Live with Other People, Better

Finding good roommates is hard enough, but then you have to live with them. There are a million things that can strain the best of roommate situations: remembering who cleaned the fridge last, keeping on top of shared bills and so forth. A new venture called Chored, seeks to reduce some of these tensions with mobile technology. Through a crowdunding campaign, Chored is looking to make an app that digitizes the more contentious aspects of inter-roommate relations. Through the app, bills can be set up on an online account, split and paid through Paypal. Chores can be setup, assigned and tracked via the app as well. You can allocate “ad hoc tasks” such as getting toilet paper and note who did it and paid for it. If used–and that’s a big if in our minds–Chored could mitigate or eliminate much of the random grievances that make roommates resent each other (or it could amplify them I guess).

As we’ve said before, house-shares are often as (or more) space and cost efficient as micro-housing. But many people will pay a hefty premium to live alone rather than deal with common roommate-induced headaches. Living with people–even ones you like–can take a lot of effort and require systems to keep things running smoothly. Some of the best roommate situations I ever had were also the most regimented and rule-intensive. But most of my roommate situations were in a time long, long ago when not everyone had a smartphone. I could see how having a digital log of who did what and when could help people live together better. Time will tell whether: A. Chored gets their funding, B. people will use it, C. it’ll help people live together better.

If you currently live with a roommate/housemate, or successfully lived with one in the past, what systems did you use to keep things running smooth? Let us know in our comments section.

Thanks for the tip Sam