eco-friendly cleaners or lightbulbs or cooking methods. That’s ok. We all have different priorities, and it’s important that you respect those differences. Do a little self-reflection: Are you annoying to live with? When you express your problems, ask your roommates if they have any concerns they’d like to share. Listen to what they say, and try to understand why they do what they do.
4) Talk money. Your roommates might not think much about , but most everyone cares about where their dollar bills are going. Without ever mentioning the environment, you can talk about the economic benefits of using vinegar and baking soda instead of commercial cleaners, drying clothes outside instead of using the laundromat, buying food in bulk, taking shorter showers, and turning off idle electronics… “Wow, our energy bill is $80 per person again! Maybe we should turn down the thermostat a few degrees and see how much of a difference that makes?!”
5) Don’t be so radical. You might not think that the army of ants marching towards the kitchen bucket is disgusting, but your roommates probably think otherwise. Make compromises. Store the compost outside for now.
6) Educate and entertain. Does your roommate love over-packaged, processed foods? Try to turn them on to whole foods by cooking a dinner together, or ask them if they’d like to watch the film FOOD, INC. with you, or leave a copy of Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma on the coffee table. Whatever you do, don’t shout facts at them.
7) Do more than your part. Your roomie still forgets to recycle? Place a clearly labeled in the kitchen and bathroom. Do they still leave the light on when they go out? Then flick it off for them… that was easy!
8) Keep improving. Your household is now recycling, using ceiling fans, and washing only full loads of dishes. That’s awesome! What else can you do? Here are some ideas:
- Reuse your gray water .
- Water the lawn during mornings and evenings.
- Plant a container garden that is self-watering !
- Save water buy buying a weight for the toilet tank, or just put a filled up water bottle in there.
- Insulate with draft snakes and storm windows.
- Purchase energy-saving power strips.
- Rent solar panels.
Add your own goals to this checklist, and encourage your roommates to do the same!
