Living with housemates for the first time

Hi all,

What has your experience been like with housemates or houseshares? Any horror stories? Or has it generally been okay for you? Anything I should be aware of?

Thank you,
John

Reply 1

Coventry University Student Ambassadors

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi all,
What has your experience been like with housemates or houseshares? Any horror stories? Or has it generally been okay for you? Anything I should be aware of?
Thank you,
John

Hi John,

I lived at an accommodation for two years with a shared kitchen between seven other students. Overall I had a great experience with my flatmates. I think it would be wise to come up with a rota where you all decide who takes out the bins and cleans the kitchen (sweeping the floor and wiping the counter tops) weekly so that the kitchen is always in a pristine condition as you will all be using it quite frequently. Also, it would be good to note that you should come up with a designated time where there isn't any loud music playing after a certain time on the weekdays as I am sure you would all need to get a good nights rest for any 9am starts.

Best wishes,

Sabba | Law LLB | Coventry University Student Ambassador.

Reply 2

johng117

Original post by Coventry University Student Ambassadors

Hi John,
I lived at an accommodation for two years with a shared kitchen between seven other students. Overall I had a great experience with my flatmates. I think it would be wise to come up with a rota where you all decide who takes out the bins and cleans the kitchen (sweeping the floor and wiping the counter tops) weekly so that the kitchen is always in a pristine condition as you will all be using it quite frequently. Also, it would be good to note that you should come up with a designated time where there isn't any loud music playing after a certain time on the weekdays as I am sure you would all need to get a good nights rest for any 9am starts.
Best wishes,
Sabba | Law LLB | Coventry University Student Ambassador.

Thanks for the reply Sabba! Did you rent privately and did you already know your house mates before hand? How did you meet?

Reply 3

YSJstudents

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi all,
What has your experience been like with housemates or houseshares? Any horror stories? Or has it generally been okay for you? Anything I should be aware of?
Thank you,
John

Hi!
I have had an overall positive experience with housemates, I currently (third year) live with one of my first year flatmates! In my first year we all got along well enough but weren't necessarily all super close, this didn't pose many problems as we just got on with our own things and were polite. As I mentioned before I still live with one girl as we have been super close ever since! I had a similar experience second year, we all got along well and were friends. Three of my housemates would like to go out while me and another housemate prefer to stay in, but they were always respectful and I rarely heard them coming home in the early hours of the morning.

Hope this helps put you at ease! Faye 🙂

Reply 4

BCU Student Rep

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi all,
What has your experience been like with housemates or houseshares? Any horror stories? Or has it generally been okay for you? Anything I should be aware of?
Thank you,
John

Hi Anon,

I was in student accommodation in my first year, with five other flatmates that I had not met beforehand. Fortunately, I was very lucky with mine as we were all respective towards each other and our shared spaces.

I think it's worth making the effort to get to know and befriend one another, as you will be sharing certain spaces, down the line you and your housemates may consider creating a bin rota or delegating tasks to share responsibilities around the kitchen.

Hope this helps,
Danish
BCU Student Rep

Reply 5

johng117

Original post by YSJstudents

Thank you for sharing your experience Faye. It puts me at ease to hear your housemates were respectful. Would you say it's important to find housemates that you get along with? How would you recommend finding good housemates?

John

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 6

johng117

Original post by BCU Student Rep

Hi Anon,
I was in student accommodation in my first year, with five other flatmates that I had not met beforehand. Fortunately, I was very lucky with mine as we were all respective towards each other and our shared spaces.
I think it's worth making the effort to get to know and befriend one another, as you will be sharing certain spaces, down the line you and your housemates may consider creating a bin rota or delegating tasks to share responsibilities around the kitchen.
Hope this helps,
Danish
BCU Student Rep

Thank you for your advice Danish! It's great that you were placed with flatmates that respected each other and shared spaces. That is extremely important for me too. How would you vet/find roommates for 2nd and 3rd year out of student halls? Any apps or website you would recommend?

John

Reply 7

University of Sheffield Students

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi all,
What has your experience been like with housemates or houseshares? Any horror stories? Or has it generally been okay for you? Anything I should be aware of?
Thank you,
John

Hi there,

I'm currently in my second year at the University at Sheffield and I lived in halls last year in Endcliffe student village. My experience was positive - I lived with 12 people (smaller flats are available don't worry!). We all got on well and I now live in a privately rented 7 person house with two of the people I lived with last year. Accommodation is a really good way to meet people from different degrees that you might not have encountered otherwise. Also, at the University of Sheffield in first year accommodation there are residence life mentors which will regular come round to check in on how you're settling in, and if there were to be any issues with your flat mates then they would be the first person to turn to.

I hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions!

Trudie - Second year Sociology with Social Policy student :smile:

Reply 8

WrexhamUniReps

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi all,
What has your experience been like with housemates or houseshares? Any horror stories? Or has it generally been okay for you? Anything I should be aware of?
Thank you,
John

Hi

I have really enjoyed living with my housemates so far, it has been a really great experience as I have been able to make new friends and learn about their experiences and culture.

I think it is a really great idea to spend some time living with your mates at uni, as you can make friends for life.

I hope this helps,

Matt
Wrexham Uni Reps

Reply 9

University of Salford Student Rep

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi all,
What has your experience been like with housemates or houseshares? Any horror stories? Or has it generally been okay for you? Anything I should be aware of?
Thank you,
John

Hi John

This is an excellent question, lots of prospective students think about this! When I started at university in September 2021 this was the first time I had ever lived with housemates, despite having moved out of my family home years beforehand.

I have had a pretty good experience with housemates. I found my private student house online and didn't know my two housemates before moving in. I chose this house because of its location, affordability, size (only three people occupancy), and the fact we all have separate contracts, so if a housemate could not pay their rent for any reason it wouldn't affect me.

I liked the fact there's a small yard, so we have a private outside area and the toilet is separate from the main bathroom so it isn't too much of a rush in the mornings if everyone needs to leave for a 9 am lecture. Also, with only three in the household we rarely all need to use the kitchen at the same time, which I was concerned about because my work/study schedule can mean I am only home to eat and sleep some days, so need easy access to the kitchen. However, I have friends who are in bigger houses and have bigger kitchens so two or even three housemates can easily prepare food at the same time or take it in turns to cook for the house.

Quite early on we agreed to share household items such as washing-up liquid and toilet roll, but purchase our own food and clothes-washing products. We have a whiteboard in the kitchen where we write down who bought household items last and who cleaned, so we can work out whose turn it is next. We try to clean the communal areas of the house once a month, so it is being cleaned every 1-2 weeks. Occasionally we have had to remind housemates or ask them to clean, but generally, if you ask it gets done!

I have been lucky all of my housemates have been friendly, respectful, and generally pretty tidy. I know lots of my coursemates have become best friends with some of their first-year housemates (who they hadn't met before) and have gone on to live together in subsequent years. Although I didn't know my housemates before they moved in I have made good friends with some of them and although I have lots of friends on my course the idea of studying and living together felt a bit too much. I was worried I would have party animal housemates, I don't mind a party, but I was worried it might be every week and on nights before I had lectures/work, and there might be lots of mess left, but thankfully that hasn't been an issue. We all have our own lives and although we have friends around we tend to keep ourselves to ourselves and respect one another privacy.

I must admit over the past three years of living with different housemates, our version of clean can differ, so sometimes one of us has had to show another housemate how to clean something or ask them to clean up after themselves, but once you've pointed it out they have been quite receptive. My advice would be that if you don't know one another to spend some time getting to know one another when you move in, maybe have a games night, or take it in turns to cook a meal. Next, I'd organise a rota for cleaning/house jobs quite early on and decide on some basic house rules so that everyone is on the same page. Then if anything crops up that you aren't satisfied with I would mention it as soon as possible so it doesn't start to bug you and can be sorted.

Most universities have an accommodation department and/or student support so if you are struggling to settle into your new home they're usually more than happy to support you, as you won't be the first nor the last student to reach out about this.

I hope that helps. Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions.

Lucy 🙂
(Official Uni of Salford Student Rep)

Reply 10

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi all,
What has your experience been like with housemates or houseshares? Any horror stories? Or has it generally been okay for you? Anything I should be aware of?
Thank you,
John

Hi there,

I have lived with different people for a few different years and everyone has different experiences so I thought I could give you some insight into my experience!

In my first year, I lived with 6 other people that I didn't know as you mostly get picked with random people in your first year. I had a good experience in first year and I got on well with my flatmates! I think that as long as you are a friendly person, you will be fine as most people just want to talk and make friends.

If you don't get on well with them, it is not the end of the world as there are plenty of other people that you can make friends with and make plans with. Joining societies is a great way of making friends, or make sure you are going to all of your lectures and classes as you will meet lots of people here too.

In your second or third years, you can always live with your friends in a house or in halls again and this is fun as you get to choose who you live with. I really like living in a house as it feels really different to first year and its nice to choose who you are living with!

However, if you don't make friends to live with, you could always go back into halls and this is quite common and is fun to do this again! Or, you can find others on Facebook or house sharing websites to live with and this won't be as scary as you have already experienced living with new people.

I hope some of this helps,

Lucy -SHU student ambassador 🙂