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Living in a shared house or apartment is the most cost-effective rental option for students. Once you’ve found the perfect rental property, the next big question is ‘who’s taking which room?’ We’ve written this guide to show you how to decide rooms in a shared house. Some of these methods are total luck of the draw, while some involve a slightly more competitive element. The key is finding something which works for your household!
Moving into a shared student house with your friends can be a super exciting experience, but it’s not without stress. The first decision is finding a perfect home that matches the preferences of you and your housemates. The second decision you’ll need to make revolves around how to decide rooms in a shared house or student house. To avoid any arguments and make your shared student house a happy home as a result, we highly recommend choosing rooms in a fair and impartial way.
Many shared houses don’t classify different sized rooms into tiered rent amounts, but instead charge the same price for every room as a total monthly rental amount, even if certain rooms are larger or better located than others. This means that room allocation is left to you. If nothing is decided before move-in day, then this will quickly become a race to see who can move in first, with this person having the luxury of being able to pick the best room. Given that this is clearly a little unfair, it can lead to tensions and conflict before you’ve even moved in – certainly not the best way to start your shared living experience.
In this guide explaining how to decide rooms in a shared house or student house, we’ve listed the best room selection tips to help take the weight of decision off your shoulders and bring harmony to your home.
By fairly allocating rooms in a shared student house, there’s less reason for conflict or grumpy housemates. With no disagreements, living in a shared student house can be some of the best years of your life. Here are the four most effective tips relating to how to decide rooms in a shared house or student house.
One of the simplest ways to pick your ideal room is by sitting together with your housemates and having an open discussion about everyone’s choices. People have different preferences and tastes, so it may be the case that everyone wants a different room from each other anyway. This is most likely to happen when all rooms are similarly sized and equally desirable in terms of house location. If this works out for you then great! This easy solution will help avoid any difficult conversations that may have otherwise occurred.
If discussions highlight that there are a few people wanting the same room, or you’d rather have a fun and fair way to pick rooms anyway, then we’d suggest you use a random room selector. Resooma’s Random Room Allocator helps avoid all the awkwardness of tense discussion by randomly picking one room for each tenant without any bias. This is the fairest and easiest route to allocate rooms. If you go with this option, then we’d recommend spinning the wheel whilst everyone is in the same room. Not only does this add to the fun and drama, but it also ensures that nothing underhand is going on, such as the wheel being re-spun.
If you and your housemates are still at a total deadlock, then it might be sensible to suggest changing rooms throughout the course of your tenancy. If you’re a student, switching rooms each term or every few months can be a great way to diffuse arguments and ensure everyone gets a fair share of the best room. Granted, switching too regularly may end up being a bit of a pain. But depending on the number of housemates who want the deluxe room, this might help solve the problem.
Arguments about rooms often happen when one or more rooms in the house are clearly different in terms of size or appeal. When this happens, the best way to choose usually comes down to money and who is willing to pay what. Most house-shares have a mix of housemates on different budgets and this normally means some are willing to pay more or less for their accommodation.
Try openly discussing how people would value each room in the house. Some people may be willing to take the box room for discounted rent and others may be willing to pay a few extra pounds each month for a large bedroom at the back of the house.
What we’ve just gone over are, let’s be honest, the sensible solutions. Where how to decide rooms in a shared house is concerned, the vast majority of students and other shared renters will probably end up going for one of them. However, the often arduous task of divvying up rooms can actually be a pretty enjoyable one (assuming all your fellow housemates are equally up for it). There are a few fun ways to pick rooms in a shared house – some of which are skill-based, others that are completely based on luck – that you can challenge your new roomies to.
When it comes to fun ways to pick rooms in a shared house, a game of chance seems like the most appropriate way to go about it. Much like Resooma’s random room selector, a game of chance should avoid arguments as after all, the outcome is totally random.
This could vary from simply rolling a dice – with the highest roll getting first pick – drawing straws or even using a roulette wheel. If you’re living in a house full of card aficionados, then an element of skill could be added through blackjack or poker.
Another fun way to pick rooms in a shared house is by devising a series of games and competitions between yourself and your housemates, with the overall winner getting the first pick and so on. Which games you pick are totally up to you! A sporty household might go for races and arm wrestling, whereas a more mixed house may be tempted by video games or board games.
This idea definitely isn’t for everyone as it could lead to all sorts of complications. That doesn’t stop it from being a fun concept though! We had two types of bidding war in mind. The first is blind bidding. Here, all house/flatmates put a secret bid on the largest room and the highest bid wins. You should bid whatever you think a fair cost for the room is, without bidding more than you can actually afford to pay. The second method is open bidding. Just as it sounds, this involves going through rooms one at a time while all prospective room owners furiously bid in £5 increments. Whoever is willing to go the highest gets the room in question.
Finding your perfect room in shared student housing can be even more stressful than signing a tenancy agreement. Hence, if you know how to decide rooms in a student house and do it in a fair way by following some of the fun ways to pick rooms shared above, we’re sure you’ll move in and get along well with your fellow housemates – and all without compromising your preferences or needs.
Already sorted your house but need to set up bills? We can help with this too – we set up and split your utilities for you. Get a free quote for your utilities here
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