It’s that time of the year again. No, I’m not talking about Skank-o-ween. I’m talking about lease-signing season. You’re walking around Collegetown, touring the overpriced deathtraps being offered by Ithaca’s finest, stressing about where you’re going to live ... all that, when what you should really be stressing about is who you’re living with.

It’s one thing when you’re living with people in a dormitory where everybody has his own private space and jovial janitors come around once a day to refill the toilet paper and tidy up the kitchens. It’s a different thing entirely when you’re living alone in a two bedroom apartment with Michelle from freshman Bio who doesn’t understand the concept of vacuuming and leaves gerbil-sized hairballs in the shower drain.

Aside from gauging the Slob Factor in a potential roommate, there’s also the question of whether it is better to live with guys or girls. I’ll never forget the moment I informed my Iranian immigrant father of my co-ed living arrangements this year. The conversation went something like this:

Dad: Ja-kee. Your moder tells me you signed de lease, yes? Who you living vit dees year?

Me: I’m going to be living with Maria, Alex and Brett.

Dad: Vhat strange names dees Amer-ee-cans give deir daughters!

Me: Dad, Alex and Brett are boys.

Dad: [Silence] [then, to my mother] JO-SE-PHEEN! GET MY BELT!!!!!

It was only after my mother managed to get my father to believe that Alex and Brett “vere gays” that I was able to narrowly avoid corporal punishment.

When deciding which sex makes for better roommates, there are many pros and cons to consider — and myriad advantages to living with guys that I’d never really considered before this year. Most guys, for instance, won’t hold a grudge against you over stupid crap. They don’t gossip. And a male roommate will never ask you “if this shirt makes him look fat,” thus leaving you in the uncomfortable position of thinking of a nice way to say yes.

When you live with guys, you always have a protector-type to walk you home at night when you go out partying. And, aside from the odd can of shaving cream, your male roommates will never clog up your medicine cabinet with perfumes and toiletries.

Also, as far as I can tell, boys don’t really cook. All they eat are eggs, pasta and tuna out of the can. The upside of this? Fewer dishes.

The final pro of living with boys is that they are like the human equivalent of Raid. No act of courage has ever impressed me so much as the time I saw Alex swat a moth the size of my head with his bare hand, catch the dead baby-sized carcass in the other, and calmly discard the monstrosity in the trash can. Had I been living with only girls, I’m sure we’d still be screaming bloody murder in a corner somewhere to this very day.

Although living with guys comes with decided advantages, there are, of course, the occasional downsides. Take the universal toilet seat debate for instance: Nothing sucks more for a girl than waking up at 8 a.m. for class, stumbling into the bathroom, and “falling in” because you failed to notice that Brett left the toilet seat up. When I challenged him about this, he made what was admittedly a good point: Why do girls assume the proper toilet seat position is “down”? Perhaps I should consider the inconvenience I do him by not leaving it up. Needless to say, I told him to shove it.

Then there is the universal debate of “Who’s Dirtier?” Boys say it’s girls and girls say it’s boys. Having lived in both settings during two different years, I’ve come to a conclusion on this issue: When girls clean, they do so often, at random, and in small bursts. As a result, their efforts go unnoticed. Boys, on the other hand, will wait twice as long as girls to clean — but when they do, they go all out and get everything done at once. This leads them to believe they’re cleaner, when in reality I would argue that they simply have a higher tolerance for filth.

As a single girl, the ultimate downside to living with male friends is the inevitable question: “Is that your boyfriend?” The answer is NO.

And, to be completely fair, there are numerous pros and cons to living with all girls. For instance, I never really appreciated the freedom of “girl talk” when I was living in an all-girl apartment — but now I find myself missing it from time to time. When you live with only girls, you can complain openly about PMS, cramps, etc., knowing that your female roommates will understand and that they won’t tell you to “stop exaggerating.” You can complain to your girl friends about whatever you want, for that matter — ad nauseam — secure in the knowledge that it’s okay to obsess because you are in good company. You can do each other’s hair, share clothes, steal makeup — all capacities in which male roommates are useless.

On the other hand, girls take forever in the bathroom and are never ready on time. They. Don’t. Stop. Talking. Ever. With female roommates, you find yourself spending massive amounts of time Dear Abby-ing, overanalyzing the “real” meaning behind some douchebag’s late night text message and why he used that kind of smiley in that IM. Girls are more fun, but they’re also infinitely more dramatic.

At the end of the day, deciding who to live with is ultimately a matter of personal preference. Because no matter who your roommates are, as long as you’re comfortable around each other and don’t play passive aggressive mind games, you should be fine.

And, as for my own wonderful roommates down at 108 Eddy, I just have one small message: Can someone please take out the frickin’ trash already?? The apartment is beginning to smell like the inside of a fake leg.