Latest news with #roommates
CBS News
01-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Speed roommating helping Bay Area renters find the perfect match amid high costs
Move over, speed dating, speed roommating is taking center stage in the Bay Area housing scene. The in-person events, hosted by roommate-matching service SpareRoom, are helping renters like Priyanka Shatty connect with compatible housemates in an increasingly unaffordable market. "I've been here in the Bay Area for five years now, and I'm looking to move to the city," Shatty said at a recent gathering in the Mission District. "I thought it would be a great opportunity to find a roommate here. The rent is, like, obnoxious to live alone." She's not exaggerating. According to SpareRoom, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is around $3,000 a month — a price tag that's prompting more residents to consider splitting costs. But rather than signing a lease with a stranger, speed roommating allows people to meet face-to-face in a social setting to find a safe, compatible match. "Priority should be your safety and mental sanity, right? That is very important," Shatty said. "And if that can be conducive with other people? Then yeah, why not?" Participants at the events jot down budgets, neighborhood preferences and hobbies, hoping to find someone who matches not just on logistics, but lifestyle. Rupert Hunt, founder and CEO of SpareRoom, said the gatherings can help people avoid the all-too-common roommate mismatch. "The trouble is, occasionally you maybe spend an hour or two going to a viewing, and then you might know within moments that you won't get along with the person," Hunt said. "So this is a more immediate version of SpareRoom, where you meet the people you're going to live with. And you know it's the people that are going to make or break the experience, not the size of the room or the power of the shower." In a city where the cost of living continues to soar, the events are being seen not just as a practical solution, but as a potential financial lifesaver. "If you could save a thousand dollars by splitting it with somebody and have a decent living situation — why not?" Shatty said. "It's a win-win, right?" Because in the Bay Area, finding the right roommate might just be the real happily-ever-after.
New York Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Slob, a Witch, a Lifelong Friend: New Yorkers' Best Roommate Stories
Christian Alexander's first apartment in New York City was in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and his roommate was filthy. The man's space was littered with chewed gum, dirty laundry, food, loose tobacco and weed, spare change and dog treats. But none of that compared to what Mr. Alexander — perhaps inevitably — found one day. His roommate had been housing 'an army of maggots,' Mr. Alexander said. 'And he didn't have a clue.' Roommates can be a great solution to high New York City rents but also a never-ending source of frustration. Borrowing clothes without permission. Eating food without paying for it. Stealing! Nearly everyone who has started a new life in the city has suffered through a wild roommate situation or two. Now, with limited space, and rents incredibly high and rising, newcomers and people who have been here for years are urgently on the hunt for affordable options. That often involves a roommate. Or two. Or more. The situation will become more acute in coming weeks, as young people with summer jobs, internships and dreams of exciting new lives arrive in large numbers. We asked New Yorkers to share their most unforgettable roommate experiences and found that they came in all flavors: horrifying, heartwarming, weird and curious. One person had a fashion-student roommate he described as 'a practicing witch.' A woman in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, recalled a roommate with perpetually lost keys who climbed in and out through the fire escape — setting off alarms day and night. Sometimes roommate drama takes over your entire life. Just ask James Tanford, a 29-year-old comedian living in Bed-Stuy, who posted a hilarious 13-part video series on Instagram detailing his nightmarish experience. Mr. Tanford plays all the characters in the drama as he explains how one roommate threatened to stab another and the police were called several times. 'We got kicked out after two arrests, three lawsuits and $10,000 in rent owed,' he said. What makes New York living so different from other American cities is that it's full of extremely small apartments. It's not unusual to see bathtubs in kitchens or closets that double as bedrooms, and, in general, very, very tight quarters. In an apartment on West 103rd Street in Manhattan Valley, Bob Stachel had the only bedroom, and his 6-foot-4 roommate stationed a small bed behind the kitchen stove. When the roommate's girlfriend stayed overnight, he would 'open the bathroom door to block the hallway that led to the doorless kitchen,' Mr. Stachel said. 