Relationships 

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Living together: how to make it work

You thought living together would lead to a harmonious, romantic and ideal home life.

Little did you know that you’d end up bickering over bin liners, fighting over the remote control and having to explain how to separate the whites from the darks. After a week of cohabitation, he’s looking less like your handsome hero and more like your student flatmate from hell.

‘You never truly know a person until you live with them. You’ll realise you learn more about them in a week of living together than years of dating,’ says iVillager Pingery.

But don’t give up hope yet as you can deal amicably with these snags — and his newly discovered habits — with these tips, before you feel inclined to dispose of him.

Problem: he’s a slob
Solution: delegate the chores

‘Assign your significant other the dedicated duty of your choice, based upon what you think he needs to work on. My significant other has a problem with toothpaste. It gets everywhere, so it is his job to clean the bathroom frequently or when asked. Now there’s rarely a toothpaste smear anywhere.’ —passion8

‘What you need to do is stop doing everything for him and stop doing anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. When he has no clean boxers, he will do the laundry. Don’t do everything and see what happens.’ —jezibelle

Problem: who pays the bills?
Solution: open a joint account

‘We have three accounts: mine, his and a joint one. We both put the same amount in the joint account, since we earn roughly the same amount. Another alternative is to pay a percentage of your salary if there is a large discrepancy between salaries. For example, you each contribute 50% of your monthly salary into the joint account to pay household bills. It works very well for us.’ —terid99

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