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While living in a shared house can be an amazing experience, shared living still carries plenty of challenges. With differing personalities and habits, some conflict is pretty likely. One way that many of these conflicts can be avoided is by following a set of (unwritten) house sharing rules. Laying down some simple ground rules early on and communicating these with your fellow housemates will go a long way. In this article, we’ve gone over 9 house-sharing rules for creating harmony in your shared home.
Once you’ve all moved in, it’s important to create an easy way of communicating with each other. The most popular method tends to be through Whatsapp or Messenger. Group chats are useful for seeing what needs buying for the house and planning group trips out.
Just don’t be that person who resorts to sending passive-aggressive messages in the group. While it’s annoying when people don’t do their cleaning up, taking pictures of dirty pots and pans isn’t going to have a productive outcome. Chances are, it’ll creating resentment between you and your housemates – nobody wants to experience the embarrassment of being publicly called out for everyone else to see. Sometimes tone can get lost over a message, so you’re much better off discussing problems face to face.
Getting friendly with the people you live with will make arguments and issues much less likely to arise in the first place. It also isn’t much fun to live with a group of total strangers, which is why we’d recommend making an effort to learn who your fellow housemates are.
The best house shares do fun things as a group. Here are a couple of ideas to help break the ice:
Failing that, going for a drink or meal out is always an easy and simple way to bond. You’ll be spending plenty of time with your fellow housemates, so the better you get along, the better an experience you’ll all have!
Nobody wants to live in a dirty house, and nobody wants to cook in a dirty kitchen, which is why every occupant should make an effort to keep communal spaces tidy. One of the best ways to do this is through a cleaning rota. This way, you can alternate daily and weekly jobs between shared rooms like the bathroom, kitchen, living room and dining room. Some of these tasks could include hoovering, mopping and wiping down surfaces.
It isn’t fair on your fellow housemates to continually leave these areas in a state of total disarray, so be sure to always do your bit and leave them in the same condition as you found them. Where other housemates are concerned, it pays to give them the benefit of the doubt, as it’s likely they had every intention of doing their bit, but just didn’t have the time. Wait a little bit longer before you start getting on their backs about the lack of cleaning.
Using communal areas like the lounge and dining room as additional storage space will probably end up causing more arguments (and make the house look less tidy in the process). When items are left out in communal areas, they can easily be misplaced or thrown away so if something is important to you then be sure to leave it in your room.
When moving into a shared house, you should equally divvy up communal spaces in the kitchen such as cupboards, as well as inside the fridge and freezer. This way, everyone will be left with the same amount of storage space for their fresh, frozen and dried foods.
Similarly, it makes sense to decide whether your house will be sharing food or if everyone will be cooking for themselves. There’s little worse than coming home with a delicious meal in mind, only to discover that someone’s used the rest of your pasta. If you do use someone else’s food then it should be replaced as quickly as possible.
If you’re in a working household then there’s a good chance that every morning is met with a chaotic scramble to claim the first shower. If so, then don’t spend way longer than you need. A 20-minute shower might feel amazing, but it’s only going to wind up your other housemates. It might be a good idea to co-ordinate your morning routines to make sure everyone gets to work on time.
You’d also be amazed at how far noise can travel in a shared home, especially if the walls are paper-thin. In the evening and at night, people are likely to be studying or trying to sleep, at which point you should make an effort to tone the noise down. Some housemates will let you know if you’re being too loud, whereas others will suffer in silence, which is why you should always be conscious of how much noise you’re making.
Although there’s no legal obligation, it’s common courtesy for everyone in a shared house to chip in and do their bit to make sure everything runs smoothly. Aside from cleaning, other daily/weekly tasks include putting the bins out on collection day, doing the recycling and staying stocked up with household essentials like washing up liquid and toilet rolls.
Particularly with the last point, it isn’t fair for this responsibility to fall on one person’s shoulders, which is why everyone should try and keep their contributions as equal as possible. If everyone does their little bit then your house will almost certainly be an enjoyable place to live.
To try and economise, use your group chat to ensure that people are only buying the essentials – you don’t need five separate bottles of washing detergent. We’d recommend sharing out the must-haves – such as condiments, household basics and staple food items. Just don’t take what isn’t yours!
Late rent payments will cause issues in one way or another. Not only will your landlord let you know the importance of paying rent on time, but your fellow housemates will probably also be annoyed at this. After all, everyone in a shared house is usually equally responsible for the rent.
You should establish a method of delivery that means one person doesn’t have to shoulder all the responsibility of coordinating rent payments. One idea is for every housemate to set up a direct debit to the landlord which will arrive a couple of days in advance. Automating the system means it isn’t a disaster if someone forgets.
Bills are another common source of conflict in shared houses. In between gas, electricity, water, TV licence and broadband, it can be quite a lot to sort out and pay for. The fairest method is to equally split each of these between you and your housemates. Like some of the other shared house rules we’ve discussed, try to avoid the responsibility of bills set-up falling entirely on one person.
When it comes to setting up and paying for bills like utilities in a shared home, there’s a much easier solution. Resooma Bills bundles all your bills into one easy payment, including water, utilities, wifi, TV and council tax. If you’re living in a shared home, we then equally split bills between you and your housemates, so there’s no need to worry about any awkward chats or having to chase people up for their share.
Rather than having multiple direct debits leave your bank account each month, you’ll just have one bill to pay, with each housemate being responsible for their share. Setting up and managing bills can feel like a daunting task, which is where our shared bill packages come in useful. Let us handle the stress for you!
All your utility bills in one monthly payment, split between housemates
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All your utility bills in one monthly payment, split between housemates
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