'I couldn't get a snack or take a poop!' In Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, Paul Ratnofsky's roommate built a loft bed extremely close to the ceiling's single exposed lightbulb. 'He was forced to unscrew the bulb every night,' he recalled. Jean Middlekauff moved to New York City from Cincinnati in 1956 with a 'glamorous college pal' as a roommate. Ms. Middlekauff, now 90, described the apartment as having 'one minuscule kitchen, one closet, a living room, one window and a bathroom with sink, toilet and tub.' It was small for two people — but what about when there were three? 'Little did I realize that Sally, my roommate, would have so many gentlemen callers,' Ms. Middlekauff said. 'When she entertained them where was I to go?' She needed her beauty sleep, after all. 'I soon came up with a solution — why not sleep in the bathtub?' In a recent survey of 3,000 New Yorkers, published by the 5BORO Institute, an urban policy think tank, 42 percent of respondents said that housing costs were their biggest financial burden. And 48 percent said they had considered leaving the city, citing affordability as the top reason. Roommates are hard to avoid. Just finding any roommate — let alone an ideal companion — can cause high anxiety. People try Craigslist, Facebook, Reddit and more. On LinkedIn, a group called NYC Housing allows only verified users to join. It was started by Eric Li, who works for a cloud computing platform and realized that unlike other nooks and crannies of the internet, LinkedIn was mainly used for business networking, so users' profiles include professional portraits and educational backgrounds, giving you a clear sense of who they are. It's where, he said, 'people put their best foot forward.' If there ever were an expert in roommates, it would have to be Maria Petschnig, who moved to New York from Austria 22 years ago and has had more than 60 roommates. (Ask her for details, and she will gladly explain the complicated arrangements that involved a dizzying cast of people coming and going.) At first, Ms. Petschnig was bouncing around, sharing curtained-off spaces and rooms in other people's apartments. Eleven years ago, she became a leaseholder in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Sharing her apartment has been, she said, 'a way to survive as an artist in New York City.' But it has also been an inspiration: Ms. Petschnig wrote and directed a film, 'Beautiful and Neat Room,' based on her roommate experiences. Her advice for new-to-New Yorkers? 'I think one should be more aware in New York of not taking up too much space,' she said. 'To not be at home 24-7, or have your partner or friends over all the time.' She also advises making sure that everyone understands the rules, as early as possible: 'I don't want to be too friendly with the roommate,' she said. 'I have to make sure the boundaries and the roles are clear.' But even when there are clear guidelines and your shared space is not a shared life, a small human connection can suddenly spark. In 2005, Rachana Pathak lived in Queens with a roommate she had found on Craigslist. She didn't know much about him except that he was from Turkey. One evening, Ms. Pathak gathered the mail and dropped it in her room, where it sat for about a week. When she finally sorted through it, she found a thick envelope addressed to her roommate. It was marked 'Immigration.' 'My stomach knotted,' she said. She knocked on his door and gave it to him, then went back to her room. 'Not long after, I heard the front door open. He'd left. The guilt came fast. What if I'd cost him something?' An hour later, he returned with a bottle of wine. 'Will you have a glass with me?' he asked. 'I got my green card.' And you never know when a roommate situation will turn into a lifelong friendship. When she was in her 20s, Sara Zur rented a tiny two-bedroom apartment on West 109th Street in Manhattan. 'It was so small that I had to turn sideways to enter the bathroom,' she said. Ms. Zur was in search of a roommate, and, via Craigslist, she found a woman in Los Angeles hoping to move to New York and be a writer. They spoke by phone. 'My last roommate had been a total slob so when she said, 'I keep really clean and I have a large collection of colorful scarves,' I knew we'd be a good fit,' Ms. Zur, now 49, said. She was right. 'We were too cheap to get cable TV, so we would look out our window at the neighbor's TV across the alley and try to follow whatever show was on,' she recalled. 