4 Tips to Make Share House Life a Breeze

Living with other people can be a lot of fun, but it does come with its fair share of challenges.

We have some tips to make share house living harmonious and easy — like agreeing on how bills will be paid and why setting up a cleaning roster is crucial!

1. Establish your cleaning plan

Some folks will try and skirt the cleaning responsibilities, but we all know you can’t run from chores forever!

“I used to live in a house with five other people and it drove me insane,” says Rebecca, who now lives solo in Sydney. “There were only one or two main culprits — they were just lazy doing their dishes, not cleaning up after cooking, etc. — but in a house of that many people, it builds up. I should have known what I was getting into when I moved in and realised they didn’t own a mop.”

Start by setting ground rules early and have discussions about cleaning expectations before you move in.

You may be the kind of house that prefers to pay for a cleaner once a month (or week, for that matter), or you may want to work out a roster. If you’re struggling to make a schedule, try a chore-sharing app that can help organise this process.

2. Get good internet

In a modern share house, you’re likely dealing with people who spend at least half their time online. Whether it be for work, study, gaming, video calls or streaming, you’ll all be fighting for bandwidth at some point or another.

To avoid everyone piling up around a router, get a fast and reliable connection to share.

Optus has made this incredibly easy for share houses with its 5G Plug & Play option. It offers high bandwidth, unlimited data and fast speeds, plus the main benefit of not having to worry about installation. You can just order a modem to your door, set it up yourself and voilà — internet!

5G is currently available in selected areas — check your availability here.

3. Figure out how to split bills

Speaking of internet, it’s a good idea to establish how everyone is going to contribute to paying the bills. When it comes to basic utilities — electricity, gas, internet — it’s often easy to split things down the middle.

It’s not only bills, though. Nowadays, a lot of housemates also take it in turns to buy items for everyone to share, like cleaning products and toilet paper.

Dave, who has shared homes in Sydney for around 10 years, swears by apps — like Splitwise or Beem — that allow you to track and split shared expenses to minimise any unfairness in this realm.

“Splitwise simplifies the accountability of shared expenses,” he explains. “It eliminates any miscommunication between house mates.”

4. Be flexible

The best housemates are clean, reasonably quiet and flexible. Living with anyone — whether it’s your parents, friends or strangers — requires a little compromise every now and then.

“My main advice is to pick your battles,” Rebecca adds.

“Not that you should be fighting with your housemates, but sometimes you’ll think you’re taking the garbage out more than other people. Sometimes you’ll have to watch a game of football you didn’t want to; sometimes you’ll have to wash a pan that someone has used and didn’t clean; sometimes your housemates will listen to terrible music.

“It’s not great if it becomes a pattern, but every single housemate in existence has faced these issues and sometimes it’s best to just let each other be.”

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