Patrice
BIO:
I’m a childcare provider and a freelance data analyst with a wide array of hobbies and interests that include: percussion (although, not in the house), hand embroidery, raves, costuming, vintage fashion, baking and cake decorating, and dessert recipe development, NUMTOT rants, biking and all things related to transportation and environmental equity.
I’m a meticulously clean and organized individual, thus the potential roommate or household needs to be the same. I CANNOT live in chaos, clutter or constant disarray. Living conditions that would harbour rodents or other pests, just won’t do.
Housing requirements: a room of ample size in a semi-established living space with no more than 2-3 people currently residing within.
A space that can accommodate my life; I lost my last living space on account of an irresponsible sublessee so I do have a studio’s worth of life items currently in storage that I need to move into the new space. The bulk of which are kitchen accoutrement, since I’m an avid cook. This’ll be ideal for any household that lacks dishes and cookware.
I touched a bit on this in the response to the last question. Since I’m currently in the process of making a career pivot, I work outside of the confines of a traditional 9-5 schedule. I’m rarely ever home and if I am, I’m asleep or engaged in career-related self study. I’m usually out of sight but can engage if necessary, I wouldn’t say I’m a recluse but I rarely have time for shooting the shit with household occupants “just cause.”
I decompress from a hectic schedule by baking, but I can never eat it all so it’s always great to have people to share that stuff with and offer constructive criticism for recipe improvement.
The ideal roommate would be someone who also strongly prefers a pet-free, drug-free, smoke-free environment, gainfully employed that could be one or multiple jobs, as long as rent can be paid on-time, I don’t care what you do.
Someone who is courteous, considerate and understands that their actions can affect others and wants to maintain a harmonious living space long-term or at least through a 1 year lease.
Someone who communicates effectively and engages in proper conflict resolution techniques.
Passive aggressive text messages and leaving notes won’t do. If housemates engage in an activity that bothers the individual, that person must eb willing to engage in effective, in the moment communication so that we can all come to a resolution.
In addition to this, when someone says that they will/won’t do something, they actually keep their word. Yes we’re strangers and we may not owe each other much, but being forced to live together, we owe each housemate, at the very least; a peaceful, harmonious living experience throughout our residency there.
The ideal roommate must be clean, I cannot stress this enough, leaving their belongings, haphazardly strewn in common spaces for more than a day is unacceptable, the same goes for dirty dishes, if the person cannot use a kitchen and clean up right away so that the next user is unhindered when they prepare a meal, I can’y live in the household with them.
Leftover food cannot be stored in the fridge in pots covered or uncovered. That’s inconsiderate, especially if cookware is shared. Pots and pans are for cooking, not storing food, in addition to this, someone who’s “cool” with leaving a bowl of half eaten cereal in the fridge to “come back to it” that won’t do either, food should be properly covered when stored.
Scraping bits of leftover food into the sink or washing dishes with solid food waste on them and leaving the bits of wet food in the sink or in the drain trap drives me up a wall. Food must be scraped in the appropriate trash receptacle then washed or rinsed and placed in the dishwasher if there is one.
I may sound obsessed with proper kitchen use, but that’s the place everyone needs to prepare food in and it can’t be a space that harbors harmful microbes.
In addition to this, a number of people claim that they’re clean, yet they’ll use the bathroom and there’s fecal matter left on the toilet seat or their bodily fluids drip on the floor and they walk away, leaving their housemates to wonder WTF.
I don’t have a preference to live with men, women or anyone in between, just as long as everyone is tolerant of each other’s gender preferences and respectful of each other’s preferred pronoun use. I’ve had terrible roommate experiences in the past (as most of us have also had) but at this stage in my life I really don’t want to have to deal with people’s bullshit. I’ve lived on my own for many years to avoid the issues that arise when having to share living spaces and the moment I opened myself up to that option, I lost my living space, so this process is incredibly anxiety inducing.
I don’t want to live in a household that I have to manage, especially living with people above the age of 18.
I’ve uploaded images of my old living space to demonstrate the level of organization and cleanliness that I lived in previously. Everything had a place and the space was relatively clutter-free.