Living with your best friend teaches you that love is easy. Dishes are the real test.

Living together moves a friendship from feelings to operations. Affection was never the difficult part; what is difficult is a sink, a bin, a bill, a person who goes to bed at eleven and a person who does not. None of those are about whether you like each other, and all of them will test it. Most friendships that break under a shared roof break over logistics nobody agreed on in advance.

Have the boring conversation in week one, before anything has gone wrong. Who cleans what, how money moves, what quiet hours are. Then raise the small annoyance early and lightly, because it only gets heavier with storage.