'If they walked by, we would duck so they wouldn't see us. There was so much laughter!' Twenty-five years later, they are still fast friends. And then there's Terry Baker Mulligan, who, in 1966, moved into an apartment a few blocks north, on West 112th Street, with a roommate named Carol Silverstein. They were new graduates who had met while training to be caseworkers with the city's Department of Welfare. They split the rent, which was $135 a month. Ms. Baker Mulligan is Black and grew up in Harlem. Ms. Silverstein was from an observant Jewish family in Jersey City, N.J. 'But right away, we hit it off,' Ms. Baker Mulligan said. 'I taught Carol how to fry chicken and make gravy, which she does to this day. I learned about New York bagels, borscht and kugel.' Ms. Baker Mulligan was tall and thin, while her roommate was short, 'and always worrying about her extra pound or two.' Once, Ms. Baker Mulligan found cute mini dresses on sale, and bought two, in different colors; one for herself and one for Ms. Silverstein. 'In five years, we never had one disagreement,' said Ms. Baker Mulligan, who is now 81. 'It was a volatile time in the world, and in our neighborhood, but our place became a refuge for friends caught up in a whirlwind of trying to find themselves.' In 1971, they both got married: Ms. Baker Mulligan to 'one of those Columbia University boys,' Ms. Silverstein to one from New York University. Ms. Baker Mulligan now lives in St. Louis; Ms. Silverstein and her husband moved to Jerusalem. 'But,' Ms. Baker Mulligan said, 'she and I still love each other like sisters.'
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
I'm 33 and I have 4 roommates. The rent fits my budget and I love the company, but sometimes I'd prefer to live alone.
I live in a house with four roommates, and we're all in our 30s. There are some frustrating things about my living situation, but there are pros, too. It fits my budget, and the company is nice, but I don't love having to fight for fridge space. About once a week, I down my coffee and sprint to the bathroom, moments later, only to find the door locked. Someone beat me to it. I pace in the hallway for a minute or two, imagining that they must be almost done. But time is not on my side, so I take two flights of stairs to the basement to do my business in the spider-infested half bathroom, ripe with annoyance. On my long climb back up to my bedroom, I ask myself why I live in a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house with four roommates. When the pandemic started, I was living with just one roommate. Then, I moved in with a partner. Our breakup led to a swift life change, and I landed in a big Denver house with a small army of companions after friends invited me to snag their spare room. It wasn't really a conscious decision to move back into a college-like environment; it was more like I slid over a cascading waterfall and into my current bedroom and found my accommodations reasonable enough. I've been here ever since. Though sometimes I wonder about my choice of housing, there are a few reasons I stay: A noisy house feels comforting to me, we're half a mile away from the train that takes me to the airport (which is extra convenient, as I'm an avid traveler), and rent control doesn't exist in Colorado, so there aren't a lot of places that fit my budget in the first place. If you had asked me where I'd be by the time I was 33 years ago, I would have told you I'd be living out of a backpack somewhere in Europe or South America with a smile plastered on my face. I thought that right now, I'd be traveling around, filthy, with a map in one hand and a baguette in the other. And for much of the year, I do, in fact, live this way (albeit it's usually an espresso instead of a baguette, and a smartphone instead of a map). What I didn't realize all those years ago, while I was dreaming up my ideal life, is that sometimes I'd crave the comfort of a home, too. I couldn't have predicted that after a few weeks on the road, I'd grow weary of red-eye flights and begin to crave my bed, a familiar ultra-processed diet, and my guitar. And I definitely couldn't have imagined that travel was going to be lonely. We're all friends in addition to being roommates, which means we often share meals and socialize while we're home. Having the company is nice, and I knew coming into the situation that it'd be a fit since I was already close with two of my new roommates. All of us are in our 30s, and we've adapted to pitch in with chores to keep the house feeling like a home. Our landlord — another friend — determined the cost of rent, so thankfully, it's fair or may even be under market value. That's really helpful as a self-employed writer who's never quite sure where my next check is going to come from There are definite pros to living with four roommates, and my vision for myself never included a cookie-cutter life, with a white picket fence and a baby on either hip. But there are still times when I'd gladly pay double the rent for a place of my own. I'd like to crap in peace whenever the urge arises. I'd also love to have my own parking space and not have to go to war for space in the fridge when I come home from a trip. But most of the time, the inconvenience of a home full of 30-something-year-olds is worth the freedom it affords me. And the laughter across the house is reason enough to stay. Read the original article on Business Insider
