As we enter our third week of school, we stop worrying so much about developing a routine and begin addressing other important issues at hand: roommates.

A great deal of us live with at least one person while going to school, whether it be at the residence hall, in an apartment or at home with family.

A large number of these people are lucky enough to have chosen roommates and are happy with their choices.

But what happens when there are problems with a roommate? What are you to do? How are you to proceed?

Well, lucky for you I have come up with a small list of roommate do’s-and-don’ts.

Your roommate goes through your belongings without permission.

DO: Find a time when you feel particularly calm to avoid blowing up at your roommate. Sit him or her down and calmly explain how what they do is an invasion of privacy. Kindly ask them to respect your wishes and refrain.

DON’T: Go to the store and buy a bunch of rolls of yellow caution tape and stretch multiple pieces across the length of your room, protecting your side from intrusion. Or if you have your own room, stretch multiple pieces across the doorway to your room. Hide behind the tape. If your roommate looks as if he or she is about to invade your personal space, spring out from behind the tape and growl like a pirate.

Your roommate listens to music at very loud volumes for hours at a time or in the middle of the night.

DO: Politely ask your roommate to turn down the music because you are trying to sleep, do homework, etc. Explain they can listen to loud music only when it doesn’t disturb others. Offer to do the same.

DON’T: When your roommate is out, plant one of those springy snakes that come in cans inside the CD compartment of your roommate’s stereo. When he or she attempts to listen to music and the snake jumps out, stand back and enjoy the fun.

Your roommate rarely, if ever, cleans up after him or herself.

DO: Confront your roommate when you feel the time is right. Politely explain the smells and the constant tripping over things is intolerable. Provide a compromise by saying everyone cleans up only the mess they make.

DON’T: Go to the store and buy a patch of fake grass, some fake flowers and a miniature white fence. Assemble a little garden in the corner of your room or the living room and throw all your roommate’s garbage and mess in among the flowers.

Your roommate stays up very late working on his or her computer while you try to sleep.

DO: Inform your roommate nicely his or her computer-time at night is keeping you awake and try to work some sort of schedule out so you can get some uninterrupted sleep.

DON’T: Wait for your roommate to go to class, turn off the computer and every other device on their desk and leave a sticky note on the computer screen that says in scrawled handwriting, “The Computer Phantom was here.”

Repeat every time he or she goes out until the behavior stops. Good luck!

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.