I never had a roommate. I had three flatmates - the first was my Mum, the second a female friend from EoFF and the final and current one being my girlfriend.

Mum didn't act like a Mum when she was my flatmate, she acted like a flatmate. That was great. She helped me keep track fo when jobs needed to be done without nagging, and things were very easy for the most part.

The friend was messy and never really did any chores to the point that I got fed up with her (and it seems she got fed up with me) and I told her to head out ASAP. We're okay now as friends, but I don't think I'll ever ask a casual friend to move in with me again. Things just get bad.

With a girlfriend it's much easier to communicate and understand each other, although I have to admit she's still not as clean as I'd like, but that's been improving a slight touch lately.

The one thing I would ensure is that you set down some standards early on. If you let them slack off from day one they instantly get comfortable with slacking and if you do more significantly more cleaning than them then they'll grow accustomed to you doing all the work. Just be sure that you have some kind of understanding and it should work out... I guess.

Personally I love it when I live on my own because of the amount of control I have. But then, having a girlfriend live with you has a lot of upsides. I would say that I love that even more.