What makes a good roommate?

Living with three other men can become very complicated sometimes, between deciding who takes out the trash and who does the dishes when no one wants to do it, your patience gets tested as a person. But it is easy for me to sit back and point out everything I believe my roommates do wrong. Personally, I think I am a great roommate. However, I wanted to find out what others opinion's are on what makes a good roommate.

I searched around the Internet and read a few different articles about how to be a good roommate. Here is what I gathered from around the web that seem to be the top three factors to being a good roommate.

1. Communication

• Be honest with each other. If I leave a dirty dish on the counter and someone asks me about it, I should just be honest and say "yeah I'm sorry, I'll take care of that right now". 
•  Be clear with each other. Always be open with each other about things the other person may do that upsets you. If one of your roommates doesn't like shoes worn in the house, then be sure to let them know that it bothers you, in a nice manner. 
• Willing to negotiate with each other. When living with others, it is inevitable that you're going to disagree on something. If there is a laundry list of chores that need to be done around the house then negotiate a "contract" of some sort with your roommate to determine who does what chore. Instead of opting to do all the easy chores and leaving the hard work to your other roommates. 

2. Respect

• Be respectful of each others decisions and beliefs. If you see that your roommate is taking part in something that you find to be wrong or "stupid", unless it is directly affecting you, leave them alone and respect their life as an individual. In other words, do not to harass your roommate because of some view they may have on political issues.
• Be respectful of their belongings. You should treat every item in the house as if it were your own. 
• Respect their privacy. People do strange things when they believe no one is watching. Don't be a jerk and record your roommate dancing in his underwear to his favorite song. 

3. Accountability

• Be accountable for your actions. If you accidentally break something of your roommates, let them know what happened and that you will pay them back. 
• Lock the door. If you're coming home late at night then you are accountable for locking the door to make sure a burglar doesn't easily walk into our home and take our belongings.
  (I have had this happen to me once before)
•  Do your part. If you and your roommates have agreed upon who does what around the house, then be sure to always do your part. A lot of arguments are started over something that didn't get done.

These are the most common guidelines to being a good roommate that I found on the web. If you and your roommates can follow these simple guidelines then living together should be easy. Personally, I find these guidelines extremely helpful. There are plenty of other aspects that make a good roommate but I found these to be the most important. 

Here are a few websites I visited to gather the information:

http://collegelife.about.com/od/roommat2/a/How-To-Be-A-Good-Roommate.htm

https://www.unigo.com/in-college/campus-life/how-to-be-a-good-roommate-a-college-student-perspective

http://www.fastweb.com/student-life/articles/the-7-rules-of-being-a-good-roommate

I also found this video that had good information on being a good roommate. I like the video due to its simplicity and how it is straight to the point. I watched a few other videos and all of them were completely off topic within the first minute.