Sorting It Out Ahead of Time
Whether it's with a sweetheart, a good friend, or an elderly mother—when two people combine households and move in together, a little planning goes a long way. Use these tips to help clarify how you'll set up your new household.

Thinking about your relationship
Who you move in with makes a big difference in the types of decisions you'll make as roommates. If it's with a spouse or sweetheart, your big decisions will be which duplicate items you can get rid of. Since home-sharing with a friend is usually temporary, you'll be deciding who will store the extra furniture and other items. With elderly parents, decisions will be more about how to set aside personal space. Although your new home may have a common kitchen, dining area, and living room, you'll probably find that you both need to decide on space that each person can call "mine."

Choosing a place for two
To decide how much room you'll need, start with your current residences as a basis for comparison. While you can cut back on total floor space because you'll be sharing a kitchen and living room, be sure that your new place also has enough personal space for each of you (bedrooms, closets, and so on).

Think about the things you like to do at home:
• Entertaining: Do you need a separate dining room, or is an eat-in kitchen sufficient for you? Do you need a guest room?
• Music and home entertainment: Do you need a large area for a grand piano, an extensive sound system, or home theatre unit?
• Pets: What about extra space for your pets and their needs (such as eating and sleeping space, and a place for the cat box)?
• Home office: Does your home office need to be in a separate room, or can it be combined with your book collection or entertainment center? If you're sharing with a roommate, perhaps you'll want your offices in your bedrooms.

Plan on space for storage:
• Closets: How much room do you need for brooms and mops, linens, clothing, coats, and sewing or other projects?
• Drawers: How many do you need for each person's clothing, files, and kitchen items?
• Cabinets: You'll probably need cabinet space for the bathroom (supplies, toiletries, and medicines), kitchen (pots, pans, and appliances), entertainment area (CDs, tapes, and stereo system), and laundry room.
• Food pantry: : If the kitchen doesn't have a separate pantry, be sure the shelf space will hold both food and your dishes.
• Storage shelves: Think about what you'll need for the garage, shop, basement, yard, and utility room.

Consider your communication needs:
Telephone and data lines: Can you share a single phone line? If you each use it only a little and don't work from home, the answer may be "yes." But if you both prefer to keep phone calls separate and private, if one of you dials into the Internet each evening, or if you need a dedicated line for your business's fax machine, you'll probably want to install more phone lines. Voice mail: If you share a telephone line, you might consider each having one voice mailbox as well as one for each business you and your roommate own. Cable: Do both of you want cable? If you can both agree on what channels you want, you can split the bill down the middle. But if one wants cable and one doesn't, you'll need to negotiate.

Agreeing on finances
As sure as death and taxes, bills will be coming to your home. Decide together how to split the household finances.
• Telephone: If you both use the telephone somewhat evenly, split the bill down the middle, except for any individual long-distance calls.
• Utilities and rent: Are you going to split everything 50-50, or is some other system fairer? If your spouse makes twice what you do, you may decide to pitch in according to paycheck size. If your roommate maintains a computer lab full of equipment, you may ask her to pitch in for the better part of the electric bill.
• Groceries: Will you each buy your own food, or will you take turns buying the week's groceries? To keep track of who paid what for shared groceries, you can sign the receipts and post them all on the fridge until month's end, when you can even up the accounts.
• Name on the lease: Roommates need to decide whose name to put on the lease and how long they agree to share the house or apartment.

Defining sharable and personal space
• Before you move in, be sure to clarify how you'll share your new place.
• Decide the function of each room: Decide how you'll use the rooms. Will you use the spare room as an office, a hobby room, or a multimedia room? Sometimes one space can be used in multiple ways, sometimes not (for example, a needs-to-be-quiet office and a potentially raucous stereo center won't mix).
• Choose where the furniture will go: Draw a small map of your new home and sketch where to put each piece of furniture. Visualize where everything will fit. If you find you need to get rid of or store furniture, it's best to know that before moving day.
• Agree on personal and shared space: Decide what you're willing to share, and make it clear up front. You may be okay with sharing a tube of toothpaste with your wife, but not your roommate. Since the other person may have different ideas about personal boundaries, be sure to have a discussion early on about whether it's all right to use each other's computer or stereo equipment on a day-to-day basis.
• Discuss house rules: Come to an agreement about household chores, telephone use and messages, noise levels, and overnight guests.

With all these decisions out of the way, you're off to a great start. Enjoy your new home!


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