Non-permanent, DIY soundproofing

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As you may know, I am currently renting a room in a large trailer occupied by myself, my landlord, and two roommates. Now, lately I've been spending more time at home since I don't have any money to go out and buy anything, and I've been finding that the noise my roommates make drives me nuts. Everything they do, from listening to music, watching TV, closing doors, preparing food, or whatever, I can hear clearly. I like being up at night, since everyone else is asleep and I can FINALLY get the peace and quiet I need to function properly, the problem being that the world expects me to function during the daytime.

Whenever I hear other people, and they make their presence known, I tense up, and I become afraid to do anything or go out in the open. I know soundproofing my room won't help with leaving my room, but at least it'll help me feel more comfortable in my room and less "exposed".

I was just thinking, what kind of cheap, non-permanent DIY "hacks" could I use to help dampen or reduce some of the noise coming into my room? I'm thinking maybe I could hang heavy blankets over the door and the walls. I would almost consider noise-cancelling headphones, except that I hate the sensation of wearing them, and I need to take them off every so often.

I'm at my wits end here, I'm almost considering moving out when I transfer from Income Support to AiSH just so I can have a quieter place, higher rent be damned. There are other reasons too, mainly that I just plain hate living with other people and having to deal with their BS, but I know that financially, this may not be the best move for me.

TL;DR my roommates are loud, and I need to find a way to keep noise out of my room.

egg boxes are quite efficient in blocking sound, they are used to DIY band practice rooms...

Sounds like the best bet may be to move if you have that option...I mean that is a lot of people for one trailer, even if it's a big one its still a trailer and they are terrible for noise, walls are like paper thin without much solid structure so not much between you and any noise being made. If it would be more costly to move out...perhaps try and figure if its worth it to have a more pleasant living environment, also do you spend any money now because of this problem...perhaps the amount you'd spend attempting to sound proof your room would balance out with how much more you'd pay in rent if you move. If you do have to have room-mates it helps to have ones you get along with who have a somewhat similar lifestyle, otherwise too much reason to clash. Or if you can find a cheap way to keep noise out of your room and you think just at least having a quiet room would be enough to make your living situation more pleasant...just do that. But if its noisy, you don't get along with room-mates and there are other issues thinking of moving may be best.

I'm in a tough situation, because I'm paying an absurdly low amount for rent ($535 a month!), and this includes all utilities, but I don't like my roommates nor my landlord. My landlord, while generally nice, is a huuuuge control freak, which causes a lot of friction between us, and as for my roommates, one of them is an older disabled man who means well and everything, but some of his habits and mannerisms drive me nuts.

I just hate living around other people, and dealing with them being around. I want my own space where no one will bother me, even if it's just in an apartment, as I can at least file a noise complaint if my neighbors are being loud.

My rent can't be beat though, and I like the extra flexibility it affords me. If I decide to rent somewhere else, I may just be going from the frying pan into the sun. How much am I willing to pay for sanity?

Thinking about it now, the noise is only an issue on the surface. The real issue, is how well I get along with the people I live with. No matter where I've lived, I've always had some issues with the people I've lived with. I think it's time for me to break the chain and live somewhere by myself.

You're going to want a rug, at least in your room, though preferably throughout the trailer. You're going to want a thicker door if possible, and something at the bottom of the door as well. You can stack foam along the walls and cover them with quilts or thick curtains or blankets or you could push bookshelves against the foam and glue foam to the back of cheap paintings and install those above the bookshelves. If you have a green thumb, you can get some plants to grow outside the trailer as well.

The thicker the better when it comes to soundproofing, but you will probably end up feeling squished.

I suggest you look into subsidized housing, and if you find a program/place that you think would work for you, apply for it ASAP (the waiting lists can be really long).

There are different types of programs. Some are "rent geared to income" and will pay a percentage of your rent on an apt. that you find in the regular housing market, either to you or directly to your landlord -- often the percentage is whatever will reduce your housing costs to no more than 35% of your income up to a certain dollar amount (e.g. $800 or something like that -- meaning they cap the subsidy at $800....the $800 has nothing to do with your income). Others are "rent geared to income" and you rent specific apts. (sometimes owned and managed by whoever runs the program, sometimes not) -- the whole building or just some of the units may be subsidized. Others offer lower-than-market rental rates on some/all of the apartments in certain buildings or townhouse complexes (sometimes owned and managed by whoever runs the program, sometimes not) but the rent is not geared to the renter's income...meaning that it's a fixed amount (you still have to have low income to qualify).

A quick google search brought up this: Page of affordable housing resources on informalberta

You could also check out housing co-ops, as they often have subsidies and usually the rent for co-op units is usually lower than standard market rates because nobody is making any profit. (But you'd have to be wiling to take on a certain amount of responsibility for helping out with maintaining common areas and/or running the co-op....if that's not something you want/are able to do then co-ops may not be a good option.)

Sorry I have no advice about sound-proofing.

This will work. The more cloth and foam there is on the walls and floors and (table) surfaces, the less sound. Every shiny, uncovered surface=more noise. Through covers over tables and shelves too.

$535 a month for a room in a trailer? Thats not cheap. A single room in a trailer should be $250 max. I don't know where about you are in Alberta, but a quick check of Craigslist shows lots of rooms for rent in Calgary for under $400 a month, and some of them sound pretty nice compared to what you have.

I sugest you look for another place. Either rent a small trailer just for yourself, or a room in a nice house, where you will have more privacy.

A lot depends on the frequency range of the noises you want to insulate against. The higher the pitch, the better chance you stand. Deep bass is the hardest, so I hope they only have little speakers for their music and TV. A soundproofing engineer told me that sound absorbing is largely a matter of the weight of the material used, the more the better.

You know, thinking about it now, my situation is actually alright. The rent is as good as it can get around here, and really, my main problem right now is that I'm broke and have nothing to do.

I'm not sure there is much you can do to really soundproof the place, egg cartons were already mentioned and that's what my brother does when he is trying to record music or whatever but I don't think that will fix your problem. Moving out is a possibility, it's really about what you can afford and where you want to live so you have to weigh out the pros and cons yourself. Back when I lived at home I would wear headphones if things were really bothering me, works as a short term solution. If you really just dislike your roommates and landlord then you will probably find yourself being annoyed by whatever they end up doing so I'd probably try to rectify that or just explore your other options.

Hanging quilts or carpets, and generally putting as much against the walls is really generally where to go. Foams are good, but harder to do quickly and easily, while hanging a quilt you can do easily and cheaply (used quilt that is going cheap, might be stained, just use it for sound insulation by hanging it over walls.)

You can do this over your door even.