If you’re hunting for a new houseshare to join, you’ve probably spent a lot of time thinking about the kind of people you’d be willing to tolerate sharing a living space with. But have you considered whether they would be willing to share with you and your habits?
How’s your personal hygiene?
Do you take multiple showers a day, or do you have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the bathroom after not bathing in weeks?
As long as you take regular baths or showers, upkeep basic hygiene and wash your clothing when it needs it, you should be fine.
However, there’s also the possibility of overdoing it. Things along the lines of using overwhelming amounts of body scents or running up the water bill with excessive baths or showers (in frequency or length) may not go down well with some housemates.
Do you tidy up after yourself?
Do you do the washing up the moment you’ve finished cooking, or do you leave the pans on the counter until they grow a layer of mould? Do you clean the bathroom sink every time you use it, or leave the bathroom flooded after a shower?
A middle ground works well here. Those who never clean up after themselves and leave a path of destruction wherever they go are not going to be popular as housemates. On the other hand, few people would be willing to put up with a housemate who is overly obsessive about keeping the house clean, especially if they enforce their high standards on the rest of the household. Even more so if their idea of cleaning is ‘put bleach on all the floors and surfaces, but don’t wipe it off afterwords’ (lost some of my favourite clothing due to a housemate that drowned the bathroom floors and counters in that stuff…).
Are your visitors few and well behaved?
Your housemates should expect the occasional, very well behaved visitor (especially if they bring their own friends over from time to time). However they shouldn’t have to put up with noisy friends or the partner that moves into your room and never leaves.
What’s your noise level?
While you shouldn’t be completely quiet, you should be respectful of your housemates, neighbours and the time of day. For instance, use headphones if watching the tv or listening to music between about 11pm and 8am (if your houseshare is in a block of flats, then there might be a ‘no noise’ type contract clause enforced by the owners of the block, which should give the times that sound should not be audible from outside your flat). During the day, use devices on a reasonable volume (so that you can hear it, but the other side of the house can’t hear it).
Do you settle outstanding bill payments in a timely manner?
Your housemates aren’t going to want to spend their time chasing you for your share of the water bill that was supposed to be paid over a month ago. They’re also not going to be thrilled if the landlord starts harassing them because your rent is late.
If you’re the kind to forget when the bills are due to be paid, set up direct debits or standing orders with your bank to make the payments automatically where possible.
However, if you’re the kind that’s likely to argue over and refuse to pay a £10 increase in your share of the water bill from the last quarter, that’s definitely not going to go down well with other people.
Are you genuine?
When you compliment someone, do you actually mean it? Or are you just saying it to try and make them like you? Do you help someone because you want to, or because you want the person to be obliged to have to pay you back at a later date?
If your friendliness comes with strings attached, or people think you’re only being nice to them for your own benefit, then they’re unlikely to want to interact with you more than is necessary. For those that don’t care about being more than on acquaintance terms with their housemates then this is probably not an issue, but it is something to consider if you’re the type that likes to make friends wherever you go.
