How to avoid house drama

Uni students who live together are bound to have disagreements every now and again. But sometimes, these can escalate into an awkward, irritating and most likely petty argument between the whole house. To avoid house drama, follow these steps:

Step 1: Cleanliness is next to Godliness

Nobody expects students to be clean freaks but being overly messy and unhygienic will put you on a fast track to house drama. Things such as leaving rubbish everywhere, failing to wash up and showing no respect for your house is likely to get you on the bad side of your housemates who want to live in reasonable conditions.

Can you not

Step 2: Don’t rob food and drinks

Sharing is fine if you discuss it in advance (i.e. Milk) but helping yourself to your housemate’s stuff will result in a tense showdown in your group chat. “Who ate my leftover pizza?” is not what you want to read after waking up with a hangover at midday. Not only is it rude to just steal other people’s food, it’ll result in drama simply not worth that slice of pizza or can of Lilt.

Finders keepers…

Step 3: Don’t fraternise with your housemates

This is one of the most critical rules. Engaging in any sort of relationship with your housemates romantic, physical or any combination in between can leave you living with your worst enemy. Nothing says drama like sharing a hallway with your ex who you split up with after you realised your romance born from a night at Snobs wasn’t all it worked out to be.

Step 4: Keep the noise down

This will also keep you in good standing with your neighbours, landlord, etc. Parties are an integral part of student life but playing loud music in the early hours constantly won’t get you anywhere with your housemate who has a 9am the following day. Whack some headphones in if you can’t resist some late night anthems.

Hopefully this list will help you avoid house drama but every house is different so in general, just go with the flow.