The 10 worst things about living with other students

Katie Hall on 12 October 2017
Dishes piled up in a sink

The honeymoon period of the new university year is well and truly over, so we thought it was as good a time as any to have a little rant about the 10 worst things about living with other students.

Messy kitchen

Gif. Mindy Kaling - 'I just threw a dirty dish out the window because I didn't want to deal with it'

Source: Giphy

How is there always a mountain of dirty dishes and a sink full of cold, suspiciously brown dishwater? You cleaned the kitchen 5 minutes ago!

On this topic, would it kill people to take the bin out once in awhile? Nobody wants to have to climb over piles of rubbish just to get into their kitchen. And can people pleeeease stop leaving crumbs all over the counter and the floor? There’s only so much mess a student can take!

Central heating

Kate Bush gif, 'I'm so cold'

Source: Giphy

So half the house doesn’t like having the central heating on too much. The other half are permanently freezing and can’t think of anything more satisfying than to wake up in a warm house with dry towels in the morning.

Bickering over temperature is something you’ll almost certainly encounter again if you end up working in an office, so start practicing your most convincing argument! We’ll leave you to battle this one out amongst yourselves...

Unnecessary noise

Gif - 'Loud noises!'

Source: Giphy

If you’ve ever had to listen to drunk housemates coming home at 3am and talking, shouting and listening to trance music when you have a 9am the next day, we feel your pain. And perhaps even worse than that is the housemate who insists on having super loud, incredibly enthusiastic sex on the other side of the paper-thin wall. Not sure if you'll ever be able to look them in the eye again...

"Borrowing" stuff

Gif. Racoon stealing door mat through cat flap

Source: Giphy

We love our housemates (usually!) and we’d let them borrow anything they asked for most of the time. But there’s just something incredibly irritating about your housemate borrowing something of yours and not putting it back in the same state they found it. Sure, it’s fine if they use your cutlery. But they had better wash everything up properly or else there’ll be some passive aggressive post-it notes appearing around the place!

Wasting electricity & water

Gif. Man in bath dancing under shower with a sponge

Source: Giphy

...and your valuable time! We’re not sure why some students feel the need to leave lights on all over the house when they aren’t even using those rooms. But we wish they’d stop; it’s not good for the environment or the average student budget!

And as for those housemates who spend (what feels like) forever in the shower - we’re very suspicious of what they get up to in there. No-one takes that long to wash. You know because you’ve perfected your shower routine to take a total of 7 minutes. Max.

Gross bathroom

Along Came Polly Gif. Praying the toilet flushes

Source: Giphy

In the same way that the dirty kitchen drives you up the wall, the lack of cleanliness in the bathroom is another sore subject! Why is the drain always blocked, and why is the shower always covered with hair? And why can't someone else take the initiative to clean the toilet, just once?

Paying bills

Spongebob Gif. Mr Krab crying over bills

Source: Giphy

It’s really no fun for anyone to pay their bills, but do you know what makes it even more stressful? When you have to constantly chase someone for their contribution! No one likes to be asked for money, but it’s also super awkward when you have to do the asking. So seriously guys, get yourselves together and don't be that person!

Washing drama

Simpsons Gif. Homer incinerating laundry rather than washing it

Source: Giphy

Those two words shouldn't really go together, but that's just how crazy washing clothes in shared uni accommodation can get! First you have the housemate who leaves their clothes in the washing machine for days on end so that when someone goes to use it, it’s full of gross, mildew-y clothes.

Then you have those that put the dryer on at stupid times, like 11pm before you all have uni the next day. And finally, we have our favourite student who decides to hang their smalls up all over the house so you can’t move for drying clothes!

Fire alarms

Man being interviewed looking up and saying 'Really? I mean, seriously?' because of a fire alarm

Source: Giphy

Okay so we’ve all had the odd cooking disaster, and some of us may even have set off a fire alarm as a result, but when that alarm goes off at 4am because someone has come home ridiculously drunk and decided to cook themselves a snack, this is so much more irritating!

To those students in halls who insist on showering with the bathroom door open despite explicit warnings that it will set the whole block’s fire alarms off, just know you’re very much judged and disliked by everyone standing outside on a freezing October night in their PJs.

Party/pre-drinks mess

Simpsons gif. Mess after a party

Source: Giphy

We all love a good house party or an awesome pre-drinking session, but it does feel a little unfair when you’re the first housemate awake the next day and you’re faced with the mammoth clean-up task of sticky cans, half-finished bottles and playing cards all over the floor. It sucks for the early risers, but cleaning up definitely beats living in a pigsty until the rest of the house decides to resurface!

What do you think? Do you agree? What are your pet peeves about living with other students? Have a look at our piece on how to deal with messy flatmates for strategies to cope with it.

 

Katie Hall
Katie Hall on 12 October 2017