New Yorkers share their favorite roommate memories
If you live in New York City, chances are you have a roommate (or five). It’s common for people to cohabitate well into adulthood here, whether they are single professionals looking to save a few bucks, multi-generational families living under one roof or animals sharing a home with their humans. Roommates can get a bad rap, but they can also be a wonderful source of love, support and, more importantly, hijinks. We asked several New Yorkers to share their favorite memories of living with a roommate, and the answers ranged from adorable to bizarre!
“My roommate and I asked each other if we were going to our other roommate’s party, which was in our kitchen.” — Molly, Brooklyn
“This might have been the first week we started living together, but I walked into the shower after my girlfriend had just used it and found a handful of hair stuck on the shower wall. I didn’t know girls did that to prevent the drain from getting clogged. Clearly, she had forgotten to clean it up but I freaked out and posted a pic on Instagram. Another time, our radiator wasn’t working in the bedroom so we decided to sleep on the pull-out couch in the living room. One thing led to another as we were setting up and we ended up making a sweet-ass fort. We were 28.” — Fumi, Brooklyn
“My favorite memory of living with my current roommate was discovering his stash of Reese’s cups.” — Meaghan, Brooklyn
“My girlfriend a.k.a. roommate and I have made a habit of going to Brooklyn Reuse every Sunday looking for little ways to improve our home.” — Josh, Brooklyn
“Crying laughing with our other roommate trying to guess which person someone was going to pick on the Netflix show Dating Around.” — Anya, Brooklyn
“The first week we moved in we didn’t have cable or internet set up so we had contests of who could snap the loudest. We even downloaded a decibel reading app.” — Casey, Queens
“My roommates are a dog and cat named Spartacus and Cornbread, respectively. In the wee hours every morning, Cornbread climbs onto my bookshelf and begins clawing at loose papers while loudly meowing. I start shouting, Spartacus starts barking and there the three of us are — in the darkness, yelling in our different languages, yelling at the nature of a cat. Now these 3:30am shouting parties are part of my nightly routine, an impromptu primal scream, a glimpse into a single woman’s night time ritual, a never-ending well from which I can draw a moment of chaos and hilarity. Without these two guys, I’d be just a woman sleeping through the night.” — Jill, Brooklyn
“Our fire alarms go off ALL THE TIME so my roommate and I have to help one another fan the alarms so our dogs stop literally crying. It’s very cute.” — Jess, Brooklyn
“My last roommate once snuck me into an exclusive club for New Year’s Eve Party where his band was playing. I had to pretend to be one of the band members.” — Ali, Brooklyn
“My favorite memory of living with my current roommates is when two of us stacked everything we owned onto our other roommate while he was sleeping. He finally woke up when I vacuumed up his mouth in our handheld vacuum cleaner.” — Jordan, Brooklyn
“One of my roommates was known for insane eating habits, which led to him having persistent heartburn and indigestion. One day, he kept complaining about a pain in his stomach. Trying to be mister tough guy, he kept saying he was fine, then he would bend over in pain, clutching his stomach. ‘I’m fine. I think I can still go out tonight,’ he’d say. Then finally he described the pain to me in detail as ‘a knife going into my abdomen’ and I insisted we go immediately to the hospital. He reluctantly complied. I drove him to the hospital and sure enough, he had appendicitis. He had the appendix removed and recovered in no time. And I’ve never let him forget that I saved his life.” — Richard, Manhattan
“When I introduced my roommate to ranch and hot sauce on pizza while watching Wreck It Ralph.” — Gregory, Manhattan
“One of the first times I ever hung out with my current roommate outside of our apartment, we walked together to go pick out a Christmas tree. We stopped for cocoa on way there. It was a bright winter day. He carried the tree on his shoulder for half a mile back to the apartment, then decorated it mostly by himself while I gave color commentary and drank wine. We had a great afternoon making the apartment super cozy and bonding over how much we love living there.” — Janet, Brooklyn
“When my roommate brought orchids home in the freezing cold, they immediately started to die so I took showers with them to bring them back to life. It worked!” — Davidson, Brooklyn
“My roommate, my brother and I watched Dumplin’ and cried together!” — Julia, Brooklyn
“My roommate and I started stealing inanimate things off our campus like traffic cones, loose bricks, and eventually a blockade (one of those things meant to keep people from driving onto a sidewalk area). We kept it in our apartment and dressed it up, called it Viper, and would hide it when our RA came around. We returned it at the end of the semester.” — Cristina, Brooklyn
“It was my boyfriend’s first time cooking Thanksgiving for just my dad and us. Kevin really wanted to impress with a turducken casserole of his own creation. He spent hours cooking the duck, chicken and turkey, making fluffy mashed potatoes from scratch, perfectly seasoning the stuffing and green beans with crispy onions on top. Then he mistakenly put too much flour in the gravy that he doused all over the dish. It basically became a dense brick of starch. Kevin was devastated. The casserole was ruined. As my dad slept on the couch full from snacks, beer and football, we sat there eating a bowl of the a giant complex carbohydrate paste that sealed our mouth shut with every bite and laughed about the inedible fail. I had never loved him more.” — Mara, Brooklyn
Do you have any fun memories of living with your roomie? Let us know on Instagram and see more on our website.
All illustrations by Reyna Clarissa.