CNET
12-05-2025
- Health
- CNET
Home Cleaning Hacks to Keep Your Fridge Tidy and Fresh
Your refrigerator is one of those kitchen appliances that's used often, but cleaning it can be such a hassle — especially if you have a family, roommates or are just really busy. Cleaning the fridge is one of those adulting chores you know you should do, but will put off for as long as possible. If you missed the spring cleaning wave, there's still time. As seasons change and allergies rise, it's vital to keep your fridge clean, on the inside and out, as it houses most of what you'll eat. Safely handling your food and beverages will rid your fridge of germs and bacteria that may linger. For a more sustainable way to keep your fridge clean and tidy throughout not only the warmer months but also the entire year, read on. Read next: Want That Organized TikTok Fridge Look? Here's What You'll Need to Buy 5 steps to keep your refrigerator clean ✅ Daily task: Wipe down handles and controls Using a food-safe, antibacterial wipe, take the time to wipe down the handles of your refrigerator each day. You should wipe down the buttons or controls for water dispensers and ice makers daily, too. s-cphoto/Getty Images ✅ Weekly task: Trash expired and old food At the start of each week, go through the food in your refrigerator. Toss old leftovers and expired food. Spoiled food can encourage bacteria growth and leave mold spores in your refrigerator, so it's important to sift through your fridge regularly. Not sure what's expired? Check each bottle and label for an expiration date. If you can't find an expiration date, play it safe and toss anything that you aren't sure is fresh. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends not only throwing out old or recalled foods, but also any foods that are stored next to them or touching them. Read more: Fresh or Foul? Expert Reveals Egg Shelf Life in Your Fridge Sort through your fridge each week to throw out any expired food or drinks. The Container Store ✅ Quarterly task: Give your fridge a deep clean Do a deep cleaning of your refrigerator every three to four months. To keep things simple, you may choose to do a deep clean of your fridge at the start of each season. To deep clean your refrigerator, you'll need to completely clear out all the food and put it in a cooler for safekeeping. Many people choose to try to finish most of the big food items in their fridge just before a deep cleaning, so they don't have to remove and replace a lot of food. Be sure to read your refrigerator's manual so that you know the best way to clean your appliance. In most cases, you will unplug the fridge or turn it off first. Then remove and thoroughly clean all the shelves and drawers in hot, soapy water or other cleaner, then replace them. Clean the walls of the fridge and every surface well. Don't forget to also clean the door and the interior top of the refrigerator. Read More: An Electrician's Plea: Don't Plug Space Heaters or These Other 6 Devices Into Extension Cords Every so often, take everything out of your fridge and give it a deep clean. Getty Images/EyeEm ✅ Biannually task: Clean your icemaker and water dispenser Many refrigerators come with ice makers and water dispensers. If yours does, it's important to keep them clean so that you continue to enjoy germ-free ice or water. The ice maker or water dispenser likely comes with a water filter that you'll need to change regularly. Most need to be changed every six months or so, according to Consumer Reports, but be sure to read your refrigerator's manual for the manufacturer's recommendations. Read more: Ice Maker on the Rocks? Here's How to Fix It ✅ Occasional task: Immediately clean spills When a mess happens in the fridge, clean it immediately. It's important to not let spills and messes get out of hand, otherwise your fridge can easily become a hotbed for germs and bacteria. If you have a spill, take a few minutes to wipe it down and make sure that it didn't spill on and potentially contaminate other food or beverages. Also, try to prevent accidents by storing your food in airtight, spill-proof containers. A good rule of thumb is that you should spot clean your refrigerator any time a spill happens or you see remnants of food and drink. Want more kitchen cleaning hacks? Check out the best way to clean your blender and how to clean a cast-iron skillet.
