For six months I’ve been living alone in my own flat. It’s my first experience of not having to share with anyone, and rather than isolating it’s been entirely wonderful. Let me fill you in on some background; prior to this, I (lean closer so I can whisper this) lived with parents for about a year. Before that I lived in house shares for eight years. The ELYs as I like to think of them - Eight Long Years.

When I finally moved into my own place, with no other residents to argue over the washing up with, I enjoyed being able to decorate my home entirely according to my taste. Being free to watch Law and Order on the Hallmark Channel at 3am. No one to see that your evening meal is cornflakes dipped in peanut butter and then chocolate spread. The opportunity to leave your washing drying over every suitable surface in lounge, including pants on the IKEA chandelier (it works as long as your remember not to turn the lights on.)

But I am thinking about giving all this up and getting a flatmate. Changes in my financial situation mean that it would make life easier if I do. Lots of my friends have them, and like you, I know plenty of horror stories.  The word ‘psycho’ isn’t very commonly used these days, but often resurfaces when people need to sum up their house share partner.

I have to decide whether to advertise for a flatmate via the Jewish press, meaning I’ll get solely Jewish applicants. The problem with a stranger moving into your home is there’s no way to predict whether, while chopping veggies together in the kitchen, they’ll reveal, say, that they think single parents should be publicly beaten.

Choosing a Jewish flatmate won’t remove the risk of the person proving to have an immature approach to conflict, or a tendency towards selfishness. You can try and choose someone decent at the interview stage, but it’s still hard to suss out what they are really like.

When I do advertise I’ll do it in the Jewish press and the general press, and then choose the candidate who seems like they’ll contribute to me having an easy life. Hopefully they’ll be calm, caring and into cleanliness. A Jewish flatmate might be good because we’ll have something in common through a mutual appreciation of Jewish culture and history. It might be relaxing to have someone who is familiar with the lifestyle I grew up with (mine was a Jewish north west London upbringing).

However there are also lots of attractive qualities the person could have whether Jewish or not – a good sense of humour, compassion, interest in literature, or a willingness to buy lots of M and S biscuits and let me share them.