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"Maybe it&amp;amp;#8217;s the cold weather, the need to nest, but lately I&amp;amp;#8217;ve been getting a lot of mail from readers who want to know: &amp;amp;#8220;Should I move in with my boyfriend?&amp;amp;#8221; Having shacked up with only one girlfriend in my life, I&amp;amp;#8217;m no expert (just wait till you read how it went), but I have, over the years, distilled a few good rules that might help you choose more wisely than I did. 1 If you don&amp;amp;#8217;t know his middle name, you&amp;amp;#8217;re definitely not ready My experiment in cohabitation began like a dream. We met through friends at the Feast of San Gennaro festival in New York City&amp;amp;#8217;s Little Italy, and the attraction was instant. She ate me under the table, putting away a calzone and sausages while reciting Springsteen lyrics. Within a week, I&amp;amp;#8217;d told her I loved her; on our one-month anniversary, I moved in. Our first night as roomies, we ordered Chinese and watched nine minutes of Meet the Parents before making love on the couch for three hours. (It&amp;amp;#8217;s my record; I mention it every chance I get.) I moved out four months later with my belongings in a Hefty bag. So what doomed us? Well, mostly it was 1,001 little daily annoyances. What I learned is that you need to take the time to discover a person&amp;amp;#8217;s good quirks so their bad quirks are worth tolerating. If, for example, I&amp;amp;#8217;d had the chance to prove to her how unflaggingly loyal I can be&amp;amp;#8212;how Labrador-like in my love&amp;amp;#8212;she might have forgiven me for using a fork as a back scratcher. And if I&amp;amp;#8217;d known her long enough to learn her middle name, I might not have been so unnerved by her habit of never closing the bathroom door. Ever. Which leads me to the next rule of shacking up: 2 At least try to maintain a little mystery My buddy Dom and his girlfriend have been living together for two years and appear to be disgustingly happy. His girlfriend tells me Dom still asks her on dates, and actually comes to the front door to pick her up. And she still leaves flirty&amp;amp;#8212;sometimes downright graphic&amp;amp;#8212;notes around the house for Dom to stumble upon. I&amp;amp;#8217;m really only able to see them once a month. It&amp;amp;#8217;s all I can stomach. 3 It&amp;amp;#8217;s still OK to be independent Why? Because you&amp;amp;#8217;re still different people. My friends Dana and Carl don&amp;amp;#8217;t even eat dinner together. As soon as Dana comes home, she orders Thai or Indian food for herself; later on Carl eats, in his words, &amp;amp;#8220;something beige.&amp;amp;#8221; &amp;amp;#8220;I like it early and spicy, Carl likes it late and plain,&amp;amp;#8221; jokes Dana. &amp;amp;#8220;Except when it comes to, ahem, &amp;amp;#8216;dessert.&amp;amp;#8217;&amp;amp;#8221; 4 Don&amp;amp;#8217;t shack up to save the relationship This works about as well as the Baby Remedy&amp;amp;#8212;when a couple tries to save their marriage by getting knocked up. I know a guy who thought a shared pad (for which they could buy cool new stuff) might bring him closer to his girlfriend. It backfired&amp;amp;#8212;they fought over what color to paint the walls and had even less sex than before. After three months it was over. &amp;amp;#8220;Living together made us both feel more lonely than ever,&amp;amp;#8221; says my friend. &amp;amp;#8220;But hey, I got to keep the new flat screen.&amp;amp;#8221; 5 Try exchanging keys first My friends Matt and Amy have discovered the cohabitation middle ground; they each made the other a set of keys to their separate homes. &amp;amp;#8220;Now she&amp;amp;#8217;s got my whole top drawer for her stuff, but we still have our own spaces,&amp;amp;#8221; Matt says. &amp;amp;#8220;It&amp;amp;#8217;s like she&amp;amp;#8217;s moving in, one sock at a time.&amp;amp;#8221; As for me, I think I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to go old-school and wait until I&amp;amp;#8217;m married before I live with another woman. In the meantime, I&amp;amp;#8217;m working on that back-scratching thing."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/2007/12/jake-living-together>