Have you lived with one of your female friends? How did it go?

It's better to move in with women if you mean something to them. Then it can be a pleasant time. But if you don't mean something to them then there will be room for jealousy and talk about you behind your back. Living alone is the best if you don't have a strong friendship.

I think it's just extremely difficult to live with people. It's very hard to find someone who matches your standards of tidiness, whose schedule compliments yours, who likes the thermostat the same as you, and who pays rent on time. I've lost a few relationships with female friends after living with them. It's a great way to mess up a relationship. Maybe that's just me but I've found it to be true. I'd rather live with someone I'm not friends with, but who is just compatible to live with, in the future. I think a great thing would be to make a contract going over all these things and a guest policy(one roommate had a boyfriend pretty much move in) and an agreement about how shared spaces should be used(one roommate took over the living room every night) and more than one bathroom that you each maintain your own to an agreed upon standard.

I think clear boundaries and set agreements for guests and shared spaces smooth things a lot. I had no guest, no pets policy and kept my stuff separate from my roommate's. Also, we established "territories" like cupboards, refrigerator shelves and clotheslines. Had a routine cleaning schedule too.

I roomed with 10 girls in university (one or two per semester). The worst was a rich girl who smoked inside the room and didn't know how to clean to save her life. Good person, but a terrible roommate. The best was my childhood friend, we grew up in a similar environment and are introverts. The rest were friends I made in uni. They were ok, had different cleanliness and messiness standards but we tolerated each other.

Some of my friends had roommates from hell, though. Strangers, siblings and old friends alike can be terrible roommates.

I'd keep in mind that just because you work well as friends it doesn't mean you will work well as roommates. I have friends I love dearly but I would never want to live with them.

Liking each other is great but in everyday life factors like having similar standards regarding tidyness and hygiene, if spontaneous visitors are okay and them staying late/overnight in shared rooms is fine, pets, the temperature, noise, how long everyone takes in the bathroom, being responsible with money etc. are more important.

If you want a trial run I'd recommend going on a longer trip together and sharing a hotel room or AirBnB to see how well you align.

Yes. One of my closest friends was previously a woman I didnt know but I moved in with after finding her Craigslist ad looking for a roommate. I assumed it was going to be a mind-your-own business and hello in the morning-goodnight in the evening type thing because we have nothing in common and it's just a roommate, but we ended up getting along so well that the friendship persists to this day. I've also lived with friends/ sort of live with some now. One situation went south a long time ago because the friend turned out to be unstable, but otherwise nothing to complain about.

Yes, I'm currently living together with my best friend. It's been two years and two different apartments. I very much enjoy her company, and our friendship is as strong as ever. Ofc, there's ebb and flow in any relationship, and one person will typically be more orderly than the other, but, all in all, we're quite alike and get along wonderfully. I'm happy, it's nice to have late night talks or do fun stuff together, or just simply be there for each other ☺️