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Your Brain On Risk: It's Not Good
MRI Brain Scan A college student once walked into my office, brimming with excitement. 'I want to invest in Bitcoin!' he declared. When I asked why, he said, 'My roommates are making so much money. They bought it last year and it has already doubled!" This type of enthusiasm is common, but troubling. One of the key distinctions between a novice and a seasoned investor is how they understand and respond to risk. This student was acting like a novice, in that the pursuit and thrill of easy money was overshadowing their ability to seriously consider risk. But what does it really mean to consider risk? Traditionally, investors use statistical tools to calculate risk, like standard deviation, volatility, beta, and downside deviation, to name a few. For instance, a stock with a historical return of 10% and a 20% standard deviation would be expected to return anywhere between -30% and +50% about 95% of the time. The higher the deviation, the more unpredictable the investment. Mature investors consider the standard deviation alongside the return potential of an investment and then aim to maximize their risk-adjusted returns. A simple way to do this would be to seek to build a portfolio that has the highest amount of return potential given the lowest amount of estimated risk. A common way to measure risk-adjusted returns is by using the Sharpe ratio. This ratio is expected return over expected risk and tells you how much return you're earning for every unit of risk you're taking. But is calculating risk-adjusted returns, and properly considering the risk of an investment before you buy something, the only important factor for a mature investor regarding risk? No. I've always believed there's more to risk than spreadsheets and ratios. Risk isn't just something we calculate, it's something we experience. It has the power to shape who we become. When I was 15, I bought my first stock and watched it rise. The rise in every stock I bought coincided with a rise in a very delicious feeling of euphoria. Scientists call this feeling dopamine. While dopamine is fun to experience, unfortunately, it is wildly addictive. The more shots of dopamine I was experiencing over time, the more my brain was being formed and transformed from a cautious teen into someone who actively sought out risk. My brain was being rewired. Neuroscientists have documented this. One study titled 'Dopamine Agonist Increases Risk Taking but Blunts Reward-Related Brain Activity' showed how dopamine alters the brain's reward system, pushing individuals toward greater risk-seeking behavior. In extreme cases, this pattern mirrors gambling addiction, which is widely regarded as one of the hardest addictions to overcome. Once risk becomes tied to identity, it's no longer about strategy; it's about chasing a feeling that changes our brain. This isn't just a theory. It's a pattern we see in culture today. Easy gains over the last decade have created a new breed of investor: one that starts with meme stocks, moves to crypto, and ends up speculating on NFTs, sports, or more and more exotic types of new entertainment. These are markets where risk isn't just high, it's often unknowable. And when risk becomes unknowable, you're not investing, you're gambling. My wife experienced the opposite end of the spectrum. She bought a townhouse in 2007, just before the crash. The financial loss left her extremely risk-averse, even after the markets recovered. Her brain, like mine, was shaped by her experience, but in a different direction. She experienced so much pain that her brain actively sought to eliminate risk and she became overly-risk avoidant, which is another type of problematic financial behavior. To truly evaluate risk, we must do two things: If an investment's risk can't be calculated (hello, crypto and NFTs), it's probably a poor fit, especially for business owners who value sustainability, not speculation. Whenever my students ask about investing in Bitcoin, I ask them, 'Will it change you?' Most assume wealth won't alter who they are. But research on lottery winners shows the opposite: fast money often leads to long-term dissatisfaction and compulsive behavior. Here are two simple tips to avoid being reshaped by risk: Long-term investors who bought and held diversified portfolios have quietly built wealth. Meanwhile, countless others who chased hot tips and quick wins are broke, both financially and emotionally. The Bible puts it plainly: In the end, I recommend the boring path, like my Nana, who bought a simple portfolio of high-quality stocks and forgot about it until retirement. That quiet, patient approach gave her what she needed, when she needed it, without putting her brain, or her life, at risk.
