Your bags are packed and you’re off to college. A new environment, away from home (perhaps for the first time) and you’re moving in with a stranger! Thrilling changes, right? But what if you and your roommate don’t mesh? She’s a night owl, you’re an early bird? A neatnik and a not-so-tidy person? Will you make it through all the changes? With some planning and compromise, yes you can.

1. The refrigerator – will you share one or have your own? Your own makes divvying up space and making certain neither of you scarfs down the others’ leftovers a non issue. If you have to share, consider having designated shelf space. Your shelf is your food, the roomies shelf contains stuff you don’t touch.

2. You made the mess you clean it, right? But the question could arise as to when will it get cleaned. The first rule should be if you dirty it, you clean it up. Talk about when the mess will get picked up. You may turn a blind eye to a mess until the dishes topple over, your roommate may wash the dishes before he or she sits down to eat the meal. Set a time frame for clean up and stick to it.

3. Overnight guests or visitors who stay until the sun comes up? Set ground rules on how long visitors are welcomed and how many visitors you want crowding the room at once. If you have a big exam and need some extra zzzz’s, ask the roommate for extra consideration for an early lights out. Rules for overnight guests should be hashed out from the get-go.

4. You can’t even begin to nod off without the soft flickering lights and the sounds of the laugh track on the television. Your roommate needs utter silence and darkness, or vice versa. Headphones and a sleeping mask may be in order if you can’t come to a compromise. Perhaps you could invest in a white noise machine that projects images on the ceiling?

5. What’s yours is yours. You’ve always borrowed clothes from your siblings when your laundry wasn’t clean, that still works with a roommate, right? Probably not. Same goes for borrowing computer supplies, pens, and other essentials. Rule of thumb: ask first, avoid problems later.

Sharing a room with a stranger can be fraught with pitfalls but if you catch them soon and talk about them, you have a good beginning toward a great school year.