In a decision brought about by both faltering finances and a growing yearning to live in a community setting, I gave up my studio apartment in Brooklyn Heights this past week and moved into a three-bedroom duplex with two roommates whom I don't know at all. Though I'm just two and a half months away from the looming March 15th end of this consumer experiment, I'm curious to see what kind of wrenches this throws in. When I was on my own, I could completely control what I bought and brought into the house, now I'm going to be living with folks who have their own set of routines and habits, and little or no inkling to make the drastic changes and challenges I have over the past year. In fact, I don't think they even know about it yet, not really.

The easiest way to look at it, an angle I've had to take a few times over the year, is that I can only worry about goods that I physically exchange money for. If a roommate buys Clorox Clean-Up instead of Seventh Generation All-Purpose Cleaner, I wouldn't worry about it. At the same time, I feel the pull to not make excuses or exceptions. As I've tried to do in previous situations where it just didn't work, I stop to understand the situation and learn from it rather than rationalize the circumstances. Does this mean that I don't share anything with the other roommates, or at least not anything that they've purchased? Hm. Maybe it's time for a roommate meeting.