Accommodation

10 tips for a friendly flat

Oh no! You’re going to have to put up with strangers for a whole year and what’s worse is they’ll have to put up with you! Well the good news is that they won’t remain strangers for long and if you follow our handy tips, you’ll become a housemate hero in no time!

1. You break it, you bought it

If you break someone else’s stuff you buy them a replacement. Pretty simple.

2. Ask before you use

A sure-fire way to get your housemates to put a hit out on you is by using their stuff without asking. This goes for everything from cooking utensils and clothes right down to toothpaste and shower gel.

3. Do your washing up!

There’s nothing appealing about festering pots taking up vital surface space. If you want to have a place where you all like to hang out and relax then get into the habit of washing and drying everything as soon as you’ve used it.

Note: leaving your pots to soak for three days in a bowl of murky looking water does not count as washing up.

4. Keep the noise down during exam periods

This means keeping it down and giving people their sleep. Different people handle exam times in different ways but while the stress levels are up, best to keep the noise down.

5. Have a think before jumping into bed with your flatmates

Now, flat romances do happen but given that you’ll be living together for the best part of a year, you might want to think it through before cosying up in Freshers’ Week.

6. Make a bit of effort to chat every now and then

It’s not a given that you’re going to love all your flatmates and if you’re struggling then it can be tempting to hide yourself away in your room and hope that you never bump into them. Trust me, life will be easier for you if you try to stay on some sort of speaking terms.

7. When clearing out the fridge, check before you throw

A common cause of tension can be the ‘oh, I thought you were done with that’ conversation. Always best to check, unless that slab of brie is now basically more mould than cheese.

8. Leaving a massive clump of hair in the plughole is not cool

Less vital for those with en-suites (feel free to collect as much hair as you like, if you’re into that) but if you’re sharing a bathroom, it’s alarming how quickly the hair can pile up and start to flood. Don’t wait until you need a kayak to get to your kitchen, just grab it and flush it.

9. Empty the bins before the flies get there

The chances are you’ve all contributed so before the flies start hanging out by your kitchen window, get that trash taken out.

10. Don’t take it personally

This is the big one. You and your flatmates might sometimes disagree. You’re might well fight. You’re could find yourself falling out over something you didn’t realise was a problem. Don’t worry, just remember you’re all figuring out life on your own and that takes time. Just take a step back, go for a walk and come back with a bottle of wine. Wine fixes everything.

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