Happy Homes For Liverpool Students

1st July saw the busiest day of the year for the Rooms4u office, as the bulk of our housing contracts came to an end and tenant change-overs took place. With the first wave of 2011-12 students now settling into life in Liverpool we’re wondering how you’re all getting on?.. No doubt you have already acquainted yourselves with the local off-licence, pub and pizza shop, and had a couple of ‘get to know each other’ nights out with your new housemates – if they’re in yet, and if they’re not you’ll have nabbed the best bedroom!

We thought we’d take this opportunity to give you a few tips for house sharing, to get you on the road to a successful and drama-free house-share year! They say preparation is everything you know…

  • Give your housemates the heads-up i.e. ‘This Thursday is Dave’s birthday and we’re all going to drink here before we go out if that’s cool?” Reducing the ‘surprise’ element of your plans will help life run smoother.
  • Share bills equally. Have a bill day each month where you work out the total cost of your bills together, and how much that makes it each… pay when they come in rather than letting them build up.
  • Take the bins out. Arriving home to the smell of a festering kitchen bin isn’t cool, plus your housemates will quickly reach breaking point if it’s only them taking it out. Bite the bullet early on and do a bin rota week by week.
  • Do your washing up. No-one likes it but unfortunately unless you’re going to invest in a LOT of paper plates then it’s going to need doing, be warned that this is one of the biggest causes of tension in a house share.
  • Do things as a house. With Uni work, chores, and plans with other friends it can be easy to neglect the house group. Make time for fun stuff together, park trips, pub trips, BBQs and film nights, and that will help strengthen your friendships and also ease any bin/washing up tension!
  • Respect each others time tables. Just because you don’t have Uni until 2pm on a Tuesday doesn’t mean your housemate doesn’t have an important lecture at 9am. Be aware and simply keep the party in town rather than bringing it home.
  • Don’t out-stay the welcome. Over night guests aren’t usually an issue, however, having your lovely new girl/boyfriend stay every night of the week might prove to be a bit much, particularly if they’re using the communal toilet paper and toothpaste and munching on your housemates food. Just a thought.

All this said, sharing a house with your friends is undoubtedly a blast and a time to be thoroughly enjoyed. If you can iron out the little creases early on it will help maximize the fun times and make for a happy smiley household.