It’s early September. Within a matter of weeks, you’ll be heading back to your university town or city. If you’re a second year and spent fresher’s year in halls, switching to HMO living requires some adjustment. You’ll be living with a group of friends. While that may seem exciting at first, there will be friction over the little things. Maintaining a harmonious household is the key to an easy life for everybody.
Agree to House Rules
While nobody wants to live in a house with a 1984 vibe, it is important that everybody consents to mutually-agreed rules on behaviour. Music at 2 am is unacceptable so there should be a cut off time for excess noise. Some students see the lack of supervision as an excuse to run riot, but you’ll have neighbours to be concerned about too. In many student towns and cities, families live side by side with students – that means working adults who need to be up for work and school-age children.
Clean Up Your Own Mess
One of the biggest causes of friction is mess, and the inability of those who create it to tidy up after themselves. While your room is your own, the rest of the house is shared space. That means others have to use it and if they can’t because it’s too messy, that will lead to arguments. Agree to a set of house rules and tidy up after yourself as soon as you are able. This applies especially in the kitchen when people want to prepare meals in the evening and can’t because cooking implements are dirty.
Share the Shared Chores
While people should always tidy and clean up their own mess, there are other chores that require shared work because there is a shared responsibility for creating them. We mean vacuuming the carpets, sweeping laminate floors, cleaning the toilet and shower and so on. Perhaps consider putting up a rota so everyone takes it in turns to carry out general routine cleaning. That way, it doesn’t fall to the same person to do it and increase their resentment towards those who don’t.
Mutual Agreements Regarding Partners
It’s unlikely that all the household will be single for the whole year, even if everyone is single now. When partners stay over, they use water and electricity and eat food that household members are paying for. Of course, you should never forbid a sleepover with a partner, but others may get resentful if partners are staying all the time and contributing nothing. Consider setting an agreement to for the partner or the person in the household whose partner is staying to pay a little extra towards bills.