If you aren’t a pet person, it can be tough sometimes to understand people that are. The average pet lover spends an inordinate amount of time with their pet, walking their pet, playing with their pet and most importantly, cleaning up after their pet. We may love our cats and dogs very much, but even the neatest pet really isn’t very neat. Here are a few survival tips for those folks who aren’t pet lovers.

First, make sure your roommate cleans the cat box at least once per day. Not only does the cat deserve to have a scooped box on a daily basis, if you wait any longer than that, it often leads to a smelly box. You have the right to live in an apartment that doesn’t reek of cat urine, so don’t feel bad if you have to push this point with your roommate.

Your roommate should also be in charge of cleaning the cat hair from the places where kitty sleeps. Most cats have a favorite chair or a favorite spot to lie down on, and the hair can be absolutely overwhelming in those areas. Even if it is your turn to vacuum, they should be responsible for keeping the cat fur in the apartment under control.

Finally, while it isn’t a big deal for you to feed the cat once in a while, general care should be done by its owner. Things like trips to the vet and even discipline should be done by the owner and if they aren’t, you should speak to him or her about it.

While online apartment hunting websites have completely revolutionized the way that many of us search for places to live, the one thing they haven’t really done is help us find places that need roommates, but that doesn’t mean that the computer is completely worthless. There are plenty of other sites, like Craigslist that are full of free personal ads posted by individuals looking for roommates. If you live in a smaller town or in a place that doesn’t have a Craigslist page, there are alternatives for finding the roommate of your dreams.

One good place to look is at the apartment complex you want to move into. Many times, these complexes will have common areas that have posters and roommate requests on a board so you can write down a bunch of phone numbers and possibly find a roommate that way. You can even make a day of going from complex to complex searching for roommates, and before you know, you’ll likely have a great place to live. You can always post a note on those boards, too, that way, if someone who lives in a complex you like needs a roommate, you will likely get called quickly.

Of course, the oldest way to find a roommate is simply by asking around your circle of friends. Most people would prefer to live with someone they know so you will likely not have any problems finding someone to live with if your friends know that you’re looking.

In this hectic day and age, most people don’t follow the traditional nine to five workday any longer, which can make communicating with your roommate difficult, especially if one of you works nights and the other works days. Here are a few failsafe tips for keeping in contact with your roommate.

Try to avoid leaving notes and emails unless you absolutely have to. Face to face communication is absolutely key to keeping your relationship with your roommate positive and on the up and up. When people are left notes, they tend to think they are being talked down to or that they are being lectured. Notes and emails can’t accurately convey tone or if you are joking or not, so it is best to wait to speak face to face if at all possible.

If the two of you are always missing each other and are often out of food that you both like, set up a grease board or a magnet list for food shopping so that you can always be sure that you have your favorite foods in the house. Be sure to communicate, however, so that both of you don’t go out on the same day and pick up the same thing.

Finally, if you have any problems with each other, it is important for the two of you to talk about them as soon as possible. Letting things fester for weeks or even months is never a good thing, and it can ruin what was an otherwise solid friendship.

If you have never lived with a roommate before, the whole idea can seem a little sketchy. The idea of moving in and living with a complete stranger is a bit odd to most people, so it seems natural that many roommates would ensure that both parties are listed on a lease in case there are any problems down the road. Let’s take a look at a few benefits drawing up a lease gives you when you have a roommate.

For most people, there are two different kinds of roommate arrangements: the most common kind involves two or more people living in an apartment that is equally rented by each person. There is a lease drawn up by a landlord or management company to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected. In this circumstance, it is always a good idea to update the lease agreement as soon as someone moves out or moves in to make sure that everything is on the up and up. The problem some people face is when you move in with friends to a house that one of them owns. In this circumstance, there is no outside authority demanding that a legal lease be drawn up; everything is usually done on a handshake agreement.

If you have a handshake agreement, it is still important that you put down the essential points of your arrangement in writing so that there can’t be any disputes in the future. Even if you are living with friends, protecting yourself should still be a top priority.

What is unique about Generation X or Generation Y?  Are we undefinable?  What makes us unique and gives us our identity? What makes us an identifiable community?Feel free to add your opinion and participate in the discussion.