Image Andrea Riondino
So I’m back on spareroom.com. The last time I logged in was to search for someone to fill a room in a houseshare I was departing. I was 28, loved up and leaving to live with my boyfriend. Now 32 and finding my feet as single person again, I’m going back in.
It’s taken me six long months to get to this point. Leaving the relationship and our home together is taking some processing but now, when I think about the future I’m seeing glimmers of excitement cutting through my post breakup haze.
Soon there will be a new neighbourhood and new housemates.
From my childhood bedroom at my mum’s, scrolling through Spare Room has pulled me out of moments of despair when I feel I’ve regressed.
It was in a bout of that despair that I reactivated my Spare Room account and updated my bio. I uploaded a new photograph that screams ‘good housemate material’ (considerate, clean but laid back) and I crafted a strong introductory message. I fired it off in response to a few ads that looked hopeful. That was the first week of October and I still haven’t had a single reply.
Not much has changed since I was last lurking on Spare Room apart from a couple of listings thanking AI for writing the ad for them. As a writer living in fear of it taking over my job, I’m discounting them on the basis that our values won’t align.
spareroom.com is a clunky website and the photography has a way of making me suspicious. I find myself getting very close to my laptop screen, looking for hidden detail. Are their plants thriving? Wine bottles on the side? Do they share a fruit bowl? All tiny clues as to what it might be like to live there.
It’s a similar kind of frustration to when you’re buying trousers online and the photographs listed don’t give you a 360 view so you can’t see if they have pockets. Only this is my future home.
Ticking ‘housemate looking for a room’ and ‘open to buddy ups’ means others can contact me if they’re looking to fill a room. Having had no responses to the messages I sent, getting a message from ‘Creative Couple Searching For a Housemate, Peckham’ saved me from another bout of despair.
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