The Best April Fools' Day Pranks to Play on Your Roommate

In terms of holidays, it’s easy to forget that April Fools’ Day exists until right beforehand, and then we all want to celebrate it. The best way to celebrate the infamous holiday of laughter? Pranks! While many people go to school and work, many others now work from home and might be spending even more time than usual with their roommates.

Naturally, we don’t want our roommates to hate us. But we still want to have some fun for April Fools’ Day. So what are the best pranks to play on roommates? We compiled a list of seven of the best April Fools’ Day pranks for roommates.

No, this isn’t a classic photo bomb, like showing up in the background of the picture. This is basically bombing your roommate with photos. What does that mean? Well, go into their room and replace all their photos with a photo of your choice.

This can be a photo of you, it can be a photoshopped photo of them, or it could even just be a picture of a random celebrity, such as Jeff Goldblum. To up the ante, put the same photo on your refrigerator, and hide random photos around the apartment.

When you're roommate is out and about, switch all of their clothes with yours. While this might be a bit annoying to do and to fix, it might also be a bit of a treat for both of you. New clothes? Yes, please!

There are certain essentials that we all need — toilet paper, toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, face wash, etc. Depending on your roommate’s tolerance for playfulness (honestly, don’t prank your roommate at all if they don’t seem very playful), hiding some of their essentials is a very easy prank to play.

To make it even more fun, replace those items with a scavenger hunt to find them! For example, leave an empty toilet paper roll with cryptic instructions on where to find the toilet paper.

Some people like everything to have a place. But what if you switched some of those things? For example, switch the drawers in your roommate's bedside table or desk. Or move their toiletries around if they’re organized in a specific way. Basically, just switch where all of your roommate’s things are without hiding them — maybe even just switch their toothpaste with their zit cream. It’s a little evil, but oh well!

This is a harmless prank sure to confuse any roommate. If they tend to make their bed, just unmake it and pretend you napped in their bed while they were out. After a minute of them wondering why and saying, “That’s weird,” just tell them, “April Fools!” and it’ll all be water under the … bed.

Does your roommate have feelings about dogs? Love them or hate them? This is a goofy prank to play on a roommate with either opinion that really only works if you have your own room in a two or three-bedroom apartment. Buy a few dog things to put in your shared space, such as a water bowl, food bowl, a dog toy, and a pee pad. Then, when you’re in your room, play sound effects of a dog barking. When they ask if you just randomly got a dog, hit them with, “April Fools!”

Fake bugs are very easy to find. If you’re a big Halloween fan, you might even have some fake spiders lying around. Well, now it’s time to put them to use! Place them all around the apartment — in the refrigerator, under their bed, in the shower, on the coffee table — no corner goes untouched. It’s harmless and fun, so why not?

These are just seven of our favorite pranks, and keeping them as harmless as possible is a good rule of thumb for April Fools’ Day. Pranks like texts about bed bugs or long-distance boyfriends coming to live with you for an indefinite amount of time are only sure to cause rifts and anxiety instead of laughs. And other pranks like saran-wrapping the toilet might come back to bite you.

So keep it harmless, and remember, it’s all about having fun!